Map:
Flag description: two equal horizontal bands of yellow (top)
and green with a vertical red band on the hoist side; there is a black
five-pointed star centered in the red band; uses the popular pan-African
colors of Ethiopia
Location: Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean,
between Guinea and Senegal
Geographic coordinates: 12 00 N, 15 00 W
Climate: tropical; generally hot and humid; monsoonal-type rainy
season (June to November) with southwesterly winds; dry season (December
to May) with northeasterly harmattan winds
Independence: 24 September 1973 (unilaterally declared by Guinea-Bissau);
10 September 1974 (recognized by Portugal)
Nationality: Guinean (s)
Capital City: Bissau
Population: 1,285,715 (July 2000 est.)
Head of State: President Koumba YALLA (since 18 February 2000)
Area: 36,120 sq km
Type of Government: republic, multiparty since mid-1991
Currency: 1 Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (CFAF) = 100
centimes
Major peoples: African 99% (Balanta 30%, Fula 20%, Manjaca 14%,
Mandinga 13%, Papel 7%), European and mulatto less than 1%
Religion: indigenous beliefs 50%, Muslim 45%, Christian 5%
Official Language: Portuguese
Principal Languages: Portuguese, Crioulo, African languages
Major Exports: cashew nuts 70%, shrimp, peanuts, palm kernels,
sawn lumber (1996)
History: The Portuguese first landed in Guinea-Bissau in 1446
and established trading posts there. The area centered on the town
of Cacheu was a major center of the slave trade in the 17th century.
For a time, Guinea-Bissau was part of a larger Portuguese domain to the
north and south. The area of Portuguese control was reduced by British
and French incursions in the late 19th century. Until 1879, Guinea-Bissau
was controlled from headquarters in Cape Verde, 900 km (560 mi) away in
the Atlantic Ocean. Cape Verdians, composed of mulattoes and returned
slaves, were often agents of Portuguese rule. The Portuguese did
not try to control and subjugate the interior of Guinea-Bissau until the
late 19th century and they were unsuccessful in doing so until 1915.
Portuguese colonial rule provided little in terms of education and development
for the inhabitants.
Amilcar Cabral, a Cape Verdian, organized the African Party for the
Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC, from its Portuguese name)
in 1956. An armed struggle against Portuguese rule was launched in
1962. The conflict, which involved 40,000 Portuguese soldiers, exhausted
the Portuguese. It also disrupted Guinea-Bissau society--two thirds
of the cultivated land was abandoned. The PAIGC formed a government
and issued a unilateral declaration of independence on Sept. 24, 1973,
before the fighting ended. Cabral was assassinated in 1973 and his
brother, Luis de Almeida Cabral, became the country's first president.
After a 1974 revolution in Portugal, a new government there recognized
the independence of Guinea-Bissau as of Sept. 10, 1974.
The PAIGC has an elaborate party organization similar to those of revolutionary
one-party systems, with a governing central committee and political bureau.
There has been substantial political instability within the PAIGC since
independence. In 1980 the the prime minister, Gen. Joao Bernardo
Vieira, overthrew Luis Cabral, alleging Cape Verdian domination of the
government. Diplomatic relations with Cape Verde were suspended until
1982, and previous plans to unite the two countries were abandoned.
In 1984, under a new constitution that increased the powers of the president,
the ruling Council of the Revolution was replaced by an indirectly elected
National People's Assembly, which elected the president.
An economic
crisis and alleged discrimination against the Balente sparked a major coup
attempt in July 1986, after which Vieira managed to persuade PAIGC militants
of the need to abandon unsuccessful socialist economic policies and allow
market-based reforms.
In April 1990 the Bafata Resistance Movement, one of several opposition
groups in exile in Portugal, demanded an end to the one-party system and
other reforms. Despite strong initial PAIGC resistance, Vieira bowed
to pressures from international aid donors and the wave of political change
sweeping Africa in the early 1990s. Legislation passed in 1991 legalized
political parties, independent unions, and a free press. Once legalized,
opposition parties pressured a reluctant Guinea-Bissau leadership until
it rescheduled the nation's first multiparty elections, originally promised
for 1994.