Titina Silá

Image of the Titina Silá ( Silla ) in the Bissau Military Museum ( Museu Militar da Luta de Libertação Nacional ), housed in the Fortaleza de São José de Amura

Grave for Titina Silá at the monument to the heroines and heroes in Bissau

Ernestina Silá , better known as Titina Silá or Titina Silla (* 1943 in Cadique Betna, Tombali region , Portuguese Guinea ; † January 30, 1973 on the Farim / Cacheu River in the Oio region , Portuguese Guinea) was a Guinea-Bissau native Resistance fighter of the PAIGC . The day of Silá's death, January 30th, is celebrated to this day as the “National Day of the Guinea-Bissau Woman” ( Dia Nacional da Mulher guineense ).

Life

Silá was born in 1943 in Cadique Betna in the southern Tombali region of the Portuguese colony of Guinea-Bissau. At a young age (around 1962) Silá left her home village to join the Guinea-Bissau liberation movement PAIGC . The party sent Silá to northern Guinea-Bissau to work for the health of the remaining population. In 1963 Silá visited the Soviet Union for a short time in order to complete a “political internship” there with fellow campaigner Teodora Gomes. In 1964 she had another stay in Kiev in the Soviet Union to train as a nurse. According to the history of the PAIGC, Silá rose quickly within the party and gained wide notoriety. Among other things, she took over the tasks of political commissioner in the northern area around Sará-Candjambari and was a member of the "Supreme Combat Council" of the PAIGC ( Comité Superior da Luta ) from 1970 .

In addition to her political commitment, Silá was also privately in a relationship with a high-ranking PAIGC member, Manuel N'Digna. Both had two children, one of whom died in 1972.

After the murder of the PAIGC chairman Amílcar Cabrals on January 20, 1973 in the Guinean capital Conakry , Silá went to the funeral service in Conakry together with other supporters from northern Guinea-Bissau. On the way there she was killed by Portuguese soldiers on January 30, 1973 in Farim at the crossing of the river Cacheu .

To this day Titina Silá is revered as a martyr of the Guinea-Bissau liberation struggle. After Guinea-Bissau gained independence, her remains were transferred to the military museum in the capital, Bissau . A memorial was also erected in her honor in Farim on the Cacheu River and her death has been celebrated since independence as the “National Day of the Guinea-Bissau Woman” ( Dia Nacional da Mulher guineense ).

literature

Stephanie Urdang: Fighting Two Colonialisms: The Women's Struggle in Guinea-Bissau . In: African Studies Review . tape 18 , no. 3 , 1975, p. 29-34 , doi : 10.2307 / 523719 , JSTOR : 523719 .

Web links

Commons : Titina Silá - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Guiné-Bissau presta homenagem a Titina Silá. In: Expresso.pt. January 30, 2007, accessed October 2, 2016 (Portuguese).
↑ ^a ^b ^c Sila, Ernestina (1943–1973) . In: Peter Karibe Mendy, Richard A. Lobban, Jr. (Eds.): Historical dictionary of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau . 4th edition. Scarecrow Press, Lanham 2013, ISBN 978-0-8108-8027-6 , pp. 375 f .

personal data
SURNAME	Silá, Titina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Silá, Ernestina (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Guinea-Bissau resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH	1943
PLACE OF BIRTH	Cadique Betna, Tombali Region, Portuguese Guinea
DATE OF DEATH	January 30, 1973
Place of death	on the Farim / Cacheu River, Regio Oio, Portuguese Guinea

[Expresso-1] Guiné-Bissau presta homenagem a Titina Silá. In: Expresso.pt. January 30, 2007, accessed October 2, 2016 (Portuguese).

[:0-2] Sila, Ernestina (1943–1973) . In: Peter Karibe Mendy, Richard A. Lobban, Jr. (Eds.): Historical dictionary of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau . 4th edition. Scarecrow Press, Lanham 2013, ISBN 978-0-8108-8027-6 , pp. 375 f .