Manuel Augusto da Costa
(São Martinho da Anta, Sabrosa, Vila Real, 21.05.1887 — Tarrafal, Santiago, Cape Verde, 03.06.1945)
Manuel Augusto da Costa, son of Maria Costa and unknown father, was born in 1887 in Sabrosa, Trás-os-Montes. Known as “Manuel da Horta” or “Manuel da Amora”, he resided in Amora, Municipality of Seixal, and was a bricklayer’s mate in the Gunpowder Factory, also having worked as an assistant in the glass industry. He was a representative of the Amora Glass Union in the Workers’ Congress of 1919 and, in 1920, he went on mission to Marinha Grande.
An anarchist and libertarian militant, he participated, in Almada, in the preparations for the 18 January 1934 movement, filling three hundred bombs to be used during the revolutionary general strike. Due to his participation on January 18, he was arrested on the 30th. He was carrying a gun and twenty bullets at the time and was injured during the arrest.
In March 1934, he was sentenced by the Special Military Court to 14 years of exile in the colonies, with imprisonment, staying at the disposal of the government. In September 1934, he was deported to the Fortress of Angra do Heroísmo, in the Azores, and on 23 October 1936, he was part of the first group sent to the new Concentration Camp of Tarrafal, in Cape Verde, where Manuel Augusto Costa integrated the Prison Libertarian Organisation of Tarrafal (OLPT).
On 3 June 1945, at the age of 58, weakened and suffering from diabetes, he died, only a few days after serving 30 days in the “frying pan”, a punishment applied due to the content of a letter he wrote to his son.
