CABRAL, AMLCAR

born 1921, Bafata, Portuguese Guinea died Jan. 20, 1973, Conakry, Guinea agronomist and nationalist politician, founder (1956) and secretary-general of the Partido Africano da Independncia da Guin e Cabo Verde (PAIGC; African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde). With Agostinho Neto he was cofounder (1956) of a liberation movement in Angola. Educated in Lisbon, Cabral there helped to found (1948) the Centro de Estudos Africanos. He took his party into an open war (from 1962) for the independence of Portuguese Guinea. In the late 1960s he was the de facto ruler of the parts of Portuguese Guinea not occupied by army units from Portugal. In 1972 he established a Guinean People's National Assembly as a step toward independence. Cabral was assassinated outside his home in Conakry, where his party had established its headquarters.