This is a lecture giving By Salahudin Matteos at University of Massachussets in Dartmouth.
April 22, 2006. He was Invitated by Cabo Verde Students Association at Umass dartmouth.

"Our struggle is not merely words,but action and we must really struggle.
Struggle is not a debate, nor verbiage,whether written or spoken.
We appreciate the students who are members of the Cabo Verde Students Association. We know how important the CVSA is. At this moment there are only a few who are involved in the struggle.

The work falls in the hands of a few. Some seek comfort and pretend to be working and not working at all. We need for all of our students to make a reasonable contribution. Again we say many flee from responsibilities. We applaud those few students who have worked very hard to make this program possible.

Being a student is a very big struggle. It is extremely demanding.
Why are you here at this University? You have aspirations. You have
dreams. You have ambition. You want to be a doctor, lawyer, teacher,
scientist, engineer or nurse. You have a specific reason why you are here. You have the desire to have a good job and to have a good salary.
You want to serve. You want to be respected as a person to make life better for your family,for yourself. For some of you there is a strong desire to reach your goal so that you can return to your source,Cabo Verde, and build a new nation second to none.

Get the best education,knowledge and enlightenment to put an end to
injustices,miseries and suffering.

We must struggle for the progress of our land, Cabo Verde, wherever you might be. We must put an end to all injustice. We must guarantee
for the children born in our land,today and tomorrow,that no barrier or wall should be put in their way. You must go forward according to your
capacity to give your utmost. You must constantly improve in your studies and in the discipline of your education,so that you can improve
the lot of our people and our land, serving not only our interest,but also
those of Africa and all mankind.

That is why from the start Dr. Amilcar Cabral formulated our Party to set
us on a course of victory. The best course for this is being organized.
This is a principle in our struggle to be better students. As it is said:
" Keep your eyes on the prize." Dr. Cabral said, " I do not command because I am an engineer or a doctor, but because I really work, and no one who has completed his studies is higher than those who have not.
No position is higher than another. Only someone who works more, who
produces more is higher. Anyone who has understood our Party programme correctly, whether he is from Guine or Cape Verde, can be admitted to our Party. But he should be ready at any moment to give his life in the cause for which we are struggling."

In his book,Unity and Struggle,Dr. Cabral wrote: " The time is past when it was neccessary to seek arguments to prove the cultural maturity
of African peoples. The irrationality of the racists 'theories' of a Gobineau
or a Levy-Bruhl neither interests nor persuades anyone but racists. In spite of colonial domination (and perhaps because of this domination)
Africa has been able to impose respect for her cultural values.

From Carthage to Zimbabwe,from Meroe to Benin and Ife,from the Sahara or Timbuctoo to Kilwa,across the immensity and diversity of the
continent's natural conditions, the culture of African peoples is an undeniable fact: in works of art as in oral and written traditions, in cosmogony as in music and dances, in religion and creeds as in dynamic
equilibrium of economic, political and social structures that Africa man has been able to create.

If the universal value of African culture is now an incontestable fact,it should not,however,be forgotten that African man,whose hands as the poet said, 'have laid the foundation stones of the world', has developed
his culture, if not alawys,hostile conditions: from deserts to equatorial forests, from coastal marshes to banks of the great rivers subject to frequent flooding, through and against all the difficulties, including scourges which destroy not only plants and animals but man as well.

In agreement with Basil Davidson and other researchers of African societies and cultures,we can say that in the light of the inhospitable character of the environment, are an achievement to be ranked with the major historical example of the greatness of man."

Please feel free to share this with all Cabo Verde Students.
Manu Salah de Azijah
email address:

Only registered users can see links on this forum! Register or Login on forum!