Guinea-Bissau culture

Guinea-Bissau culture people food and festivals 

History of Guinea-Bissau

Guinea-Bissau was carved from Portuguese-occupied West Africa in 1886, after an agreement between colonial powers to fix boundaries in the region. The Portuguese had been present since the mid-15th century and had established a substantial slave trade.

The territory was administered jointly with Cape Verde until 1879, after which it was treated as a separate entity and known as Portuguese Guinea until independence. Guinea-Bissau suffered a protracted war of independence (1963-1974), led on the rebel side by Amilcar Cabral, a highly respected figure inside the country, who was supported by Cuba.

In 1974 a military coup in Portugal, itself partly the result of heavy losses sustained by the army in Guinea-Bissau, brought about a sudden withdrawal of the colonial authorities.

The newly independent country functioned as a one-party state for the next 25 years with Joao Vieira, leader of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), at the helm.

Guinea-Bissau Culture

Religion: 

Mainly animist and Muslim. There is a small minority of Roman Catholics and other Christians.

Social conventions: 

Casual wear is widely accepted. Social customs should be respected, particularly in Muslim areas. Petty thievery and pickpocketing are increasingly common, particularly at the airport, in markets and at public gatherings. Homosexuality is illegal.

Food and Economy

Food in Daily Life.Rice is a staple among the coastal peoples. It is also a prestige food, and so the country imports it to feed the urban population. Millet is a staple crop in the interior. Both are supplemented with a variety of locally produced sauces that combine palm oil or peanuts, tomatoes, and onions with fish.

Food Customs at Ceremonial Occasions.Most people participate in elaborate life cycle ceremonies in which family and community celebrates events such as birth, circumcision, marriage, and death. Most of these events, especially funerals, entail the sacrifice of livestock for consumption and ritual offering and the consumption of large quantities of palm wine or rum.

Basic Economy.The economy depends heavily on foreign aid to support the governmental bureaucracy, teachers and health workers, and the oversized military. The economy is basically agricultural; the vast majority of residents live off what they and their neighbors grow. Villagers depend on funds from emigrant workers. Urban government workers at all but the highest levels depend on their village kin for food. The West African franc (C.F.A.) is the currency used.

Marriage, Family, and Kinship

Marriage.Rural Mandinga and Fula and the peoples of the coastal ethnic groups continue to practice arranged marriage in which a brideprice or groom service is given. However, young people can make matches on their own. Interethnic marriage rates are low but increasing. Men marry later than do women. Polygamy is accepted. Widows often remarry the husband's brother, thereby remaining in the same domestic household group.

Domestic Unit.In the villages, the domestic unit is a large kinship group with common rights to agricultural property and obligations to work for one another.

Inheritance.Land passes from fathers to sons or from older brothers to younger brothers. Among the Manjaco and Papel, rice fields owned by domestic groups are inherited by a sister's sons, who act as caretaker-managers, dividing use rights to portions of the fields.

Kin Groups.All the ethnic groups are organized in fairly large kin groups known as clans or lineages. Most kin groups tend to be patrilineal and patrilocal, although there are also large categories of matrilineal kin who share rights to land and to local religious and political offices