Guinea-Bissau was once part of the kingdom of Gabu, part of the Mali Empire;
parts of this kingdom persisted until the 18th century, while others were part
of the Portuguese Empire. Portuguese
Guinea was known also, from its main economic activity, as
the Slave Coast. Early reports of Europeans reaching this area
include those of the Venetian Alvise
Cadamosto's voyage of 1455, the
1479–1480 voyage by Flemish-French trader Eustache de la Fosse, and Diogo Cão who
in the 1480s reached the Congo River and the lands of Bakongo,
setting up thus the foundations of modern Angola, some
4200 km down the African coast from Guinea-Bissau. Although the rivers and coast of this area
were among the first places colonized by the Portuguese, since the 16th
century, the interior was not explored until the 19th century. The local
African rulers in Guinea, some of whom prospered greatly from the slave trade,
had no interest in allowing the Europeans any further inland than the fortified
coastal settlements where the trading took place. African communities that fought back against
slave traders had even greater incentives to distrust European adventurers and
would-be settlers. The Portuguese presence in Guinea was therefore largely
limited to the port of Bissau and Cacheu,
although isolated European farmer-settlers established farms along Bissau's
inland rivers. For a brief period in the
1790s, the British attempted to establish a rival foothold on an offshore
island, at Bolama. But by the 19th century the Portuguese were
sufficiently secure in Bissau to regard the neighboring coastline as their own
special territory, also up north in part of present South Senegal.
An armed rebellion beginning
in 1956 by the African Party
for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) under the
leadership of Amílcar Cabral gradually consolidated its
hold on the then Portuguese Guinea. Unlike guerrilla movements in other Portuguese
colonies, the PAIGC rapidly extended its military control over large
portions of the territory, aided by the jungle-like terrain, its easily reached
borderlines with neighboring allies, and large quantities of arms from Cuba, China, the Soviet Union,
and left-leaning African countries. Cuba
also agreed to supply artillery experts, doctors, and technicians. The PAIGC even managed to acquire a
significant anti-aircraft capability in order to defend itself against aerial
attack. By 1973, the PAIGC was in control of many parts of Guinea, although the
movement suffered a setback in January 1973 when Cabral was assassinated. Independence
was unilaterally declared on 24 September 1973. Recognition became universal
following the 25 April 1974 socialist-inspired military coup in Portugal which
overthrew Lisbon's Estado Novo regime. Luís Cabral,
brother of Amílcar and co-founder of PAIGC, was appointed the first President of Guinea-Bissau. Following
independence local Guinean soldiers that fought along with the Portuguese
Army against the PAIGC guerrillas were slaughtered by the
thousands. Some managed to escape and settled in Portugal or other African
nations. One of the massacres occurred
in the town of Bissorã. In 1980 the PAIGC admitted in its newspaper "Nó
Pintcha" (dated 29 November 1980) that many were executed and buried in
unmarked collective graves in the woods of Cumerá, Portogole, and Mansabá. The country was controlled by a revolutionary council
until 1984. The first multi-party elections were held in 1994, but an army
uprising in May 1998 led to the Guinea-Bissau Civil War and the
president's ousting in June 1999. Elections
were held again in 2000, and Kumba Ialá was
elected president. In September 2003, a
coup took place in which the military arrested Ialá on the charge of being
"unable to solve the problems".
After being delayed several times, legislative elections were
held in March 2004. A mutiny of military factions in October 2004 resulted in
the death of the head of the armed forces and caused widespread unrest.
In June 2005, presidential elections were held for the
first time since the coup that deposed Ialá. Ialá returned as the candidate for
the PRS, claiming to be the legitimate president of the country, but the
election was won by former president João Bernardo Vieira, deposed in the 1999
coup. Vieira beat Malam Bacai Sanhá in a runoff election,
but Sanhá initially refused to concede, claiming that tampering occurred
in two constituencies including the capital,
Bissau. Despite reports that there had
been an influx of arms in the weeks leading up to the election and reports of
some "disturbances during campaigning"—including attacks on
government offices by unidentified gunmen—foreign election monitors labeled the election as
"calm and organized". PAIGC
won a strong parliamentary majority, with 67 of 100 seats, in the parliamentary
election held in November 2008. In
November 2008, President Vieira's official residence was attacked by members of
the armed forces, killing a guard but leaving the president unharmed. On 2 March 2009, however, Vieira was
assassinated by what preliminary reports indicated to be a group of soldiers
avenging the death of the head of Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Batista Tagme Na Wai. Tagme died in an
explosion on Sunday, 1 March 2009 in an assassination. Military leaders in the
country have pledged to respect the constitutional order of succession.
National Assembly Speaker Raimundo
Pereira was appointed as an interim president until a
nationwide election on 28 June
2009, which was won by Malam Bacai Sanhá. In 2012, President
Rachide Sambu-balde Malam Bacai Sanhá died.
