Titina Silla
This name uses Portuguese naming customs. The first or paternal family name is Ernestina and the second or paternal family name is Silá.
Titina Ernestina Silá, was a Guinea-Bissauan member of the PAIGC. 30 January, the day of her death, is celebrated as National Women's Day in Guinea Bissau.Guerrilla war
She is famed in Guinea Bissauan history as a martyr of the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence against Portugal, led by the PAIGC. Very young, Titina Silla joined the guerrilla war led by the charismatic Amílcar 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 encounter with the Portuguese military while crossing the Farim River with a group of other guerrillas. She was on her way to the funeral of Amílcar Cabral, the leader of PAIGC guerrillas, who was assassinated days earlier in Conakry. After the events of the Carnation Revolution in Lisbon and the independence of Portuguese Guinea as República da Guiné-Bissau in 1974, a monument was erected in her honor near the river Farim where she died and the date is marked as National Women's Day in Guinea Bissau. Numerous places and institutions in Guinea-Bissau are named for Silá, including Praça Titina Silá in Bissau. Along with Cabral and Domingos Ramos, she is remembered as the most famous figures of the independence struggle.
