The French Anticolonial Solidarity Movement and the Liberation of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde

The liberation wars in the Portuguese colonies were not merely local processes, circumscribed to the geographical areas where armed combat was taking place. This article sheds light on this phenomenon by examining the ways in which the PAIGC’s struggle, combined with Amilcar Cabral’s political performance, influenced the activism of anticolonialist committees in France, particularly in Paris. After mapping out the committees’ actions and discourses concerning the PAIGC–as well as their broader critique of Portuguese colonialism and authoritarianism–the article analyses a set of cultural artefacts (books, plays, etc) produced by these groups which helped disseminate the Guinean war at an international level. It also discusses the articulation between the committees’ demands and their positions vis-à-vis the politics of France and Portugal, as well as their wider denunciation of western imperialism and the Cold War system. The aim is to assess the interplay between domestic and internationalist agendas, demonstrating how, on the one hand, the French committees’ rhetoric and actions were influenced by the liberation movements and, on the other hand, the support for the African struggle served a purpose in their political strategy at home.