TO DEFEND THE EARTH IS TO DEFEND THE HUMAN, Amilcar Cabral on Soil, Society and Freedom

239pp., maps, illus., paperback, Africa Institute of South Africa Press, Pretoria, 2026

ISBN: 9780798305518

Originally published in Portuguese in 1988 as Estudos Agrários de Amilcar Cabral. Translated into English by Anselmo Matusse.

This collection of Amilcar's Cabral's early career soil studies and public science writing is a call to ground political and economic decisions in how the Earth works and to refuse the false choice of development or environment by reimagining sustainability and justice on a continent facing mounting ecological and social pressures.

"I salute this remarkable and meaningful work, which offers readers access to Cabral's concerns, research, reflections and commitment to the preservation of soil as a resource that is essential to life, well-being and the happiness of the inhabitants of our common home." Pedro Pires, Amilcar Cabral Foundation

"...brings new urgency to Amilcar Cabral's ideas at a time of climate crisis and widening inequality. His insistence that defending the earth means defending people reads less like history and more like a guide for building just, resilient societies now." Ani Dasgupta, President and CEO, World Resources Institute

Amilcar Cabral (1924–1973) was a Bissau-Guinean agronomist, revolutionary, and one of Africa's foremost anti-colonial leaders.

Anselmo Mattusse is a research officer at Environmental Humanities South at the University of Cape Town.

Carlos Lopes is Honorary Professor at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town.

Lesley Green is Professor of Earth Politics and Director of Environmental Humanities South at the University of Cape Town.