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No Fist Is Big Enough to Hide the Sky: The Liberation of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde
“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 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. It 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 of both the region and African liberation struggles as a whole.
About the author
Basil Davidson ranks among the most remarkable Africanist historians of his generation. Born in Bristol in 1914, he worked as a journalist for The Times, The New Statesman, and other publications, as well as serving in the Second World War as an intelligence officer in Nazi-occupied Europe. After the war, he went on to become a leading authority on Portuguese Africa. He was one of the first scholars to emphasise the pre-colonial achievements of African civilisations, as well as the damaging effects wrought on the continent by colonialism. He was also a passionate advocate for contemporary anti-colonial struggles and witnessed many of these struggles firsthand. Among his many notable books are The African Genius (1969) and The Black Man’s Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation-State (1992). He died in 2010.
Zachariah Mampilly is the director of Africana Studies and an associate professor of political science and international studies at Vassar College. He is the author of Rebel Rulers: Insurgent Governance and Civilian Life during War (2011) and (with Adam Branch) Africa Uprising: Popular Protest and Political Change (Zed 2015).
Bibliography / Sources:
- No Fist Is Big Enough to Hide the Sky: The Liberation of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, 1963-74 by Basil Davidson, African History Archive, Zed Books, 2017, ISBN: 9781783609994;
- No Fist Is Big Enough to Hide the Sky: The Liberation of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde(…) on Google Books.
