Cabral’s guerrillas : narratives of the liberation war and socialist solidarities in Guinea-Bissau

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Telepneva, Natalia (2026) Cabral’s guerrillas : narratives of the liberation war and socialist solidarities in Guinea-Bissau. Journal of Southern African Studies. ISSN 1465-3893 (In Press)

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Abstract

This article explores how rank-and-file guerrillas of the Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde (PAIGC) remembered the liberation war in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (1963–74), focusing on socialist solidarities and military training in the Soviet Union. Drawing on life-history interviews conducted with PAIGC veterans in Bissau in 2019, it traces trajectories from rural mobilisation to overseas training, mainly at Perevalnoe training camp in the Soviet Union. The article argues that while local experiences of colonial violence and coercion shaped recruitment, Soviet support later became central to how fighters narrated the struggle. The article argues that the experiences of socialism during military training in the USSR reinforced—rather than displaced—Amílcar Cabral’s modernising nationalist project, previously embedded through early mobilisation mechanisms such as schooling. Veterans’ accounts also highlight the symbolic and practical importance of Soviet arms, especially the AK-47 and the Strela-2 missile system, while stressing their own agency and strategic autonomy vis-à-vis Cuban and Soviet advisers. Situating these memories within postindependence politics, the article shows how recollections of Soviet training became intertwined with contested legacies of liberation, state-building, and socialism.

ORCID iDs

Telepneva, Natalia ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7851-3066;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)