OBSERVARE
Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa
e-ISSN: 1647-7251
VOL. 17 Nº.1, TD4
Thematic Dossier – From Colonial Rule to Nationhood:
Amílcar Cabral and the Birth of Lusophone Africa
October 2026
64
AMILCAR CABRAL: REWRITING HISTORY THROUGH POETIC DICTION
VERA BORGES
borgesvera@cityu.edu.mo
Associate Professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the City University of
Macau (China), where she coordinates the Portuguese Language Programme. She holds a PhD in
Literature from the University of Lisbon. Prior to joining the City University of Macau, she taught
at the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon and at the University of Saint
Joseph (Macau), where she served as Coordinator of the Department of Portuguese Studies. Her
research focuses on postcolonial studies, intercultural studies, World Literature, comparative
literature, Portuguese-language literatures, and the didactics of Portuguese as a foreign
language. She has published extensively in these fields, with particular attention to cultural
representations, literary circulation, and intercultural encounters within the Portuguese-speaking
world. Among her recent publications, A contas com o império: imagens a Oriente na poesia em
português (2024) stands out as a significant contribution to the study of representations of the
East in Portuguese-language poetry. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3893-7360
Abstract
The discourse on Africa, particularly from an African perspective, challenges the dominant
narratives shaped by European glorification since the 15th century. As articulated by
Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe, writing about Africa necessitates a corrective
approach to the narratives that glorify the European endeavor that has lacerated the African
continent for centuries. History over history, landscape over landscape; thus, the European
domination that obliterated the existing order must, in turn, be disavowed, exposed, and
redacted in the rewriting that corrects it. Mbembe highlights the importance of restitution and
reparation—sine qua non, the effects of the “colonial wound” (W. Mignolo, 2005) cannot be
resolved: “Reparation, furthermore, is necessary due to the cuts and scars left by history”
(Mbembe, 2017). We will explore how this necessary reparation of history is reflected in some
poems by Amílcar Cabral, which grapple forcefully with the myths arising from the “dreamily
imperial” vision (Eduardo Lourenço, 2014) that has shaped much of the literature written in
Portuguese. Paradoxically, writing about Africa and reclaiming its history from the
epistemology of bad faith, constructed by a hegemonic Eurocentric perception, has required
many African authors to engage with the symbols that embody this ideology. Committed to
the liberation struggle of his homeland and the African continent from the bonds of colonial
oppression, Amílcar Cabral understood the struggle for emancipation as an act of culture,
rooted in the reclamation of the cultural identity of the oppressed. In a time very different
from today, and for a spirit mobilized by what would become the effective struggle—the
revolution and the war to be fought, both in the minds and on the fields—against colonial
oppression, as experienced by Cabral, the time is not (yet) one for demanding reparation in
the terms proposed by Mbembe. However, in his poetry, one recognizes a subtle but persistent
gesture of rewriting or correcting a mythical vision that supports a particular history and the
epistemology it entails. We will reflect on the significance of the symbols that emerge from
JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations
e-ISSN: 1647-7251
VOL. 17 Nº. 1, TD 4
Thematic Dossier – From Colonial Rule to Nationhood:
Amílcar Cabral and the Birth of Lusophone Africa
October 2026, pp. 64-86
Amilcar Cabral: Rewriting History Through Poetic Diction
Vera Borges
65
this puzzle of reconstructing a historical narrative, articulating it with more recent poetic
expressions that elaborate on the theme of the need for reparation as a cornerstone for
identity building.
Keywords
Poetry; history; symbol; colonialism; reparation.
Resumo
O discurso sobre África, particularmente a partir de uma perspetiva africana, desafia as
narrativas dominantes moldadas pela glorificação europeia desde o século XV. Como
articulado pelo filósofo camaronês Achille Mbembe, escrever sobre África exige uma
abordagem corretiva das narrativas que glorificam a empresa europeia que lacerou o
continente africano durante séculos. História sobre história, paisagem sobre paisagem; assim,
a dominação europeia que obliterou a ordem existente deve, por sua vez, ser desautorizada,
exposta e reconfigurada na escrita que a corrige. Mbembe destaca a importância da restituição
e da reparação — sine qua non, os efeitos da “ferida colonial” (W. Mignolo, 2005) não podem
ser resolvidos: “A reparação, além disso, é necessária devido aos cortes e cicatrizes deixados
pela história” (Mbembe, 2017). Exploraremos como esta necessária reparação da história se
reflete em alguns poemas de Amílcar Cabral, que lidam de forma contundente com os mitos
decorrentes da visão “oniricamente imperial” (Eduardo Lourenço, 2014) que moldou grande
parte da literatura escrita em português. Paradoxalmente, escrever sobre África e resgatar a
sua história da epistemologia da má-fé, construída por uma perceção eurocêntrica
hegemónica, exigiu que muitos autores africanos se confrontassem com os símbolos que
corporizam essa ideologia. Comprometido com a luta de libertação da sua pátria e do
continente africano dos laços da opressão colonial, Amílcar Cabral entendia a luta pela
emancipação como um ato de cultura, enraizado na reconquista da identidade cultural dos
oprimidos. Num tempo muito diferente do atual, e para um espírito mobilizado por aquilo que
viria a ser a luta efetiva — a revolução e a guerra a travar, tanto nas mentes como nos campos
— contra a opressão colonial, tal como vivida por Cabral, o momento não é (ainda) o de exigir
reparação nos termos propostos por Mbembe. Contudo, na sua poesia, reconhece-se um gesto
subtil mas persistente de reescrita ou correção de uma visão mítica que sustenta uma
determinada história e a epistemologia que esta acarreta. Refletiremos sobre o significado
dos símbolos que emergem deste puzzle de reconstrução de uma narrativa histórica,
articulando-o com expressões poéticas mais recentes que desenvolvem o tema da
necessidade de reparação como pedra angular para a construção identitária.
Palavras-chave
Poesia; história; símbolo; colonialismo; reparação.
How to cite this article
Borges, Vera (2026). Amilcar Cabral: Rewriting History Through Poetic Diction. Janus.net, e-journal
of international relations. Thematic Dossier – Geopolitics of Anxiety: Ideology, Identity, and
(Un)Bordering in Contemporary Europe and Asia, VOL. 17 Nº. 1, TD4, October 2026, pp. 64-86.
DOI https://doi.org/10.26619/1647-7251.DT0726.3
Article submitted on 14 July 2026 an accepted on 18 August 2026.
JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations
e-ISSN: 1647-7251
VOL. 17 Nº. 1, TD 4
Thematic Dossier – From Colonial Rule to Nationhood:
Amílcar Cabral and the Birth of Lusophone Africa
October 2026, pp. 64-86
Amilcar Cabral: Rewriting History Through Poetic Diction
Vera Borges
66
AMILCAR CABRAL: REWRITING HISTORY THROUGH POETIC
DICTION
1
VERA BORGES
Onde a poesia não estiver nada de real pode ser fundado. (…)
A poesia é primordial e anterior à política.
[ wherever poetry is not present, nothing real can be founded. (…)
Poetry is primordial and prior to politics.]
