 Though his father wanted him to work on the land, he attended a Fransiscan primary school for 'indigenous' students and encountered teachers active in the national liberation movement.In the 1960s he joined the guerillas to work as a medical assistant.In 1967, Amílcar Cabral sent him – together with José Bolama Cubumba, Josefina Lopes Crato and Flora Gomes – to study filmmaking at the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos in Cuba.