There are over 10,000 documents, including letters written by the "father" of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde's independence, while he was secretary-general of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), as well as correspondence with other African nationalist leaders and even with the Portuguese Government prior to independence, as Filipe Guimarães da Silva explained to Lusa.

"We have noticed an increase in interest in Amílcar Cabral, especially from young researchers, not only those living in Portugal or of Portuguese nationality, but all over the world, not just Africa", he said.

"The documentation is simultaneously political, military and diplomatic and, therefore, through this communication, we can also understand the evolution of the liberation struggles in Guinea, but also in other territorial contexts where Portugal was involved", he said.

The documents also include the period prior to the leadership of the PAIGC, such as "his time in Portugal, his studies in the area of agronomy, his writings -- Cabral's famous writings", he continued.

Filipe Guimarães da Silva stressed that, among the 150 archives available on the Casa Comum platform, which can be accessed on the FMSMB website, Amílcar Cabral's is one of the most sought after and said that this collection was in Bissau "at risk of loss and destruction".

"Amílcar Cabral's collection was in Bissau and, therefore, it was at the request of the Guinean authorities that the Foundation became involved and associated with the project to safeguard and rescue documents that were at risk of loss and destruction, since Guinea was going through turbulent periods in its history", he said, referring to the period of the civil war between 1998 and 1999.

And he added that, in August 1999, due to "strong influence" from the Guinean authorities, the Foundation agreed to get involved and went to Bissau with a team, with the then director of the archive, Alfredo Caldeira, to "search for, organise and also safeguard these documents".

The foundation had the support of one of the historical leader's daughters, Iva Cabral, "who until then had been taking care of the organisation, also from an intellectual point of view, of Cabral's documentation, which was scattered in several places and ended up being gathered in Bissau, at the PAIGC facilities".

"The physical transfer of Amílcar Cabral's documents to the Foundation in 1999 was decided not by the Foundation, but by the entities that held this collection, these documents, because they understood that at the time Portugal had the conditions to preserve and keep the documents safe, which was not possible in Guinea", he explained.

This documentation, "which is multiple, vast - is physically gathered here at the Foundation, by decision of the Guinean authorities, and is also available at Casa Comum, and there are several digital copies shared with the entities that hold this Amílcar Cabral archive", he added.

The content of the 80 folders that house these Cabral documents, and which include, in addition to letters and handwritten documents, books and photographs, has been digitised and can now be consulted by "anyone, whether a researcher, a specialised researcher or any citizen".

The Foundation shares, in several databases, "the digital copies of this archive and the digitalisations that were made, by express instruction" of former President Mário Soares, "who was always concerned about there being collaboration, and collaboration presupposes a generous sharing of what the Foundation, also in a spirit of solidarity, has been developing".

Based on this documentation, Filipe Guimarães da Silva refers to Amílcar Cabral's thinking as "humanist". "The timelessness of these values is what allows Cabral, 50 years after his death, to be remembered and there is still much of Cabral to discover, from the point of view of his documentary memory".

The FMSMB will mark the centenary of Amílcar Cabral's birth, which will be celebrated in September this year, with a strong focus on the internationalisation of his archive, so that it can be consulted even more, and with a series of conferences.

This year also marks the centenary of Mário Soares' birth in December.

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