Andresen (1977)
Introduction
The discourse on Africa, particularly from an African perspective, challenges the dominant
narratives shaped by European glorification since the 15th century. As articulated by
Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe (2017), writing about Africa necessitates a
corrective approach to the narratives that glorify the European endeavour that has
lacerated the African continent for centuries. History over history, landscape over
landscape; thus, the European domination that obliterated the existing order must, in
turn, be disavowed, exposed, and redacted in the rewriting that corrects it. Mbembe
highlights the importance of restitution and reparation - sine qua non, the effects of the
“colonial wound” (W. Mignolo, 2011) cannot be resolved: “Reparation, furthermore, is
necessary due to the cuts and scars left by history” (Mbembe, 2017, p.183). We will
explore how this necessary reparation of history is reflected in some poems by Amílcar
Cabral, which grapple forcefully with the myths arising from the “dreamily imperial” vision
(Lourenço, 2018) that has shaped much of the literature written in Portuguese.
Paradoxically, writing about Africa and reclaiming its history from the epistemology of
bad faith, constructed by a hegemonic Eurocentric perception, has required many African
authors to engage with the symbols that embody this ideology. One of the difficulties has
been the use of Portuguese, the 'language of the colonizer' and one of the six 'imperial
languages' (Mignolo, 2011, p. 47) - an issue still being dealt with today, and one that
Amílcar Cabral addresses in his writings, not without causing controversy and discomfort,
as we shall see.
1
Declaration of Interest - The author declares that there are no known financial, professional, or personal
conflicts of interest that could have appeared to influence this research. The author has no competing interests
to declare.
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e-ISSN: 1647-7251
VOL. 17 Nº. 1, TD 4
Thematic Dossier – From Colonial Rule to Nationhood:
Amílcar Cabral and the Birth of Lusophone Africa
October 2026, pp. 64-86
Amilcar Cabral: Rewriting History Through Poetic Diction
Vera Borges
67
Presented at Lisbon's Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation from November 15, 2024, to
January 13, 2025, dance not dance marked the seventh edition of the project For a
Timeline to Be – genealogies of dance as an artistic practice in Portugal, initiated in 2016
by Ana Bigotte Vieira and João dos Santos Martins. The exhibition concluded a two-year
program of performances, talks, and films researching New Portuguese Dance and
mapping histories omitted from mainstream art and cultural narratives
2
.
Writing for Buala, Rui Eduardo Paes presents an in-depth appraisal of the exhibition, its
context, and its significance. Particularly noteworthy is his understanding of New Dance
- and of the exhibition itself - as “something imminently political,” an “embodied staging”
of what Chantal Mouffe names as conflict, at the very core of the building of a society
aspiring “to be free and equal”, opposed to consensus. Paes notes that dance not dance
“incorporates the cultural genealogies of African dances and those of the Black diaspora
in the Americas”, spanning “from Josephine Baker to the National Ballet of Guinea-Bissau,
(…) and from Charleston to breakdancing”, thereby attesting to “the process of
contamination of the Western (and Portuguese) coloniser by colonised and neocolonised
Africa after independence.” According to Paes, the exhibition also echoes “Samuel R.
Delany, Octavia Butler, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Robert Springett, Funkadelic, Earth, Wind
and Fire, Lil Nas X, Afrika Bambaataa, Herbie Hancock and Sun Ra” … Likewise, it
resonates with “the exaltation of Blackness by Léopold Senghor, Frantz Fanon, Malcolm
X, Amílcar Cabral, Agostinho Neto, Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, LeRoi Jones (Amiri
Baraka), James Baldwin, and bell hooks.” This framework, states Paes, is not explicitly
referred to, but should instead be perceived “as a meta-narrative” (Paes, 2026).
Amílcar Cabral holds a place of his own in the genealogy of eminent revolutionary leaders
and intellectuals, particularly in relation to "the exaltation of Blackness." His thought and
life serve as a source of inspiration for a global project of social transformation - here
articulated through an insurgent artistic practice centred on dance, 53 years after his
death. Let us try to understand why he is perceived as exemplary through the lens of
poetry: first, through that written by others, and secondly, through his own.
The myth: the “African Guevara”
Amilcar Cabral met a treacherous and violent death in 1973, in Guinea-Conakry, at the
hands of two fellow party members from the very organization he had founded in 1959,
the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cabo Verde (PAIGC). The
involvement of the Portuguese authorities was not ruled out at the time. The shock
caused by the passing of a political leader of his stature and the tragic circumstances of
his assassination made a profound impression on his contemporaries. Let us dwell on a
few poetic expressions in which his figure and his death are evoked.
Alda Espírito Santo, a native of São Tomé and Príncipe and a foundational figure both for
the liberation struggle and for the poetry that echoed it, met Amílcar Cabral—the son of
2
Source: https://gulbenkian.pt/en/agenda/exhibition-dance-not-dance/
JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations
e-ISSN: 1647-7251
VOL. 17 Nº. 1, TD 4
Thematic Dossier – From Colonial Rule to Nationhood:
Amílcar Cabral and the Birth of Lusophone Africa
October 2026, pp. 64-86
Amilcar Cabral: Rewriting History Through Poetic Diction
Vera Borges
68
Cabo Verdeans born in Guinea-Bissau - in Lisbon when they were both university
students. The Casa dos Estudantes do Império (House of Students of the Empire),
created in Lisbon in 1943–44 by the Estado Novo to domesticate university students
arriving from the then-designated overseas provinces, quickly inverted the purpose of its
creation, becoming a center for revolutionary thought and the anti-colonial movement
they spearheaded, and founding a Centre for African Studies. Many of them emerged as
distinguished political leaders, writers, and artists, committed to the fight against
colonialism and the liberation of their native territories, which had been under Portuguese
rule since the 15th century.
Alda Espírito Santo wrote a beautiful “Requiem for Amilcar Cabral”, dated from “20/1/73”,
the day of his death:
Chora terra bem amada
O teu filho bem amado
Morto fisicamente
Por balas assassinas.
Guevara de África
te baptizaram
Dias antes
Da cilada trágica.
Na historia da terra africana.
Teu nome ímpar
apontará aos filhos
do país natal
a dignidade da tua vida
Cimentada com teu sangue
Cimentada com
o sacrifício da existência inteira
a esperança do futuro
Duma terra sem madrasta.
As páginas do porvir
Contarão ao mundo
a força da tua personalidade dinâmica
ao serviço da tua inteligência
Canalizada
Para os arrozais
da parcela
do golfo enquistado
onde mãe Iva
te doou à terra
Não chores mãe Iva.
A terra de África inteira
De pé
A teu lado
Saúda a figura gigante
Do Grande Líder
Da África Ocidental
[Weep, beloved land
Your beloved son
Physically dead
By murderous bullets.
Guevara of Africa
they baptized you
Days before
The tragic trap.
In the history of the African land.
Your unique name
will point out to the children
of your native country
the dignity of your life
Cemented with your blood
Cemented with
the sacrifice of your whole
existence
the hope of the future
Of a land without a stepmother.
The pages of the future
Will tell the world
the strength of your dynamic
personality
at the service of your intelligence
Channelled
To the rice fields
of the plot
of the enclave gulf
where mother Iva
gave you to the land
Do not weep, mother Iva.
The land of all Africa
Standing
By your side
Salutes the giant figure
Of the Great Leader
Of West Africa
Will be a transfusion
In the annals of your history.]
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VOL. 17 Nº. 1, TD 4
Thematic Dossier – From Colonial Rule to Nationhood:
Amílcar Cabral and the Birth of Lusophone Africa
October 2026, pp. 64-86
Amilcar Cabral: Rewriting History Through Poetic Diction
Vera Borges
69
Terra bem amada
O sangue do herói
Será transfusão
Nos anais da tua história.
