Category: News

by Christina Charie '25 on November 7, 2024
Opinion Editor

On Friday, Nov. 1, students, faculty, and staff gathered in Moore Hall to honor the legacy of Amilcar Cabral, who fought for the independence of Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau from Portuguese colonial rule. To mark the centennial celebration, Providence College invited pProfessor Desmond Foncesa from UCLA, Joe DaMoura of the Cape Verdean Museum in Pawtucket, RI, and Angelo Lopes Barbosa, Director of the Pedro Pires Institute for Cabo Veredean studies. In addition to speakers, a student performance by Maribel Veiga ’27 highlighted Cabral’s lasting cultural impact. 

Professor Foncesa highlighted the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade when framing his discussion of Cape Verdean history, as the first ship set sail from Cape Verde to the Americas, marking the start of a violent and exploitative legacy that characterizes European arrival in Africa. The island’s population did not accelerate until European colonizers arrived on the continent, as it was used as a port prior to sailing to the Americas. Additionally, European settlers built estates for the mining and sugar plantation industry, profiting from exploitative labor practices. 

In the inter-World War period, Cape Verdeans were recruited by the Portuguese government to colonize Guinea Bissau. Portugal does not fully control the region until after World War I, but the consequences of their colonial rule influence Cabral. 

Cape Verde was experiencing famine and drought, but Cabral discovers the causes are not simply forces of nature. Rather, colonial powers only sell the grain to other European nations. Even though Cabral was born in Guinea, his parents were Cape Verdean, which afforded him with the privilege of attending university in Lisbon. At university, Cabral dreamed of becoming an engineer to solve the problems of famine and drought in Cape Verde. Instead, Cabral realized that colonial policies were worsening the drought, causing unnecessary loss of life. 

Communist revolutions began in the 1950s, as Ghana became the first African nation to win independence from colonial rule. Cabral, at the time, started organizing a union, but led a failed dock strike in 1959, causing him to retreat into farming villages to mobilize the peasant population in a Lenonist style. Yet, Cabral, as noted by the panelists, never described himself as a Lenonist even though the label has been ascribed to his movement. Nevertheless, the socialist bloc provided necessary aid to facilitate Portuguese defeat. 

Even though Cabral was assassinated in 1973 on the eve of independence, he addresses the same injustices and topics modern society faces in regards to famine, the environment, and immigration. DeMoura highlighted that he is from the same area as Cabral, and is the Executive Director of the Cape Verdean Museum in Pawtucket, RI, just a few miles from campus. In fact, the museum is the first one in the world dedicated to Cape Verdean heritage. 

With this celebration, the College is part of the larger centennial celebration happening across the United States and the globe. Reclaiming cultural legacy from the hands of colonialism is not an easy task, but it is certainly a worthwhile endeavor that broadens our perspectives.