Guinea-Bissau is a small country on the Atlantic coast of West Africa, a low, watery land of mangrove creeks, rivers, and the scattered Bijagos Islands. Once a Portuguese colony, it was the site of one of Africa's most effective wars of liberation, led by a celebrated revolutionary thinker. Since independence, however, it has been troubled by chronic political instability and coups, and in recent times by its use as a transit point in the international drug trade, leaving one of the poorest countries in the world.
The region lay within the orbit of the great medieval Mali Empire and was reached by Portuguese traders in the fifteenth century, becoming a centre of the slave trade and then the colony of Portuguese Guinea. In the 1960s and 70s it became the scene of a remarkably successful armed liberation struggle, led by the revolutionary Amilcar Cabral and his party, which won effective control of much of the countryside before independence was achieved in 1974, helping to bring down Portugal's own dictatorship.
Guinea-Bissau is a small, low-lying country of tropical coast and interior savanna. Its Atlantic coastline is deeply indented with rivers, estuaries, and mangrove swamps, fringed by the Bijagos Archipelago, a scatter of low islands of great ecological richness. Inland the land rises gently to wooded savanna toward the eastern borders. The hot, humid climate and the maze of waterways have shaped settlement and farming, and the islands and coast are noted for their wildlife, including rare saltwater hippos.
The flag of Guinea-Bissau has a vertical red band at the hoist bearing a black five-pointed star, and two horizontal bands of yellow over green. These are the pan-African colours: the red represents the blood shed in the struggle for independence, the yellow the sun and the country's harvests, and the green its land and hope, while the black star stands for African unity and freedom. The design reflects the liberation movement and the colours of the wider African independence era.
Guinea-Bissau is religiously diverse, with a large share of the population following traditional African religions, especially in the interior, alongside a Muslim majority or plurality, particularly among the Fula and Mandinka peoples, and a Christian minority, mostly Catholic, a legacy of Portuguese rule and concentrated on the coast. These faiths often coexist and blend, with traditional beliefs and practices remaining influential across communities, even among those who also identify as Muslim or Christian.
The cuisine of Guinea-Bissau is West African, based on rice, which is the staple of most meals and grown in the coastal paddies, served with rich, often spicy sauces. These sauces are made with palm oil, leaves, peanuts, or okra and include fish, abundant from the rivers and the sea, or meat. Jollof rice and other dishes shared with the region are common. The food draws on the produce of the coast and forests, with a Portuguese influence in some dishes.
Agriculture is the foundation of Guinea-Bissau's economy and the livelihood of most of its people. The dominant crop is the cashew nut, of which the country is one of the world's significant producers, and which provides the bulk of its export earnings, leaving the economy heavily dependent on a single commodity. Rice is the main food crop, grown in the coastal wetlands, along with other staples. Fishing in the rich coastal waters is important, though much of its potential remains undeveloped.
The effective liberation struggle led by Amilcar Cabral, a thinker admired across Africa, and independence in 1974 are the proudest chapters of the country's history, though Cabral himself was assassinated shortly before victory. Since independence, however, Guinea-Bissau has been plagued by political instability, with repeated coups and assassinations making it one of the most coup-prone nations in the world, and in recent years it has become notorious as a transit hub for cocaine bound for Europe.
Guinea-Bissau has a population of around 2 million people, made up of many ethnic groups, the largest including the Balanta, Fula, and Mandinka, speaking a range of languages, with Portuguese the official tongue and a Portuguese-based creole serving as a common language. The population is young and largely rural, concentrated on the coast and along the rivers, with the capital, Bissau, on the coast. Despite its natural resources, the country remains among the poorest and least stable in the world.