(Santo, 1978, p.117-118)
3
According to gender conventions, the poem is a funeral elegy, lamenting someone’s
passing and praising the dead. Anthropological research states that at the roots of this
genre, in various parts of the globe, dirges were chanted by female voices. This ritual of
farewell, which marks the process of mourning and was taken on by women, fulfilled two
purposes: to console the community going through loss, allowing them to experience a
catharsis of their grief, and at the same time to free the deceased, allowing for their
transition to the afterlife. This afterlife where Alda Espírito Santo's lament places Cabral
involves him deeply in the destiny of the mourning community. This farewell and
panegyric transform into a tribute to Cabral as a symbol of the revolution—the "Guevara
of Africa"—, a martyr guaranteeing "the hope of the future," "Cemented with your blood
/ Cemented with the sacrifice of an entire existence." Emotion and solemnity mark the
towering rise of the leader to the scale of the continent he emblematizes and which his
death will galvanize: “The land of all Africa / Standing / (…) / Salutes the giant figure /
Of the Great Leader / Of West Africa. / Well-beloved land, / The hero's blood / Will be a
transfusion / In the annals of your history.”
Two other women, younger poets, include tributes to Cabral in their work, confirming the
tutelary and revolutionary nature of the figure invoked by Alda Espírito Santo. Vera
Duarte, a Cabo-Verdean poet, dedicates her “The primordial poem” to Amilcar Cabral:
então
a tua voz
feita das vozes
ecoou
(…)
cruzando o céu das ilhas
circulou por África
pelas terras verdes da Guiné
pelas terras secas do Sudão
e fez-se ouvir na Europa
fez-se ouvir nas Américas
fez-se ouvir pelo mundo
Do teu gesto singelo
do teu olhar solidário
do aperto caloroso da tua mão
Brotou o sangue redentor
do poema primordial
3
Unless an alternative source is credited, all poem translations are by the author.
Beloved land
The hero's blood
Will be a transfusion
In the annals of your history.]
[Then
your voice
made of the voices
echoed
(…)
crossing the sky of the islands
circled through Africa
through the green lands of Guinea
through the dry lands of Sudan
and made itself heard in Europe
made itself heard in the Americas
made itself heard throughout the
world
From your simple gesture
from your solidary glance
from the warm grip of your hand
Sprouted the redeeming blood
of the primordial poem
JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations
e-ISSN: 1647-7251
VOL. 17 Nº. 1, TD 4
Thematic Dossier – From Colonial Rule to Nationhood:
Amílcar Cabral and the Birth of Lusophone Africa
October 2026, pp. 64-86
Amilcar Cabral: Rewriting History Through Poetic Diction
Vera Borges
70
com que construímos o futuro
E porque amo
o teu gesto e a tua gesta
ofereço-te nesta canção
o som desta nação
que não deixaste aprisionar
no seu destino colonial
(2018, p.37-38)
Once again, Cabral assumes gigantic proportions, gaining a global dimension, starting
from his original impact in Africa: “your voice/ made of the voices/ of all the voices//
echoed (…) crossing the sky of the islands/ circled through Africa/ through the green
lands of Guinea/ through the dry lands of Sudan// and made itself heard in Europe/ made
itself heard in the Americas/ made itself heard throughout the world”. The praise delves
into the proximity, the warmth, and the reality of his imagined and idealized presence:
“From your simple gesture/ from your solidary glance/ from the warm grip of your hand”.
Like in Espírito Santo, Amílcar’s Duarte becomes the soil from which redemption sprouts,
the sacrificial lamb whose martyrdom justifies and empowers the revolutionary African
who received his legacy: “Sprouted the redeeming blood/ of the primordial poem/ with
which we build the future”. Poetry and the fight against colonialism are one and the same.
His actions (gesto) are deeply correlated with the heroic legend he became (gesta), and
he is hailed as the liberator of the nation: “And because I love/ your gesture and your
heroic deeds (gesta)/ I offer you in this song/ the sound of this nation that you/ did not
allow to be imprisoned/ in its colonial destiny”.
Conceição Lima, a São Toméan poet from Duarte’s generation who refers to the
assassination of Cabral as a scar (Lima, 2011, p. 85), sings of him in much the same
terms: “Chove na capital que morto libertaste” (“Rain falls upon the capital you freed in
death”). This line brings together the death of the guerrilla leader and the liberation he
brought about through his sacrifice (Lima, 2011, p.89).
Duarte apeals to the “Jovem inconformado” [“Unresigned youth” ], who “Do sonho à doce
utopia (…) te entregaste à luta (…) Em tempos de pesadelo colonial// Tu que és Amílcar
e Aristides (…) / E és tantos e tantas / combarentes da liberdade” [“from the dream to
the sweet utopia (...) you gave yourself to the struggle (...) In times of colonial nightmare
// You who are Amílcar and Aristides (...) / And you are so many, men and women /
freedom fighters” ] (Duarte, 2018, p.39). Hence, Amílcar Cabral is hailed in a persistent
African poetic tradition of songs of mourning and praise as an iconic model for African
revolutionary youth. He is still the object of a tribute payed to him with exalted gratitude.
with which we build the future
And because I love
your gesture and your heroic
deeds
offer you in this song
the sound of this nation
that you did not allow to be
imprisoned
in its colonial destiny]
JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations
e-ISSN: 1647-7251
VOL. 17 Nº. 1, TD 4
Thematic Dossier – From Colonial Rule to Nationhood:
Amílcar Cabral and the Birth of Lusophone Africa
October 2026, pp. 64-86
Amilcar Cabral: Rewriting History Through Poetic Diction
Vera Borges
71
Amílcar!
Há hélice & sonho
na raiz da árvore que tomba
Há sangue e ombro
na pele do tambor que rompe
E da pedra
E do Sol
Que move
O sangue e o rosto da pirâmide
Não há Janeiro
Não há Novembro
Que não seja
Uma península de dor
Entre duas bandeiras
(Fortes, 2010, p.268-269)
In the recurrent African stream of tribute to Amílcar Cabral, his name is always
synonymous with affection, utopian dreams, and idealism, but also with pain and struggle
(“There is a propeller and a dream at the root of the tree that falls// There is blood and
a shoulder/ in the skin of the drum that breaks”), celebrated as an inseparable whole (“
A peninsula of pain /Between two flags”), as seen in the poem entitled “Amílcar” by the
Cabo Verdean poet Corsino Fortes. Mantenhas para quem luta! A nova poesia da Guiné-
Bissau [Mantenhas to those who fight! The new poetry of Guinea-Bissau] is a collection
of texts by several poets that was edited by the National Council of Culture in 1977, in
Bissau, Guiné, and re-edited in 1993. The title, in creole, means “Warm greetings to
those who carry on the fight.” We will dwell on two poets published in this antology who
evoke Cabral and his perennial meaning and value. The Guinean Tony Tcheka (António
Soares Lopes Jr.) grounds his appeal for the people’s heroic commitment to the future in
the merit of Cabral and other legendary references, dreaming of a future with no more
“Botas estrangeiras espezinhando o nosso sentimento/ A nossa cultura …/A nossa razão
…” [No more “Foreign boots trampling our feelings / Our culture … / Our reason …”].
Again, Amilcar’s blood, his sacrifice, along with his moral virtues – a deep sense of service
and humility –, are at the root of the people’s unity and fight against any kind of
oppression, striving for freedom, dignity and identity:
Mantenhas trago para ti
Mantenhas de quem o povo serviu
Mantenhas de quem, sendo simples
Grandemente o povo serviu
Mantenhas daquele que sucumbindo
Com o próprio sangue o inimigo acertou
(A luta é assim, exige Sacrifícios)
(Tcheka, 1993)
Amílcar!
