No Fist Is Big Enough to Hide the Sky: The Liberation of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, 1963-74 (African History Archive)

No Fist is Big Enough to Hide the Sky stands as a key text in the history of the eleven year struggle against Portuguese rule in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. Though perhaps less well known than the struggles in Angola and Mozambique, the liberation war waged by the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) easily ranks alongside those conflicts as an example of an African independence movement triumphing against overwhelming odds. Basil Davidson, a leading authority on Portuguese Africa who witnessed many of these events firsthand, draws on his own extensive experience in the country as well as the PAIGC archives to provide a detailed and rigorous analysis of the conflict. The book also provides one of the earliest accounts of the assassination of the PAIGC's founder, Amilcar Cabral, and documents the movement's remarkable success in recovering from the death of its leader and in eventually attaining independence. Featuring a preface by Cape Verde's first president, Aristides Pereira, and a foreword by Cabral himself, No Fist is Big Enough to Hide the Sky remains an invaluable resource for the study both of the region and of African liberation struggles as a whole. "No Fist Is Big Enough to Hide the Sky stands as a key text in the history of the eleven-year struggle against Portuguese rule in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. Though perhaps less well known than the struggles in Angola and Mozambique, the liberation war waged by the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) easily ranks alongside those conflicts as an example of an African independence movement triumphing against overwhelming odds. Basil Davidson, a leading authority on Portuguese Africa who witnessed many of these events first hand, draws on his own extensive experience in the country as well as the PAIGC archives to provide a detailed and rigorous analysis of the conflict. The book also provides one of the earliest accounts of the assassination of the PAIGC's founder, Amilcar Cabral, and documents the movement's remarkable success in recovering from the death of its leader and in eventually attaining independence. Featuring a preface by Cape Verde's first president, Aristides Pereira, and a foreword by Cabral himself, No Fist is Big Enough to Hide the Sky remains an invaluable resource for the study both of the region and of African liberation struggles as a whole."-- Dedication 8 Contents 10 Foreword • Zachariah Mampilly 12 Acknowledgements 16 Author’s Note to the 1981 Edition 18 Preface • Aristides Pereira 20 Foreword • Amilcar Cabral 22 1. Why? 27 2. How? With Whom? 47 3. Under What Precise Conditions? 60 4. By What Political Principles and Organization? 71 5. By What Military Methods? 86 6. Involving What Obligations? 110 7. Towards What Future? 118 8. With What Wider Meaning? 129 9. Carrying Through: 1968–72 142 10. Meeting the Bitterest Loss: 1973 158 1l. The End of Colonial Rule 168 12. Building and Rebuilding 186 Note on Further Reading in English 208 Basil Davidson's unsurpassed study of the struggle against colonial rule in Gunea-Bissau and Cape Verde __No Fist is Big Enough to Hide the Sky____No Fist is Big Enough to Hide the Sky__