Background
Vasco was born in 1927, son of a doctor at Bolama (not related to the PAIGC founder the late Amilcar Cabral).
Vasco was born in 1927, son of a doctor at Bolama (not related to the PAIGC founder the late Amilcar Cabral).
He was educated at Farim, the biggest town in the north, then at Bissau. Sailed to Portugal in 1950 to study at Lisbon University. Before completing his studies he was arrested for his political activities in 1954 and spent two years in solitary confinement. He continued his academic work in prison so that he was ready to sit his examinations when he was released in 1959—and obtained a first-class degree in economics.
In 1959 at Lisbon he had his first meeting with Amilcar Cabral who urged him to join the liberation movement. But as he was still in trouble with the police he could not leave the country. In July 1962 he joined the Angolan leader Agostinho Neto in an escape by boat to Morocco and then reached the headquarters of the PAIGC at Conakry and reported for duty.
On February 17, 1964, when a PAIGC conference in the Guinea bush reorganised the party structure with an executive committee of seven he was given charge of economic planning. In 1967 at a further reorganisation his executive committee mandate was extended to a commission for national reconstruction. Often he was the party’s delegate to international meetings. In February 1971 he addressed a ministerial session of the Economic Commission for Africa at Tunis and then went on to Kuwait to take part in a seminar on Palestine. As a member of the War Council of eight he has had an influential role in planning the struggle for liberation.
Economist of the revolutionary movement and one of its leading intellectuals. Trained—in between prison sentences— at Lisbon University and internationally recognised as an outstanding economic analyst at seminars. One of his main responsibilities was drawing up the social and economic programmes for the liberated areas—he even writes the textbooks for schools. An intense speaker with piercing eyes behind hornrimmed spectacles, he has an impressive persuasive style at conferences.