There is a propeller and a dream
at the root of the tree that falls
There is blood and a shoulder
in the skin of the drum that
breaks
And of the stone
And of the Sun
That moves
The blood and the face of the
pyramid
There is no January
There is no November
That is not
A peninsula of pain
Between two flags
[Mantenhas I bring to you
Mantenhas from one who served
the people
Mantenhas from one who, being
humble,
Greatly served the people
Mantenhas from he who, in
falling,
Struck the enemy with his own
blood
(The struggle is like this, it
demands sacrifices) ]
JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations
e-ISSN: 1647-7251
VOL. 17 Nº. 1, TD 4
Thematic Dossier – From Colonial Rule to Nationhood:
Amílcar Cabral and the Birth of Lusophone Africa
October 2026, pp. 64-86
Amilcar Cabral: Rewriting History Through Poetic Diction
Vera Borges
72
The Guinean poet Nagib Said is one of those who continue to pay homage to Cabral as a
top reference for their moral and total engagement with their nation's progress: “E juro-
te, farei como tu fizeste./ Darei o meu sangue palpitante por esta terra bem amada,(…)
Quero que saibas/ No frio da tua tumba,/ Que o faço com orgulho e esperança /(…) Por
uma Guiné e Cabo Verde voltados para o progresso”. [ “And I swear to you, I will do as
you did. I will give my throbbing blood for this beloved land, (…) I want you to know, In
the chill of your tomb, That I do it with pride and hope/ (…) For a Guinea and Cabo Verde
turned toward progress” ]. Nagib Said publishes an hymn to poetry, as a driving
foundational force: “Dizem-me que não há poesia na minha terra,/ Mas eu não me
submeto!/ (…) Nós somos poetas (…) / Nós somos poesia. E,/ Se somos poesia…/ São
para vós os poemas que eu canto,/ Madrugadas do meu país,/ Poemas de dor e de riso
em gargalhadas,/ Poemas de força, poemas de mim”. [ “They tell me there is no poetry
in my land, / But I do not submit! / (…) We are poets (…) / We are poetry. And, / If we
are poetry… / The poems I sing are for you, / Dawns of my country, / Poems of pain and
of bursting laughter, / Poems of strength, poems of me” ] (Said, 1993). We will see that
Cabral shared this very same inspirational vision of poetry, which continues to drive
idealistic young poets bound by a love for their nation.
Culture, Poetry, and Emancipation
Hence, Amílcar Cabral is perceived as a mythical figure in various pantheons—in that of
the struggle for his country's independence, in that of the great leaders of the anti-
colonialist struggle in Africa, and in that of the great thinkers and political leaders of the
20th century, whose lessons can benefit all those interested in the fight against
oppression and the construction of a more just society. A man of action and a theorist of
the revolution he set in motion, he always distinguished himself through his assertion as
a man of culture—an intellectual who defined culture as the fundamental piece of
resistance against oppression, particularly imperialist oppression in its colonialist
dimension. In the opening of his “National Liberation and Culture,” delivered in 1970 , as
part of Eduardo Mondlane Memorial Lecture, he cites the caricatured but highly significant
episode of Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister, who would draw his pistol from its
holster every time he heard the word “culture” (Cabral, 1974, p.12).
The emancipation struggle was, for Cabral, an act of culture, says the Guinean writer
Odete da Costa Semedo, and is rooted in the reclamation of the oppressed's cultural
identity (Andrade, 2018).
The complete domination of one people over another would always involve the
annihilation of their cultural identity, which is simultaneously a fruit of their history and
that which determines it, giving it form and meaning. The “especially backward
Portuguese colonialism” (another quote from Cabral) reflected this need to erase the
history of the other through its policy of assimilation - the denial of an African identity
(Cabral, 1973, p.7).
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The question I am interested in discussing here concerns the poet. “Amílcar Cabral, in
his youth, was essentially a poet,” states the Cabo Verdean author José Luís Hopffer
Almada (Andrade, 2018). Ever since his days as a high school and university student, he
bore witness to himself through poetry. In a 1946 text published in Seara Nova,when he
is 22 years old, he writes in a poem entitled “A minha poesia”:
A minha poesia sou eu
… Não, Poesia:
Não te escondas nas grutas de meu ser,
não fujas à Vida.
Quebra as grades invisíveis da minha prisão,
abre de par em par as portas do meu ser
— sai…
Sai para a luta (a vida é luta)
os homens lá fora chamam por ti,
e tu, Poesia és também um Homem.
Ama as Poesias de todo o Mundo,
— ama os Homens
Solta teus poemas para todas as raças,
para todas as coisas.
Confunde-te comigo…
Vai, Poesia:
Toma os meus braços para abraçares o Mundo,
dá-me os teus braços para que abrace a Vida.
A minha Poesia sou eu. (Cabral, 2021)
In this text, published at the age of 22 years old, Cabral rejects poetry as a solipsistic or
intimate expression (“Do not hide in the caves of my being, do not flee from Life. (…) —
go out…”) ; instead, poetic diction projects itself onto the world (“Go out into the struggle
(life is a struggle) the men outside are calling for you, and you, Poetry, are also a Man”).
It goes deeper, however, than the rejection of introspective poetry, focused on the
emotions of the self. Cabral is at core a humanist, and that is one of the reasons why
even his political thought made a deep impression on Portuguese minds, alluring many
young Portuguese into the field of the anticolonial arena. The Portuguese poet Manuel
Alegre was deployed to Angola in 1961, when the war for the independence of several
Portuguese colonial territories in Africa began. Engaging in political activity leading to an
attemptied military coup in Luanda, Alegre was arrested and sent back to Portugal. He
deserted and fled to exile, in Argiers, from where he continued his political fight against
the Portuguese colonial regime. Alegre attests that many Portuguese officers ended up
being won over by the thought of Amílcar Cabral, impressed by his cultural dimension
and deep humanism, becoming aware of the necessity of political reform, both in the so
called colonies and in Portugal as well. Cabral repeatedly stated that his feud was against
the Portuguese regime of Salazar, not with the Portuguese people. In a symposium held
in Cabo Verde on Amílcar Cabral in 1984, Alegre would underscore the “cultural double
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meaning” of Cabral’s political system of thought: he understood that 'by liberating
themselves, the oppressed also lead the oppressor to liberate themselves. By disarming
them, they arm them. That is to say: the national liberation process of the colonized
people is also a process of cultural liberation for the people of the colonial country”
(Ribeiro, 2024, p. 39).
Let us return to the idea of poetry. Its vocation should be rooted in service - a universal
service (“Release your poems to all races,” embrace the World) - while simultaneously it
should be understood as a vehicle for the full expression and wholeness of the lyrical
subject (“give me your arms so that I may embrace Life. My Poetry is me.”)
Three poets writing in Portuguese, Amilcar Cabral was studying Agronomy, Francisco
José Tenreiro, a poet from San Tomé and Príncipe, studied geography; and the
Portuguese Ruy Cinatti studied Agronomy and anthropology, before traveling to the then
African colonies and fall in love with Timor. The recognition of poetic diction as a vehicle
for existential testimony and the pursuit of truth, combined with the scientific and
technical training that their professions would bring them, are characteristics that Cabral
shared with the São Toméan Francisco José Tenreiro and with Ruy Cinatti, the Portuguese
brother to the Timoreneses.
