Guinea-bissauan

Copious amounts of palm oil, tomatoes, chili, fish, and goat’s meat are considered traditional staples in Guinea-Bissauan cooking.

These events and the silences and taboos surrounding them helped create the conditions for the longevity of the ‘linha de Cabral’ or ‘Cabral’s programme’ as a key reference of the erstwhile liberation movement and Guinea-Bissauan politics in general until the late 1990s.

Cabral and Pereira looked to unify both nations until Cabral’s prime minister, the former commander of the Guinea-Bissauan armed forces, João Bernardo Vieira, led a military coup against Cabral in 1980 on the grounds that Cabral’s Cape Verdean origins (like his brother, Amílcar, he was born in Bissau to Cape Verdean mixed-race parents) compromised his dedication to the Guinea-Bissauan people.

A noticeable proportion of Guinea-Bissauans are mixed race Crioulo-speakers; mostly Cape Verdean, but also descendants of the small number of settlers and traders who came direct from Portugal.

Hoyt said, ‘When you look at me, I don’t want you to see a Guinea-Bissauan. My passport is a detail. It helped me through a personal crisis. Do me the courtesy of seeing me as I really am, a colleague and a fellow human being.’

In other words, the cocaine trade may be seen to provide a possibility for migration when in Bissau, just as selling cocaine may provide one of the few ways that Guinea-Bissauans can gain an income once they arrive in Europe, yet in doing so it makes both migration from Bissau and life in Europe increasingly difficult, as Guinea-Bissauans are increasingly policed and met with suspicion.