Heroes' Day in Cape Verde

Heroes' Day is a public holiday in Cape Verde on January 20. It commemorates the 1973 assassination of Amilcar Cabral, who is remembered as a hero for fighting Western colonialism and exploitation.

Amílcar Lopes da Costa Cabral (12 September 1924 – 20 January 1973) was a Bissau-Guinean and Cape Verdean agricultural engineer, pan-Africanist, intellectual, poet, theoretician, revolutionary, political organizer, nationalist and diplomat. He was one of Africa's foremost anti-colonial leaders.

Also known by the nom de guerre Abel Djassi, Cabral led the nationalist movement of Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde Islands and the ensuing war of independence in Guinea-Bissau. He was assassinated on 20 January 1973, about eight months before Guinea-Bissau's unilateral declaration of independence. He was deeply influenced by Marxism, and became an inspiration to revolutionary socialists and national independence movements worldwide.