In Cabo Verde. Boletim de Propaganda e Informação published in 1952 in Praia, by
Imprensa Nacional, ano III, nr 28, we find an article by Amilcar Cabral on poetry:
“Apontamentos sobre poesia Cabo-verdeana” [ “Notes on Capeverdean poetry”].
The epigraph is significant: by the Portuguese poet Miguel Torga, a presencista who found
his own path, Cabral’s choice of it is, in itself, equivalent to a poetic program:
«Não me doi nada meu particular.
Peno cilícios da comunidade.
Água dum rio doce, entrei no mar
E salguei-me no sal da imensidade.»
(Cabral , 1952, p.5)
The entire article focuses on the rejection of poetry centered on the private sorrows of
an individual self (“Nothing of my private self hurts me./ I suffer the cilice of the
community”), as opposed to the poet's commitment to the sorrows of his community
(“imensity” versus “private”), which it is every poet duty to express, with the assumed
purpose that this poetic gesture corresponds to a form of effective social intervention.
The core question to debate is whether poetry should be "disinterested" (striving for art
for art's sake) or "interested," with the answer being unequivocal from Cabral's
perspective: "It is not possible to consider art (Poetry, in the present case) independently
of man-as-a-social-being. “Art is and must be, to deserve such a designation, a product
of Man for Men." (Cabral, 1952, p.5). This very debate, concerning the purpose of art
and its tight and strict dependence on the socio-economic context, drove heated and
radicalized discussions in Portugal, with reciprocal pronouncements of various kinds of
[Nothing of my private self hurts me.
I suffer the cilice of the community
Water of a Sweet river, I entered the
sea
And I salted myself in the salt of
immensity]
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anathema. The adherence to Marxist ideology, with the recognized primacy given to
economic factors, is evident in Cabral's train of thought, but there is no place for bitter
radicalizations. The text elegantly discusses poetic premises that are, in reality,
translated into ideological options.
Cabral draws a dividing line between the period before and after the magazine Claridade.
Before Claridade, poets marked by a strong classical culture dominated, which
"detached" [ “desprendidos” ] them from the archipelago and its people, forgotten in
favor of singing about “amor, o sofrimento pessoalíssimo, a exaltação patriótica e o
saudosismo” ["love, highly personal suffering, patriotic exaltation, and saudosismo"]
(Cabral, 1952, p.6), within a framework where economic reality is neglected in favor of
philosophy, religion, and morality. Education, which was elitist, was centred around the
seminary in S. Nicolau, and the intellectuals influenced by it alienated themselves from
the realities of the people, who expressed themselves through Mornas. One should note
Cabral's critical sensitivity regarding the poetic diction resulting from this subservience
to classical culture, marked by a “sacred respect for meter, the agonizing submission to
the handcuffs of rhyme” [ “respeito sagrado à métrica, a confrangedora submissão às
algemas da rima” ], Cabral, 1952, p.6), which he obviously deplores.
Claridade corresponds to the moment when "Cabo Verdean Poetry opens its eyes,
discovers itself, — and it is the breaking of a new dawn" [“A Poesia Caboverdiana abre
os olhos, descobre-se a si própria, — e é o romper duma nova aurora”] (Cabral, 1952,
p. 7) bringing to light the social reality of the islands and their people. Cabral
demonstrates a sober eloquence: "The poets, now, are common men walking hand in
hand with the People, and with their feet firmly planted on the ground” [ “Os poetas,
agora, são homens comuns que caminham de mãos dadas com o Povo, e de pés fincados
na terra”] (Cabral, 1952, p.7). Intellectuals, whose ranks now include those coming from
'humble folk,' are centered in Mindelo, accompanying the democratization of
education.The transformation observed in literature would also show the strong influence
of movements such as Portuguese Presencismo and Brazilian modernism. From this
influence resulted - note the subtlety of Cabral's prose - merely the change in “the
guidelines of Cabo Verdean poetry”: “The Poet, instead of looking at the clouds, should
seek the meaning of his poetry in the reality in which he lives" [“O Poeta, em vez de
olhar para as nuvens, devia buscar o sentido da sua poesia na realidade em que vive” ]
(Cabral, 1952, p. 7). This was followed by the ephemeral magazine Certeza, which takes
the paths opened by the "Claridosos" further, projecting political-social consciousness
onto a global scale.
The conclusion of Cabral's article corresponds to the proposal of a clear poetic program:
the levels reached by Claridade and Certeza must be "transcended," rather than fixing
the song on the dream of an evasion that mitigates the effects of insularity, drought, and
poverty. "The prison is not the Sea" ["A prisão não está no Mar"]. The dream of the Cabo
Verdean people, and of the poet who identifies with them, is not "wanting to leave"
[«querer partir»); it is a dream of "Another land within our land" [«Outra terra dentro da
nossa terra»] (Cabral, 1952, p.8).
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Thus, what appears configured as an analysis of the literary landscape of Cabo Verde
actually results in the proposal of a political direction that literature must assume,
committing itself not only to the representation-denunciation of a situation, but to its
effective transformation. Also noteworthy is the serene progression of Cabral's
argumentation, the fine elegance of his analytical discourse, and the effectiveness of the
two metaphors with which he closes his proposal, which unveil the root of the people's
perception of their situation while simultaneously correcting it. With this text published
in 1952, Cabral stands out as an insightful literary critic, as well as a brilliant writer.
The intricate question of the use of the Portuguese language
Let us quickly recall the regime formally established by the Estado Novo in 1954, through
Decree-Law No. 39,666, which determined the conditions for natives (in Guinea, Angola,
and Mozambique) to “elevate” themselves from the status of indígena (indigenous) to
that of assimilados (assimilated), thereby becoming Portuguese citizens. These
conditions focused on the way of dressing (European style), the religion professed
(Christian), exercising a profession, and adopting European-based customs, in addition
to speaking the Portuguese language correctly. As it ocurred everytime colonialist
projects were to be put in place, Africa, its history, its cultures, and its languages were
meant to be erased; its traditions and customs, deemed inferior, were to be abandoned
in favor of the mission civilisatrice that Europe invented for itself in other continents. It
would not be long, already during the years of the war in Africa, before the hallucination
proclaimed in the slogan “Portugal, one and indivisible, from Minho to Timor” emerged
("Portugal uno e indivisível do Minho a Timor").
The use of the Portuguese language by writers who denounce colonial oppression in their
work has been a topic addressed in literary texts, critical essays on literature, and post-
colonial studies. It is felt that for some, it is a burden they carry—the weight of a history
in which colonial domination rested upon the suppression of the colonized culture, in a
process aimed at the loss of their identity. Cabral has several texts in which he analyzes
the fundamental importance of this phenomenon, arguing that political and economic
domination necessarily implies the suppression of the culture of oppressed peoples
(Cabral, 1974, p. 12). Thus, Creole and indigenous languages were subjected to the
contempt and even the repression inherent to the process of acculturation conducted
within a colonial context. The use of indigenous languages and Creoles therefore
possesses a value of resistance, in the sense that it translates into a form of preserving
a cultural identity that others wished to see wither away.
