By Amilcar L. Cabral

Amilcar L. Cabral (1921-1973) was an agronomist, nationalist leader, theoretician, and founder and secretary-general of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), who helped lead Guinea-Bissau to independence. This following text was originally delivered by Amilcar L. Cabral on February 20, 1970; as part of the Eduardo Mondlane Memorial Lecture Series at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, under the auspices of The Program of Eastern African Studies, translated from the French by Maureen Webster.

When Goebbels, the brain behind Nazi propaganda, heard culture being discussed, he brought out his revolver. That shows that the Nazis, who were and are the most tragic expression of imperialism and of its thirst for domination–even if they were all degenerates like Hitler, had a clear idea of the value of culture as a factor of resistance to foreign domination.

History teaches us that, in certain circumstances, it is very easy for the foreigner to impose his domination on a people. But it also teaches us that, whatever may be the material aspects of this domination, it can be maintained only by the permanent, organized repression of the cultural life of the people concerned. Implantation of foreign domination can be assured definitively only by physical liquidation of a significant part of the dominated population.

In fact, to take up arms to dominate a people is, above all, to take up arms to destroy, or at least to neutralize, to paralyze, its cultural life. For, with a strong indigenous cultural life, foreign domination cannot be sure of its perpetuation. At any moment, depending on internal and external factors determining the evolution of the society in question, cultural resistance (indestructible) may take on new forms (political, economic, armed) in order fully to contest foreign domination.

– Full Article (Journal of Pan-African Studies)