The book “OUR PEOPLE ARE OUR MOUNTAINS” is a combination of series of speeches and interviews by the people of the African leader, Amilcar Cabral on the “GUINEAN REVOLUTION” in 1973. The prime leader, Amilcar Cabral was a leading African anti-colonial thinker, agronomist, and revolutionary. As the leader of The African Party For The Independence OF Guinea And Cape Verde (PAIGC), he played a central role in the struggle for independence of what was then under the rule of Portuguese.
He was also trained and worked as an agronomist: he studied soil, land and agriculture, which reformed his political thinking in the socioeconomic asphere as well.
The short book is a collection of speeches and session delivered by Cabral. It emphasizes the vital link between politics, armed struggle and the liberation of the indigenous people. It explains the struggle of the Africa and the resistance against the colonialism.
In his stance, Cabral highlights sacrifices and patience of his people. He says, people were under Portuguese which did not only politically colonized them but also psychologically, socially and morally. There was a gap in their minds for white and black; However, they thought black people were not intelligent, and even the narrative of the blacks being merely slaves of the whites. Portuguese used to tentalize them; nontheless, black stood up to fight against injustice and the oppressive rules of the rulers.
The Afro leader explains the iron will of black people: they were freedom fighters, so they got it by leaps and bound against the enemy rule. The indigenous people decided to save their identity at any cost. Their identity was their free existence in the world.
He emphasized that a nation comes into being with the help of unity, courage and love – love towards the fellow revolutionaries and the fellow nationals.
The short book is informative regarding several actual definitions of terms, narratives and schools of thoughts. Cabral used the word “Mountain” as a synonym to courage and strength of his people, referring to them as their, the revolutionaries’, mountains.
“Man has born free. Man needs freedom till last breath.”