The revered São Toméan poet Alda Espírito Santo refers to the "bitter gap" that exists
within her: she wished she could address the women of her country in their natural,
"singing" Creole, instead of having to resort to a "borrowed language." (“Irmãs, do meu
torrão pequeno/ Que passais pela estrada do meu país de África (…) Há em mim uma
lacuna amarga — Eu queria falar convosco no vosso crioulo cantante/ Mas irmãs, vou
buscar um idioma emprestado/ Para mostrar-vos a nossa terra/ O nosso grande
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continente” [“Sisters of my little native land/ Who pass along the road of my African
country (…)/ There is a bitter void inside me — I wanted to speak to you in your sing-
song Creole/ But sisters, I am going to borrow a language/ To show you our land/ Our
great continent”] (Santo, 1978, p.81). The Guinean author Maria Odete Semedo reveals
the same painful perplexity:
Em que língua escrever
As declarações de amor?
Em que língua cantar
As histórias que ouvi contar
Em que língua escrever
Contando os feitos das mulheres
E dos homens do meu chão?
Como falar dos velhos
Das passadas e cantigas?
Falarei crioulo!
Mas que sinais deixar
Aos netos deste século?
Ou terei que falar
Nesta língua lusa
E eu sem arte nem musa
Mas assim terei palavras para deixar
Aos herdeiros do nosso século
Em crioulo gritarei
A minha mensagem
Que de boca em boca
Fará sua viagem
Deixarei o recado
Num pergaminho
Nesta língua lusa
Que mal entendo
(Semedo, 1996, p. 12-13)
Faced with the duality of choosing (“In which language should I write/ Declarations of
love?/ In which language should I sing/ The stories I heard told?”) between the
Portuguese bequeathed by colonization and her native Creole - the latter being suited to
expressing her cultural traditions, to which Portuguese remains foreign (“How should I
speak of the elders,/ Of the steps and the songs?/ I shall speak Creole!”) - she chooses
to express herself orally in one while reserving the other for writing. Semedo underlines
her distance from Portuguese, which she feels inevitably forced to resort to, and her
estrangement from a language that was imposed upon her (“Or will I have to speak/ In
this Lusitanian language, / Even without art or muse,/ Yet this way I will have words to
leave/ To the heirs of our century?/ In Creole I will scream/ My message, / Which from
mouth to mouth/ Will make its journey. / I will leave the message / On a parchment, /In
this Lusitanian language/ Which I barely understand”).
In which language should I write
Declarations of love?
In which language should I sing/
The stories I heard told?
In what language to write
Recounting the deeds of the women
And of the men of my land?
How to speak of the elders
Of the steps and the songs?
I shall speak Creole!
But what signs to leave
To the grandchildren of this century?
Or will I have to speak
In this Lusitanian language
Even without art or muse
Yet this way I will have words to leave
To the heirs of our century
In Creole I will scream
My message
Which from mouth to mouth
Will make its journey
I will leave the message
On a parchment
In this Lusitanian language
Which I barely understand
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The solutions found by writers vary, with the most common and productive being the
appropriation of the colonizer's language, which thus becomes creolized and transformed.
Inocência Mata (2009, 2019) speaks of a process of reinventing Portuguese —a
sentiment that is shared by many African writers.
Amílcar Cabral holds a pragmatic stance toward Portuguese, which currently seems to
constitute a solid base for cohesion in the various African nations that have made it an
important part of their viability project, as a common expression, an official state
language, and educational vehicle - a kind of lingua franca- alongside the existence and
protection of creoles and indigenous languages that thus do not compete for national
prevalence. At the heart of the period of armed struggle, Amílcar Cabral, though lucidly
aware of the ways in which imperialism weaves the erasure of indigenous cultures,
perceived the value of using Portuguese as a language of communication in territories
with multiple dialects.
The forcefulness of Luandino Vieira's declaration that “the Portuguese language is a war
trophy” (Mata, 2007, p.16) does not seem to coincide with his own assessment. In a
party seminar, Cabral would explain his choice of Portuguese as a privilege vehicular
language for education. To his comrades, in that same intervention, later collected in the
book PAIGC: unidade e luta (Lisboa: Nova Aurora, 1974), Cabral defended the temporary
use of Portuguese as the language of science, during a period when the study of Creoles
had not yet developed their full potential: “We, the Party, if we want to move our people
forward, for a long time to come, to write, to advance in science, our language must be
Portuguese. And that is an honor.” (Montezinho, 2014). To reinforce his argument,
Cabral adds: “for us, it is all the same whether we use Portuguese, Russian, French, or
English, as long as it serves us, just as it is all the same to use Russian, English, or
American tractors, etc., as long as, upon gaining independence, they serve us to plow
the land”.
Cabral defends the teaching of Portuguese as an advantage: “the Portuguese (language)
is one of the best things the tugas [Portuguese] left us, because language is proof of
nothing more than an instrument for men to relate to one another: it is an instrument, a
means to speak, to express the realities of life and the world.” The Brazilian pedagogue
Paulo Freire, an admirer of Cabral as an educator and a revolutionary, lamented what he
considered an error on Cabral's part—the failure to recognize the ideological burden
involved in the use of a language, which is always a determining factor in what could be
done with it. He commented in a note to Cabral’s book: "Amílcar's indisputable
misconception." (Romão, Gadotti, 2012, p. 69). In a conference held in 1985, Freire felt
the need to justify what he perceived as Cabral’s lack of judgment with an explanation
given to him by Cabral's widow: the historical and social context would have driven
Amílcar Cabral to take that stand, to avoid sectarianism and rejection against all things
Portuguese, including Portuguese themselves: "...against Portuguese culture, against the
Portuguese language, against everything that was Portuguese. And Cabral needed to
eliminate the risk of that perspective growing, which for him—and I agree—would weaken
the struggle itself." (Freire, Apud Romão, Gadotti, 2012, p. 70-71).
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Cabo Verdean Corsino Tolentino considers this as one of Amílcar Cabral's most daring
and successful theses. “What seems extraordinary to me is that Amílcar Cabral had the
lucidity and courage to defend the Portuguese language, as he did at that time, while
simultaneously promoting the Creole of Guinea and Cabo Verde as a lingua franca and
an element of national identity. Furthermore, feeling himself a soldier of the United
Nations from the very beginning, the protagonist of a struggle that, being political, had
a natural vocation for preferring the weapon of theory to the power of weapons, Amílcar
Cabral promoted the Creole of Guinea and Cabo Verde, valued African languages,
defended the Portuguese language, and cultivated as many languages of European origin
as he could” (Montezinho, 2014).
One leans toward agreeing with Tolentino’s perspective. In view of the choice made by
African Portuguese-speaking countries that opted to have Portuguese as one of their
official languages, Cabral's proposal does not seem so wrong or unreasonable today. His
lack of prejudice and hatred toward Portuguese culture, Portugal or the Portuguese
people may explain the appropriate pragmatism of his proposal. In various interventions,
he always made very clear that he distinguished the fascist regime of the Estado Novo
from the Portuguese people oppressed by that very same regime. As the Portuguese poet
Manuel Alegre underscores, the Portuguese language was also the language of those who
resisted the Portuguese authoritarian colonialist regime. And Cabral believed that the
triumph of the liberation of the Portuguese colonies would undoubtedly affect the fascist
regime oppressing Portugal, contributing to its ending.
Graduating in agronomy from the University of Lisbon, the leader of the armed struggle
against Portuguese colonialism was also a humanist, a man of culture, profoundly
knowledgeable about Portuguese reality, the history of Portugal, and the symbols that
defined it, as we will see through the analysis of one of the most beautiful and interesting
poems in the Portuguese language that he left us.
