Luís Cabral was born in the city of Bissau, Portuguese Guinea, on April 11, 1931, to mestiço (mixed-race) parents originally from the Cape Verde.

Following the Carnation Revolution in April 1974 in Lisbon, the new left-wing revolutionary government of Portugal granted independence to Portuguese Guinea, as Guinea-Bissau, on September 10 that same year.

The PAIGC had unilaterally proclaimed the country's independence one year before in the village of Madina do Boé, and this event had been recognized by many socialist and non-aligned member states of the United Nations.

A program of national reconstruction and development, of socialist inspiration (with the support of USSR, China, but also Nordic countries), began.

Alleging this, Cabral's Prime Minister and former armed forces commander João Bernardo Vieira organized his overthrow on November 14, 1980, in a military coup.

Shortly after being appointed Prime Minister following the Guinea-Bissau Civil War, Francisco Fadul called for Cabral's return from exile in December 1998.

[9] On October 22, 1999, following Vieira's ouster, coup leader Ansumane Mane invited Cabral to return, giving him a passport marking him as "President of the Guinea Bissau Council of State" while in Lisbon.