Abílio Duarte Explained

Abílio Duarte
Office1:Foreign Minister of Cape Verde
Term Start1:1975
Term End1:1981
Successor1:Silvino Manuel da Luz
President1:Aristides Pereira
Office2:President of the National Assembly of Cape Verde
Term Start2:1975
Term End2:1991
Successor2:Amílcar Spencer Lopes
President2:Aristides Pereira
Party:PAICV
Birth Date:16 February 1931
Birth Place:Praia, Santiago Island, Portuguese Cape Verde
Occupation:Politician

Abílio Augusto Monteiro Duarte (16 February 1931 – 20 August 1996) was a Cape Verdean nationalist and early political leader in the independence era.

Biography

He was born in Praia, at the time colonial capital of Cape Verde.[1]

He was educated at Liceu Gil Eanes in Mindelo.

He took part in resistance of colonial rule starting in 1953 and wrote articles related to nationalism including the review Claridade. In February 1956, along with other writers from Angola and Mozambique, he took part in the First Congress of Black Writers in Paris. In, 1957, he went to Dakar, Senegal with the militants helping their independence movement in Senegal, later he visited Bissau together with other nationalists. He worked with and was later married to Dulce Almada.[2]

After Cape Verde became independent, Duarte was the President[3] of the National Assembly from 1975 to 1991, and he was the first foreign minister of newly independent Cape Verde from 1975 to 1981, he was succeeded by Silvino Manuel da Luz. He was also President of the People's National Assembly from 1975 to 1991, he was succeeded by Amilcar Spencer Lopes.

He died in August 1996.

Legacy

One of the streets named in Cape Verde is the one in the south of Mindelo.

A secondary school is named after him in Palmarejo in the southwest of Praia located on Avenida Santo Antão, opened in the mid-1990s. Adjacent is the main campus of the University of Cape Verde

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Antigos Presidentes - Assembleia Nacional.
  2. Lobban Jr.. Richard Andrew. Mendy. Peter Karibe. Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau (= African Historical Dictionaries. no.. 22). The Scarerow Press. Lanham MD, London. 1997. 136. 0-8108-3226-7.
  3. http://www.parlamento.cv/antigospresidentes/abilio-duarte/index.html Abílio Duarte page in former Presidents in Cape Verde’s Parliament site.