Amílcar Cabral's metaphorical “Naus sem rumo” in Portuguese poetry
My inquiry rests on the analysis of a fragment from a very well-known poem by Cabral,
“Naus sem rumo” [“Aimless Ships” ], an allegory of the Cabo Verdean islands that
transforms into a beautiful lyrical interpellation and historical vision. I question the
moment in which Cabral crosses the naus (vessels) - into which he transforms the islands
- with the caravels that docked there, in an encounter that many other poets consider
conceptually inseparable from the Atlantic slave route that so shamefully marks a four-
century history. To do this, however, we must examine what Eduardo Lourenço termed
the "Atlantic exception" that Portugal imagined for itself, and the dark visions projected
onto the caravels that emblematically draw the cartography of this "Atlantic exception,"
leaving cuts and wounds in a history for which reparations are demanded today.
Let us frame the proposed analysis with a brief comment of "Atlantic Exceptionalism" and
the need to correct the colonial narrative.
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Drawing from the analysis of Eduardo Lourenço (and expanded by other scholars, such
as Vecchi and Margarida Calafate Ribeiro), the concept of "Atlantic exceptionalism"
(Lourenço, 1999) refers to the historical self-image Portugal constructed. Following its
early independence in the Iberian Peninsula, which was viewed through a providential,
Christian lens, with the Discoveries Portugal imagined itself as a predestined "glorious
imperial island”; after the historical trauma of the Battle of Alcácer Quibir, this identity
transformed into a messianic "lost island" (Lourenço, 2018, pp. 18-20). Portugal used
the empire—both real and dreamed—as an escape and a "refuge" to maintain an image
of grandeur. This resulted in an "onirically imperial" nation (Lourenço, 2018, p. 57) that
projected a singular self-image within European colonialism, a myth later exploited by
the Estado Novo propaganda and reflected in its literature.
In contrast to this European myth-making, Achille Mbembe (2017) highlights the
ontological suppression and erasure of pre-colonial African history. Driven by the rise of
capitalism and imperialist ambitions during the Atlantic period (15th and 16th centuries),
Western thought effectively erased an entire Afrocentric epistemology, replacing it with
ideological fantasies that justified domination. This erasure of Africa determines the
imperative for repair that is widely advocated in our time. Because of this historical
erasure, writing about Africa from an African perspective requires correcting and
dismantling the Eurocentric narrative that romanticized the colonial enterprise. To heal
the lingering effects of the "colonial wound" (Mignolo, 2011), the colonial narrative must
be exposed and rewritten. Ultimately, Mbembe emphasizes that restitution and
reparation are absolute necessities (sine qua non) to address the deep historical scars
left behind (2017, p. 183).
What weight do the symbols that emerge from this puzzle of reconstructing a historical
narrative carry? Before we look at Amílcar Cabral’s “ships” or caravels, let us see how
shifting the geographical orientation modifies the historical perspective and subverts the
symbolic-ideological mythmaking or mystification that follows in its wake. Before
reaching Africa, the caravels depart from Portugal… more specifically and symbolically,
from Sagres.
In many Portuguese poems, Sagres is viewed as a sacred, foundational site—the epic
starting point of maritime adventure and discovery. Changing the geographical and
cultural perspective transforms the historical meaning of symbols, effectively dismantling
the ideological myths associated with them.
In a poem by Cabo Verdean writer Gabriel Mariano, titled "Promontório de Sagres"
("Promontory of Sagres"),
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Quem te nomeou de sacro
promontório
se de ti nos viria luto e
opróbrio?
[…]
Aqui o princípio foi de tudo.
E, todavia,
por cada proa que aos ventos
irrompia
não era o mar rumoroso que
gemia
mas a terra bem amada e
africana.
[…]
Oh quem puder adivinhar,
naquela hora,
o insolidário espérmen, a
escravidão futura.
(Mariano, 1993, p. 59)
[Who named you a sacred promontory,
If only mourning and reproach came from you?
[…]
Here was the beginning of everything. And, still
For each prow that the winds broke
It wasn’t the roaring sea that moaned
But the beloved African land.
[…]
Oh who could guess, in that hour,
the insolidary sperm, the future slavery.]
When looking at Sagres from across the Atlantic, the narrative completely inverts. The
text highlights a poem by Cabo Verdean writer Gabriel Mariano, titled "Promontório de
Sagres" ("Promontory of Sagres"). In this piece, the "sacred" promontory is stripped of
its romanticism and exposed as the birthplace of "mourning, reproach, and future
slavery." The departure of the ships is not celebrated as a triumph over the sea, but
mourned as a violent, forceful violation of the African continent. What some Portuguese
poetry frames as a glorious act of discovery and naming, African poetry in Portuguese
denounces as brutal appropriation and violence. Ultimately, these opposing poetic voices
create contradictory histories where the marginalized perspective works to expose and
invalidate the colonial myth.
Now, let us examine Cabral's poem.
Naus sem rumo
Dispersas,
emersas,
sozinhas sôbre o Oceano …
Sequiosas,
rochosas,
pedaços do Africano,
do negro continente,
as engeitadas filhas,
nossas ilhas,
navegam tristemente …
Qual naus da antiguidade,
qual naus
do velho Portugal,
aquelas que as entradas
do imenso mar abriram …
Aimless Ships
Dispersed,
emerged,
alone upon the Ocean …
Thirsty,
rocky,
pieces of the African,
of the black continent,
the disowned daughters,
our islands,
sail sadly …
Like ships of antiquity,
like ships
of old Portugal,
of the black continent …
those that opened the entrances
of the immense sea …
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VOL. 17 Nº. 1, TD 4
Thematic Dossier – From Colonial Rule to Nationhood:
Amílcar Cabral and the Birth of Lusophone Africa
October 2026, pp. 64-86
Amilcar Cabral: Rewriting History Through Poetic Diction
Vera Borges
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As naus
que as nossas descobriram.
Ao vento, à tempestade,
navegam
de Cabo Verde as ilhas,
as filhas
do ingente
e negro continente …
São dez as caravelas
em busca do Infinito …
São dez as caravelas,
sem velas,
em busca do Infinito …
A tempestade e ao vento,
caminham …
navegam mansamente
as ilhas,
as filhas
do negro continente …
- Onde ides naus da Fome,
da Morna,
do Sonho,
e da Desgraça? …
- Onde ides? …
Sem rumo e sem ter fito,
Sozinhas,
dispersas,
emersas,
nós vamos,
sonhando,
sofrendo,
em busca do Infinito! …
(Cabral, 2015)
The poem belongs to what critics define as the first phase of Cabral’s poetic works, dating
from 1943. Critics note that it is an “allegory of the Cabo Verdean islands as an integral
part of the African continent.” They appear outlined against the waves; their geographical
situation subsumed in about 10 words. They are “pieces of the African (continent)”, thus
an intrinsic part of it. Are they “disowned daughters” because, as islands, they are
hopelessly separated from it? Further along, it will be reaffirmed that they are “the
daughters of the vast continent” ... Therefore, origin and belonging are unquestionably
defined. But their particular condition is also marked: they are “alone”, blending their
movement with that of the sea, which is their ground. Their condition is in a way tragic;
their identity is constructed from this dual insistence: their belonging to Africa; yet, being
“loose” upon the waves, their particular destiny or particular condition—or what we might
perhaps define as their Atlantic vocation—is also part of the matrix Cabral imagines for
them.
— Where are you going, ships of
Hunger,
of Morna,
of Dreams,
and of Misfortune? …
— Where are you going? …With no
direction and no purpose,
Alone,
dispersed,
emerged,
we go,
dreaming,
suffering,
in search of the Infinite! …]
The ships
that discovered ours.
