The Prime Minister of Cape Verde said that the figure of Amílcar Cabral, leader of the independence of Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau, should not be partisan, especially in the year of his centenary.
“For the centenary of Amilcar Cabral, the best tribute we can pay to him is not to support his figure and his legacy, not to propagate the cult of personality that Cabral himself abandoned, not to impose unique and dogmatic readings,” said Ulisses Correia and Silva, in a message published on the government portal on Thursday.
The publication summarizes the statements made at the centenary colloquium on the island of Sal, organized by the Rosa de Porcelana publishing house.
“We are in a democratic and freedom-loving country, so naturally there is scrutiny and controversy,” he said, separating recognition of the historical figure from political discussion.
“The stature of the politician, intellectual, leader of the independence of Guinea and Cape Verde and promoter of Pan-Africanism highlights Amílcar Cabral as the preeminent world figure of the 20th century, according to eminent historians,” he said.
But that doesn’t mean one has to “agree with the ideology he defends,” he added, calling for nonpartisanship.
Ulisses Correia e Silva heads a government supported by the parliamentary majority of the Movement for Democracy (MD), a party that already won the first multiparty elections in 1991 after the one-party regime of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde. (PAIGC), founded by Amilcar Cabral, which in the archipelago gave rise to the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV, today in opposition).
Public debate arose in October 2023, when MpD MPs voted against a resolution presented by PAICV in Parliament on the occasion of the centenary celebrations.
At the time, in his statement on the vote, PD parliamentary leader Paulo Veiga explained that, from a legal point of view, the resolution was an inappropriate instrument for this purpose.
Subsequently, the Cape Verdean Prime Minister promised “dignity and representation” at the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Amilcar Cabral, but refused to have this done by decree.
Amilcar Cabral was born on September 12, 1924 in Bafata, in what was then Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau), and was killed on January 20, 1973 in Conakry, Guinea.
The centenary celebrations were marked by a number of academic, cultural and political events both in Cape Verde and in other parts of the world.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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