Portuguese Guinea - Early Developments
Portuguese Guinea, located on the west coast of Africa between Senegal and Guinea, was an overseas territory of Portugal. It had an area of about 14,000 square miles and had an estimated population of 544,000 in l963. The colony had a population variously estimated in 1910 at from 200,000 to 800,000. The Portuguese colony in West Africa, extending along the Guinea coast from Cape Roxo in 12°19' N. to the Cogon estuary in 10°50' N. Inland it reached to 130°40' W, being enclosed landward by French territory, the Casamance district of Senegal to the North and French Guinea East and South. It consists largely of a low-lying deltaic region, together with an adjacent archipelago of small islands called the Bissagos.
Bulama Island was discovered by the Portuguese mariner Nuno Tristao in 1446, but was not formally claimed by Portugal until 1752, about which time she founded a station at Bissao, while in 1669 a post had been established on the Rio Grande. Although Cape Verde islanders were granted trading rights in the territory in 1462, few prominent trading posts appear to have been in existence before 1581. During the 17th and 18th centuries Cacheu, probably established in 1470, was the chief slave trading center of the region.
In the early days of Portuguese rule, relations between the settlers and the indigenous people revolved around the slave trade. After the slave trade declined in the early 19th century, Bissau, which had been founded as a fort in 1765, became the chief commercial center. In the 19th century the Portuguese, who had held only a few coastal trading posts and did not explore the interior, found themselves contesting territorial claims by France and the United Kingdom. The island of Bolama, which had been in dispute between the United Kingdom and Portugal for more than a century, was awarded to Portugal in 1870 by US President Ulysses S. Grant, who acted as arbitrator. France and Portugal settled their problems in 1886, and final demarcation of the territory's frontiers was achieved in 1905.
Between 1890 and 1910, when Portugal attempted to expand inland, there was a series of uprisings by the indigenous people. The inland limits of the Portuguese sphere were fixed by a convention concluded with France in 1886, and the frontier was delimited during 1900-1903. The country was finally pacified in 1912-15, following a series of campaigns led by Captain Teixeira Pinto. In 1941 the capital of the territory was moved from Bolama to Bissau.
Though so long settled in the district — the only part of the Guinea coast west of the Gabun left in her possession — Portugal had done little towards its development. With a fertile and well-watered soil, exceedingly rich in natural products, there was not much commerce, and such trade as existed, chiefly in non-Portuguese hands, was hampered by excessive customs duties and vexatious regulations. In 1905 the external trade of the colony was not more than £160,000 and was less than it had been twenty years previously. Ground-nuts, rubber, wax and ivory are the principal exports. Revenue and expenditure in 1910 were about £50,000 a year.
Portuguese authority did not in fact extend much beyond the few stations maintained, nor had the local government won the confidence of the natives. In 1908 Bissao and some European settlements on the mainland were besieged by the Papel and other tribes and troops had to be sent from Portugal before order could be restored. If however agriculture and commerce suffered, the ethnologist and zoologist found in this easily accessible little enclave a rich field for investigation, the almost nominal sovereignty of Portugal having left the country, practically uninfluenced by European culture, in much the same condition that it was in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Portuguese Guinea was controlled by the Portuguese Ministry of Overseas Provinces and administered by a Governor General, who was appointed by the Portuguese Council of Ministers. The territory was nominally represented in the Portuguese National Assembly. The Governor General was assisted by a Government Council, equivalent to a Cabinet, and by a l5-member Legislative Council of which ll members were elected on the basis of limited suffrage.
The economy was predominantly agricultural. The principal ports of this colony were Bulama and Cacheo. Much of the trade is with the Cape de Verde Islands. Principal export products were peanuts and coconuts; other exports were timber, hides and skins, rice, and wax. Industrial activity was small scale and very limited in scope. Most of the industrial establishments are engaged in processing agricultural products or supplying building materials.
