Portuguese Guinea - Decolonization
Portuguese Guinea was the oldest and poorest of Portugal's African provinces. Agriculture was the principal economic activity. It was entirely an African activity; there were no European settlers. Rice was the staple food of the population. Swamp rice and upland rice amount to about 85,000 metric tons annually. An additional 15,000 tons must be imported each year. Maize, beans, cassava, and sweet potatoes also were raised by villagers.
Traditional exports were peanuts - approximately 50,000 tons annually in good years - grown in the interior and palm oil products. In 1969, peanuts and coconuts accounted for 60 percent and 30 percent respectively of the value of exports. Other export items included palm kernels, timber, hides, and skins. Cattle-breeding was an important activity among the Muslim tribes.
According to official US estimates, Portuguese Guinea had an estimated population of 489,000 in July 1972. The rate of growth was an unusually low 0.2 percent annually. The vast majority of the people were Africans, with the principal tribal groups-at least 17 have been identified-being the Balanta (30 percent), Fulani (20 percent), Mandyako (14 percent) Malinke (13 percent), and Papel (7 percent).
The mulatto community was important in the middle and lower ranks of government and commerce. Most of the 2,000 resident Europeans were Portuguese. There are a number of Lebanese traders as well. Guinea never attracted settlers because of its forbidding landscape and generally unpleasant climate.
The economy was completely dominated by metropolitan Portugal. Economic policies were formulated almost exclusively by Lisbon. Portugal and its overseas provinces had a centralized development plan, a common monetary and payments system, and a well-integrated credit system. Lisbon treated Portuguese Guinea as a captive market for Portuguese goods and by means of quotas assured that its own needs would be met by Portuguese Guinea's exports of agricultural products.
Economic development was made particularly difficult because of the lack of capital, skilled labor, technicians, and administrators, and the failure to find commercially exploitable natural resources. Wage earners were limited to a few thousand Portuguese, Cape Verdian, and Lebanese merchants, and civilian government employees. Trade has been in serious imbalance since the insurgency began in the early sixties: exports of peanuts and peanut by-products in 1967 were $3.2 million and imports, mostly manufactured goods, fuels, transport equipment, and rice, amounted to $16.4 million. Trade figures for 1969 showed exports continued at a low level ($3.6 million) while imports had grown substantially ($23.3 million).
Portuguese Guinea was governed by Lisbon through a highly centralized administration manned largely by metropolitan Portuguese and a sizable number of Cape Verdean mulattoes, whose educational level was much higher than that of local Africans. This structure employed broad police powers, strict press censorship, and tight curbs on most political activity. Antonio de Spinola, the governor who assumed his post in 1968 tried to give the black African majority a greater voice in running their own affairs and had shown greater interest in developing the province's weak economic base.
The Spinola administration made improvement of the province's limited road network a major objective. Using engineers from the metropole and local labor, the Portuguese have pushed ahead with roadbuilding as part of the countersubversion program. In addition, the new roads are intended to facilitate trade.
Portuguese Guinea was considered by Lisbon to be an integral part of Portugal, and it is represented currently by one seat in the 130-seat National Assembly in Lisbon. The governmental system, like that in the metropole, was based on the corporate state. Control over Portuguese Guinean affairs continued to be exercised by the Overseas Ministry in Lisbon, despite constitutional changes in August 1971 which provided for more local autonomy in the overseas provinces.
Executive power was vested in the Office of the Governor, who was appointed by the Council of Ministers and exercises executive and legislative authority under the guidance of the overseas minister. In recent years, largely due to the poor security situation in the province, the governorship was filled by a general grade military officer who also functioned as the commander in chief of Portuguese forces in the territory. The governor served a four-year term and exerted a great deal of authority over all aspects of provincial affairs. The governor was assisted in his executive duties by an advisory commission (junta consultiva). It consists of the governor, its presiding officer, the provincial secretary-general, the attorney general, the treasurer, and three members chosen by the provincial legislature, one of whom must represent the parishes (rural administrative units). In his legislative capacity the governor was advised by a 14-member Legislative Assembly made up of 11 elected members and three government officers serving ex officio. Three of the elected members were determined by direct popular vote, and eight were chosen by various interest groups (e.g., labor, employers, large taxpayers). The three ex officio members were the provincial secretary-general, the attorney general, and the treasurer.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
