The following quotations are from:
Amilcar Cabral, “Party Principles and Political Practice,” in Unity and Struggle: Speeches and Writings of Amilcar Cabral
“So we see that unity is something we have to achieve in order to be able to do something else. If we are going to wash, for example, either by turning on a tap or washing ourselves in the river, unless we are crazy, we are not going into the water without undressing; we must first take off our clothes. It is an action we carry out, a preparation so that we can take a bath. Better still: if we want to hold a meeting in this hall, with persons seated, we must call them, set up tables, arrange pencils and pens, etc. That is, we have to arrange means to be able to hold a meeting as it should be. Unity is also a means, not an end. We might have struggled a little for unity, but if we achieve it, that does not mean the struggle is over. There are many persons in this struggle of the colonies against colonialism who up till now are still struggling merely for unity. Because, as they are unable to wage the struggle, they confuse unity with struggle. Unity is a means towards struggle, and as with all means, a little goes a long way. It is not necessary to unite all the population to struggle in a country. Are we sure that all the population are united? No, a certain degree of unity is enough. Once we have reached it, then we can struggle. Because then the ideas in the heads of these persons advance and develop and serve increasingly to achieve the aim we have in view. So you have seen more or less what is the basic idea expressed in this principle of ours—unity.
And what is struggle? Struggle is a normal condition of all living creatures in the world. All are in struggle, all struggle. For example, you are seated on chairs, I am seated on this chair. My body is exerting a force on the floor, through the bench which is above it. But if the floor did not have sufficient force to support be, I would go down below, would break through the floor. If beneath the floor there was no force, I would go on breaking through, and so on. So there is a silent struggle between the force I exert on the floor and the force of the soil which holds me up, which does not let me pass.” 31
“Now, taken together, unity and struggle mean that for struggle unity is necessary, but to have unity it is also necessary to struggle. And this means that even among ourselves, we are struggling; perhaps you have not understood this properly. The significance of our struggle is not only in respect of colonialism, it is also in respect of ourselves. Unity and struggle. Unity for us to struggle against the colonialists and struggle for us to achieve our unity, for ust to construct our land as it should be.” 33