The principal indigenous groups were the Balanta, Fulani, Manjaco, Mandingo, and Papel. About 78 percent of the population were animists, l8 percent practice Islam, and 4 percent are Christians. Portuguese is the official language. Numerous African dialects were spoken. In l957-58, ll,l40 students were enrolled in l64 primary schools, and in l958-59, a secondary school had an enrollment of 240 students. In the same year, 2l technical schools were providing training for 860 students. The literacy rate was estimated to be about 5 percent.
The people of the interior were mostly Mandingo and Fula. The coast regions and the islands were inhabited by negro tribes which lived side by side without mixing, each preserving their own customs, dress, language and type. They exhibited great attachment to the soil and were profoundly religious, being noted specially for their respect for family life and ancestral worship. Neither Christianity nor Mahommedanism had made much headway among them by the outset of the 20th Century.
Going from south to north the chief tribes are the Nalu, who dwell by the Cassini and were keen traders and lovers of peace; the Biafare or Biaffade, who occupied the region between the sea and the Rio Grande and jealously guarded their country from strangers; the Bulam (Mankaie), living in the island of Bulama, and much given to adorning their bodies by long cuts formed into patterns; the Balanta, a piratical folk inhabiting the banks of the Geba; the Papel of the island of Bissao, formerly cannibals, an industrious agricultural tribe which furnished the majority of the educated Africans employed by the Portuguese; the Manjak or Mandiago, and a branch of the Felup peoples, these last living near the Rio Cacheo in savage isolation and much given to waylaying and pillaging strangers.
The Manjak inhabited the country between the Mancoa and the Cacheo, and the neighboring islands. They were a hospitable and clever people, very adaptable, did not object to leaving their tribal lands, and were said to keep their word. Excellent seamen, good artisans and sharp traders, they maintained a sort of feudal system. Their houses were surrounded by walls, which were pierced with loopholes and provided with towers at the angles. The rooms were built round a courtyard.
They examined the entrails of fowl to foretell good or evil events. The burial customs were elaborate. The body was smoked and, the skin having been removed, it is sewn up in a number of pagns (native cloths) and placed in a coffin fastened by gilded nails. Bright tissues were wrapped round the coffin, on which are hung little bells of copper and small brass mirrors.
The seaward islands of the Bissagos were inhabited by an independent and warlike tribe of fishers and pirates called Bidiogos. Their women wore a short skirt made of palm leaves.
The natives who adopted Portuguese names and who formed the bulk of the townsmen in the European settlements were called Gurmettes. They furnished the levies with which the authorities occasionally made war on the native tribes. The chief centres of trade were Bissao, on the island of the same name, which was surrounded by old fortifications; Cacheo, on the Rio Cacheo, also fortified; and Bulama (Boulam) on Bulama Island, the seat of the government. The European population as of 1900 consisted of a few Portuguese officials, soldiers, traders and convicts, and a few traders of other nationalities.
In l959, the number of wage and salary earners was estimated to be under l0,000, representing less than 2 percent of that year's estimated population of 550,000. Practically all of the Africans were in the unskilled category; a few hundred were classified as semiskilled. Most, if not all, of the responsible positions were occupied by whites, Lebanese, and other "civilized" Portuguese. The Indigena Law, which divided the population of Portuguese overseas territories into two categories, "civilized" and "noncivilized," was abolished in l96l. Most of the African population were engaged in agriculture, mainly on family-owned tracts, and were not in the money economy.
Two national trade union centers had formed outside Portuguese Guinea by workers from the territory: The General Union of Workers of Guinea Bissau-In Exile (Union Generale des Travailleurs de Guinee-Bissau--UGTG) with headquarters in Dakar, Senegal, and the General Confederation of Workers of Portuguese Guinea based in Conakry, Guinea. The UGTG, which was formed in l962, claimed l,82l members in l964. It was affiliated with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and its African Regional 0rganization (AFR0) since l964. It was also affiliated with the African Trade Union Confederation (ATUC).
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