Africa-Press – Cape verde. The President of the Republic, José Maria Neves, considers that Cabral’s thought is “a beautiful lesson for politics in Cape Verde today” and a response to the different issues and challenges currently taking place in the world.
“Just read the references that Cabral makes to the question of drought in Cape Verde and the measures that must be taken, just see the suggestions that Cabral makes in relation to the administration in the liberated zones and the measures that had to be taken to improve the quality of provision of services in the liberated areas, said José Maria Neves, this Saturday, at the award ceremony, posthumously, of the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa to Amílcar Cabral, held by the University of Mindelo (UM), in celebration of the 20th anniversary of that institution of higher education.
The President of the Republic, who insisted on “bringing Cabral up to the present day”, pointed out several other aspects of his vast legacy, namely his “political pedagogy” and facet of a “great multilateralist who defended the United Nations, international law and the negotiated settlement of conflicts
“Just look at Cabral’s insistence on discussion, on dialogue. He says in 1971 that politics is a contradiction, but it is also a discussion and a possibility for building points and consensus”, argued José Maria Neves, considering that the depth of the analysis of Amílcar Cabral’s writings helps to formulate the questions that must be answered in today’s times.
“Today we live in a time of polycrisis. We have the environmental crisis, we have increasingly severe droughts in Cape Verde, we have conflicts, wars, poverty, inequalities, the challenges that the African continent still has, living a little on the margins of what happens in the world. So, by reading Cabral we will find the answers to today’s challenges”, underlined José Maria Neves.
President of Portugal highlights Cabral’s merits
In turn, the President of the Republic of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, invited to pay the academic compliment, was “privileged” with the invitation, considering that the award, posthumously, of the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa to Amílcar Cabral is the consecration of his merits in knowledge, civic militancy and moral personality.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa also expressed his “joy” at returning to the city of Mindelo, remembering Cesária, greeting Kiki Lima, re-reading Onesimo Silveira or Germano Almeida and admiring the National Center for Art, Crafts and Design (CNAD).
According to the Portuguese President, the distinction for Amílcar Cabral could be anywhere in the world, such as Bafatá, Santa Catarina de Santiago, Praia, Lisbon, Santarém, Angola, Bissau or Conakry. But, he thought, it had to be in the city of Mindelo where Amílcar Cabral finished high school 80 years ago.
“It could be anywhere in the world because Amílcar Cabral was and will be all of them. Like peace, freedom, equality, fraternity, tolerance, the dialogue that made him great among the great, but it had to be here in Mindelo by the hand of a university, by nature universal and bearer of its values, in meeting of university students”, sentenced the Portuguese Head of State, adding that, in Mindelo, Amílcar Cabral receives the consecration of his merits in knowledge, in civic militancy, in moral personality.
“Your Honoris Causa doctorate is just that. Gratitude, tribute, proclamation of example. To the scholar, the scientist, the theoretician and the practical, the specialist and the humanist, the thinker and the man of the field, the people of flesh and blood, the university student of the university of books, and the university student of the university of life”, argued the President of the Portuguese Republic.
Pedro Pires was godfather of the ceremony
Commander Pedro Pires, former President of the Republic of Cape Verde, current president of the Amílcar Cabral Foundation, colleague of Amílcar Cabral in the colonial struggle and godfather of the ceremony,
revisited, on the occasion, the personal journey of Amílcar Cabral, the coexistence, collaboration and political complicity of both in the struggle for national liberation.
The also former Prime Minister of Cape Verde in the first 15 years of independence, highlighted in Amílcar Cabral aspects such as “the formation of his singular personality and that of a citizen, of an anti-colonialist combatant, of a political and military strategist, of a thinker and humanist, of a leader and leaders of men, their comrades in arms in the service of our liberation”.
He also underlined that the presence of the two heads of state, Portugal and Cape Verde, “gives the ceremony a heightened expression of great cultural and political reach”.
University of Mindelo and the distinction to Amílcar Cabral
Despite usually distinguishing, still in life, contemporary personalities, the rector of the University of Mindelo Albertino Graça, highlighted that the scientific council of the institution decided to distinguish Amílcar Cabral to “recognize and illuminate his scientific facet of thinker and pedagogue in the approach of political issues and social, within the framework of their participation in the historical process of the emancipation of oppressed peoples, in particular, through the affirmation and recognition of the Cape Verdean and Guinean nations”.
“He was a personality with many facets, an internationally recognized thinker and much studied by many political and social analysts and a figure distinguished by several countries, several universities and several international institutions”, added the rector Albertino Graça.
It should be noted that despite not having traveled to Mindelo, São Vicente, Amílcar Cabral’s daughter, Iva Cabral, thanked the distinction in an intervention through video recording.
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