Guinea-Bissau War of IndependenceGuinea-Bissau · 1963–1974“Draw near — the atlas keeps this thread, and tonight the fire lends it a voice.”Amílcar Cabral was an agronomist who had surveyed every village in the colony for the Portuguese — and then used the survey to free them. His PAIGC did not merely fight in the liberated zones; it governed them, with schools, clinics and people's stores, declaring independence from territory it actually held.