Birthday of Amílcar Cabral

Born on this day in 1924, Amílcar Cabral was a Bissau-Guinean and Cape Verdean agricultural engineer, political organizer, and diplomat. He is widely remembered as one of Africa's foremost anti-colonial leaders, a pan-Africanist and intellectual nationalist revolutionary poet. He promoted the independence cause of multiple Portuguese colonies in Africa. From 1963 to his assassination in 1973, Cabral led the PAIGC's guerrilla movement in Portuguese Guinea against the Portuguese government, which evolved into one of the most successful wars of independence in modern African history. The goal of the conflict was to attain independence for both Portuguese Guinea and Cape Verde. Guinea-Bissau’s independence came in September 1974, shortly after his death.