Background
Carmen was born in 1937, daughter of a lawyer at a village near Bafata.
Carmen was born in 1937, daughter of a lawyer at a village near Bafata.
She was educated for four years at a local school then sent to work as a dressmaker in preparation for her marriage at the age of 19.
On her return from a visit to Bolama, 70 miles south of Bafata, in 1962 there was a wave of arrests of “agitators”. Her husband feared he would be on the next list of persons to be rounded up so he fled to join the PAIGC in Senegal. She followed his example a few weeks later, taking her children with her across the border. At a meeting with Amilcar Cabral she committed herself to work for the party. To earn money to provide for her children she took a job as a dressmaker at Ziguinchor. In December 1963 she placed her children in good hands and went to Moscow where she was trained as a nurse. After 10 months she returned to Conakry.
In 1965 she went back to the Soviet Union heading a party of student nurses mid staying a year. In 1966 she moved out of Conakry and crossed over into Guinea again to be a leading party Worker behind the guerrilla lines. Organising social and education services, she has helped develop the school programme which by October 1972 was claimed to be providing courses for 8,574 children and about 7,000 adults at 156 newly established village schools.
Russian-trained nurse, mother of two boys and a girl. Dedicated to the liberation movement ever since she heard about the campaign led by Amilcar Cabral on the radio in 1961. At 25 she fled from Guinea to Senegal and joined PAIGC. After her training in the Soviet Union she put her children in a home and returned to Guinea working in the forests and villages to organise social services for the liberation movement.