Guinea-Bissau's GDP per
capita is one of the lowest in the world, and
its Human Development Index is one of
the lowest on earth. More than
two-thirds of the population lives below the poverty line. The economy depends mainly on agriculture;
fish, cashew nuts and ground nuts are
its major exports. A long period of political instability has resulted in
depressed economic activity, deteriorating social conditions, and increased
macroeconomic imbalances. It takes longer on average to register a new business
in Guinea-Bissau (233 days or about 33 weeks) than any other country in the
world except Suriname. [The Economist, Pocket World in Figures, 2008
Edition). Guinea-Bissau has started to
show some economic advances after a pact of stability was signed by the main
political parties of the country, leading to an IMF-backed structural
reform program. The key challenges for
the country in the period ahead would be to achieve fiscal discipline, rebuild
public administration, improve the economic climate for private investment, and
promote economic diversification. After becoming independent from Portugal in
1974 due to the Portuguese Colonial War and the Carnation Revolution, the exodus of the
Portuguese civilian, military, and political authorities brought tremendous
damage to the country's economic infrastructure, social order,
and standard of living. After several years of economic downturn and
political instability, in 1997, Guinea-Bissau entered the CFA franc monetary
system, bringing about some internal monetary stability. The civil war that took place in 1998 and
1999 and a military coup in September 2003 again disrupted economic activity,
leaving a substantial part of the economic and social infrastructure in ruins
and intensifying the already widespread poverty. Following the parliamentary
elections in March 2004 and presidential elections in July 2005, the country is
trying to recover from the long period of instability despite a still-fragile
political situation.
Beginning around 2005, drug traffickers based in Latin
America began to use Guinea-Bissau, along with several neighboring West African
nations, as a transshipment point to Europe for cocaine. The nation was described by a United Nations
official as being at risk for becoming a "narco-state".
The government and the military have done little to stop drug trafficking,
which has increased since the 2012 coup d'état.
Only 14% of the population speaks the official
language, Portuguese. 44% speak Kriol, a Portuguese-based creole language,
and the remainder speaks native African languages. Most Portuguese and Mestiços speak one of the
African languages and Kriol as second languages. French is learned in schools,
as the country is surrounded by French-speaking countries and is a full member
of the Francophonie. Throughout the 20th century, most Bissau-Guineans
practiced some form of Animism. Recently, many have adopted Islam, which is currently
practiced by 50% of the country's population; most of Guinea-Bissau's Muslims
have Sunni denomination.
Approximately 10% of the country's population belongs to the Christian
community, and 40% continue to hold Indigenous beliefs. These statistics can
be misleading, however, as both Islamic and Christian practices may be largely
influenced by syncretism with traditional African beliefs.
The WHO estimates that there are fewer
than 5 physicians per 100,000 persons in the country, down from 12 per
100,000 in 2007. The prevalence of
HIV-infection among the adult population is 1.8% with only 20% of
infected pregnant women receiving anti-retroviral coverage. Malaria is an even bigger killer; 9% of the population
has reported infection, and it is the specific mortality cause almost three
times as often as AIDS. In 2008, fewer
than half of children younger than five slept under antimalarial
nets or had access to antimalarial drugs. Life
expectancy at birth has climbed since 1990, but remains short:
the WHO's estimate of life expectancy for a
child born in 2008 was 49 years (and only 47 years for a boy). Despite lowering rates in surrounding
countries, cholera rates were reported in November 2012 to be on the rise, with
1,500 cases reported and nine deaths. A 2008 cholera epidemic in Guinea-Bissau
affected 14,222 people and killed 225. In
June 2011, the United Nations Population Fund released
a report on The State of the World's Midwifery.
It contained new data on the midwifery workforce and policies relating
to newborn and maternal mortality for 58 countries. The 2010 maternal mortality
rate per 100,000 births for Guinea Bissau is 1000. This is compared with 804.3
in 2008 and 966 in 1990. The less than 5 mortality rate, per 1,000 births is
195 and the neonatal mortality as a percentage of under 5's mortality is 24.
The aim of this report is to highlight ways in which the Millennium Development Goals can be
achieved, particularly Goal 4 – Reduce child mortality and Goal 5 – improve
maternal death. In Guinea Bissau the number of midwives per 1,000 live births
is 3; one out of eighteen pregnant
women die as a result of pregnancy.
Education is compulsory from the age of 7 to 13. The enrollment of boys is higher than that of
girls. Child labor is
very common. A significant minority of
the population are illiterate. On the
other side, Guinea-Bissau has several secondary schools (general as well as
technical) and a surprising number of universities, to which an
institutionally autonomous Faculty of Law as well as a Faculty of
Medicine have to be added. In 1998,
the gross primary enrollment rate was 53.5%, with higher enrollment ratio for
males (67.7%) compared to females (40%).
Since 2001, Guinea-Bissau has been recovering from the civil conflict of
1999, and later conflicts, which displaced one-third of the population,
destroyed many schools, and prevented most young children from attending school
for at least half a year.
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