Africa-Press – Cape verde. The Presidency of the Republic announces State celebrations to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Release of Tarrafal Political Prisoners, marked on May 1st. The information is provided in a statement, which indicates that “a substantial program” is being prepared, in conjunction with other Sovereign Bodies, the Tarrafal City Council and other partners.
According to the document, the presidents of the Republic of Angola, João Manuel Lourenço, and of the Portuguese Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, should join José Maria Neves, to together pay “a fair tribute to all those who donated their lives to greater cause of the Freedom and Dignity of our Peoples”.
“This is a historic milestone of enormous significance and one that must be marked with dignity to remember the famous day of May 1, 1974 and honor the sacrifice of those who were political prisoners in Tarrafal”, the document reads.
Located in the town of Chão Bom, the former Tarrafal Concentration Camp was built in 1936 and received the first 152 political prisoners on October 29 of the same year, having operated until 1956. In 1962, it was reopened under the name “ Chão Bom Labor Camp”, intended to incarcerate anti-colonialists from Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde.
Tarrafal received more than 500 people, including 340 anti-fascists and 230 anti-colonialists. Of these, 34 died at the scene.
After its deactivation, the complex functioned as a military instruction center, a school and, since 2000, it has housed the Resistance Museum. It was classified by the Government of Cape Verde as National Cultural Heritage in 2016 and is currently included in Cape Verde’s indicative list at UNESCO.
For More News And Analysis About Cape verde Follow Africa-Press
