Titina Silla
Encyclopedia
Titina Ernestina Silá (1943 – 30 January 1973) was a Guinea Bissau freedom fighter. 30 January, the day of her death, is celebrated as National Women's Day
in Guinea Bissau.
against Portugal
, led by PAIGC. Very young, Titina Silla joined the guerrilla war led by the charismatic Amilcar Cabral. She displayed remarkable organisational and leadership skills and became one of its most popular figures. Titina Silá was already famous within the movement in the early 1960s as an 18 year old guerrilla leader on the North Front.
on her way to the funeral of Amilcar Cabral
who was assassinated a week earlier in Conakry
(23 January 1973). In her honor a monument has been erected near the river Farim where she died and the date is marked as National Women's Day ("Dia Nacional da Mulher guineense") in Guinea Bissau. Numerous places and institutions are named for Silá, including Plaza Titina Sila in Bissau
(home to government ministries and foreign missions). Along with Cabral and Domingos Ramos, she is remembered as the most famous martyrs of the independence struggle.
National Women's Day
National Women's Day is an annual public holiday in South Africa on August 9. This commemorates the national march of women on this day in 1956 to petition against legislation that required African persons to carry the "pass", special identification documents which curtailed an African's freedom of...
in Guinea Bissau.
Guerrilla war
Famed in Guinea Bissau as a martyr of the Guinea-Bissau War of IndependenceGuinea-Bissau War of Independence
Guinea-Bissau War of Independence was an armed conflict and national liberation struggle in Portuguese Guinea between 1963 and 1974.-Background:...
against Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, led by PAIGC. Very young, Titina Silla joined the guerrilla war led by the charismatic Amilcar Cabral. She displayed remarkable organisational and leadership skills and became one of its most popular figures. Titina Silá was already famous within the movement in the early 1960s as an 18 year old guerrilla leader on the North Front.
Death
She was killed in an ambush by the Portuguese while crossing the Farim RiverFarim River
The Farim is a river of Guinea-Bissau also known as the Cacheu along its lower length. Its total length is about 257 km.Its headwaters are near the northern border of the country, north of Contobeul and close to a bend of the Geba River...
on her way to the funeral of Amilcar Cabral
Amílcar Cabral
Amílcar Lopes da Costa Cabral was a Guinea-Bissauan and Cape Verdean agricultural engineer, writer, and a nationalist thinker and politician. Also known by his nom de guerre Abel Djassi, Cabral led the nationalist movement of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde Islands and the ensuing war of independence...
who was assassinated a week earlier in Conakry
Conakry
Conakry is the capital and largest city of Guinea. Conakry is a port city on the Atlantic Ocean and serves as the economic, financial and cultural centre of Guinea with a 2009 population of 1,548,500...
(23 January 1973). In her honor a monument has been erected near the river Farim where she died and the date is marked as National Women's Day ("Dia Nacional da Mulher guineense") in Guinea Bissau. Numerous places and institutions are named for Silá, including Plaza Titina Sila in Bissau
Bissau
Bissau is the capital city of Guinea-Bissau. The city's borders are conterminous with the Bissau Autonomous Sector. In 2007, the city had an estimated population of 407,424 according to the Instituto Nacional de Estatística e Censos...
(home to government ministries and foreign missions). Along with Cabral and Domingos Ramos, she is remembered as the most famous martyrs of the independence struggle.
External links
- Documentos Amílcar Cabral/ Fundação Mário Soares: Lucette Cabral, Titina Silá, Osvaldo Lopes da Silva, and Maria da Luz Boal photographed at an exchange of POWs during the independence struggle, DakarDakarDakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...
, SenegalSenegalSenegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
.