To the wind, to the storm,
sail
the islands of Cape Verde,
the daughters
of the vast
and black continent …
They are ten caravels
in search of the Infinite …
They are ten caravels,
without sails,
in search of the Infinite …
To the storm and to the wind,
they travel …
sail gently
the islands,
the daughters
of the black continent …
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VOL. 17 Nº. 1, TD 4
Thematic Dossier – From Colonial Rule to Nationhood:
Amílcar Cabral and the Birth of Lusophone Africa
October 2026, pp. 64-86
Amilcar Cabral: Rewriting History Through Poetic Diction
Vera Borges
83
Before the mention of ships, the islands already “sail” “sadly”, “gently”, “Thirsty”,
“Rocky”, the poem somehow sublimates their condition, converting them into 'our ships'
(naus) that trace a course — “To the wind, to the storm”, but “With no direction and no
purpose”, yet “in search of the Infinite” (3 times). Addressed in the poem, “Where are
you going?”, they reaffirm their route, as well as the matter or the modalities of which
this navigation is made, which are inseparable: “Dreaming, suffering”. If the “thirsty,
rocky” islands had seen this difficult condition sublimated through their transformation
into “our ships” that “sail”, the weight of this destiny is also transferred to the
metaphorical ships they become: they are “ships of Hunger, of Morna, of Dreams, and of
Misfortune”. That is to say, their tragic inclination or character will remain. This beautiful
poem sublimates the tragic condition of the archipelago without canceling it out in that
sublimation, but rather managing to find a balance, or a compromise, between what is
an elegiac lament (Hunger, misfortune) and what is a hymn, a song of praise and
exaltation of the 'aimless ships' that are the homeland.
Let us focus on the moment where the “aimless ships” that are the islands evoke the
image of other ships exalted in the past, “Like ships of antiquity” (celebrated in other
poems, in other histories), “Like ships of old Portugal”, which are “those that opened the
entrances of the immense sea... The ships / the caravels / that discovered our / Islands”.
An ancient symbol—enthroned by a certain historiography and literature—finds another
symbol, the islands/ships, invented by the poem. Is one mythology being fought with
another mythology?... even more interesting is how, in the continuation of the text, the
analogy converts into an assumption of identity: the island-ships are truly—truly—
transformed into 10 caravels, “They are 10 caravels without sails” tracing their undefined
heroic path, the target of the new song, which thus uses and, in a way, cancels out the
symbols of a mythology supplanted by the reality celebrated in the present.
In a time very different from today, and for a mind mobilized by what would be the
effective combat, the revolution, and the war to be waged—in minds and on the ground—
against colonial oppression, such as Cabral's, the time is not (yet) that of demanding
reparations in the terms put forward by Mbembe; but this poem corresponds to a gesture
of subtle rewriting or correction of a history, and also of an epistemology, or knowledge
about history; it also corresponds to the reversal of the meaning of one of the main
symbols of the mythical narrative that on Portugal's side (during the Estado Novo period,
but not only during that period) was constructed over the historical events to which the
text refers.
The Macanese Cecília Jorge, dealing with the empire at its crepuscular, final hour - which
was Macau, 1999 - also uses the image of the caravels of the Discoveries to put the
mythologization of the empire on trial, from a demystifying perspective:
Pés de barro da lusitanidade
Caravelas de vela solta
Que se vão rasgando
No retorno à Pátria
(1999, Jorge 2020: 33)
[Feet of clay of lusitanidade
Caravels with loose sails
Tearing themselves apart
Upon the return to the Homeland]
JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations
e-ISSN: 1647-7251
VOL. 17 Nº. 1, TD 4
Thematic Dossier – From Colonial Rule to Nationhood:
Amílcar Cabral and the Birth of Lusophone Africa
October 2026, pp. 64-86
Amilcar Cabral: Rewriting History Through Poetic Diction
Vera Borges
84
Cabral does not tear the sails of the caravels; rather, he transforms what for Gabriel
Mariano was a symbol of the violence of the colonial adventure into a new symbol, which
thus cancels out the first, inscribing upon it a meaning that corresponds to its reversal.
And he does this in what I consider to be one of the most beautiful poems written in the
Portuguese language.
Conclusion
Committed to the liberation struggle of his homeland and the African continent from the
bonds of colonial oppression, Amílcar Cabral understood the struggle for emancipation
as an act of culture, rooted in the reclamation of the cultural identity of the oppressed.
In a time very different from today, and for a spirit mobilized by what would become the
effective struggle—the revolution and the war to be fought, both in the minds and on the
fields—against colonial oppression, as experienced by Cabral, the time is not (yet) one
for demanding reparation in the terms proposed by Mbembe.
However, the examined poem subtly but consistently dismantles colonial mythologies,
driving a critical reassessment of both historical narratives and the framework of
knowledge built around them. By reframing the core symbol of the Portuguese
Discoveries ships, the naus or caravelas, converting them into Cabo Verdean islands -
African sacred ground -, the text connects historical reconstruction with contemporary
discourse on the necessity of systemic reparation, establishing it as a foundational pillar
for national and cultural identity.
Therefore, in some of Cabral’s poetry, one recognizes a subtle but persistent gesture of
rewriting or correcting a mythical vision that supports a particular history and the
epistemology it entails. We reflected on the significance of the symbols that emerge from
this puzzle of reconstructing a historical narrative, articulating it with more recent
expressions that elaborate on the theme of the need for reparation as a cornerstone for
identity building.
In the documentary “Conakry” directed by Filipa César, Grada kilomba, a Portuguese
artist, writer, and theorist of African descent, evokes the role of Amílcar Cabral as a
visionary leader, through images that could have been lost during an agitated past.
Cabral hosts in Conakry a cultural event, an exhibition visited by remarkable African
intellectuals, political leaders, and artists, on the liberation struggle of the Guinean and
Cabo Verdean people. A tranquil presence, Cabral is seen showing to Madame Andrée
Sékou Touré objects from the Portuguese arsenal, unfolding for her a Portuguese flag
confiscated from the Portuguese, without any bitterness, resentment, or hatred in his
gestures or words.
Kilomba wonders about the pride she would have felt if the true history of Amílcar Cabral
and other Africans had not been suppressed from the history books she learned from
when growing up in Lisbon, the former capital of an empire that even today weighs upon
the identity of both Portuguese and African people. The film frames restoring the
JANUS.NET, e-journal of International Relations
e-ISSN: 1647-7251
VOL. 17 Nº. 1, TD 4
Thematic Dossier – From Colonial Rule to Nationhood:
Amílcar Cabral and the Birth of Lusophone Africa
October 2026, pp. 64-86
Amilcar Cabral: Rewriting History Through Poetic Diction
Vera Borges
85
exhibition hosted by Cabral resurrect an event that in itself functioned as a gesture of
presentation and preservation of empirical evidence to counter against intrusive
memories of subordination — “the African continent is given a new body, its history is
given a new language...”, says Kilomba in the documentary (Kilomba, 2016).
The memory of a man of Cabral's moral and intellectual stature, a poem like his beautiful
“Naus sem rumo” ([Aimless Caravels]), help us deal with a “past that still consumes us,”
as said by Ana Paula Tavares, the Angolan writer who in 2025 won the Camões Prize.
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Amílcar Cabral and the Birth of Lusophone Africa
October 2026, pp. 64-86
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