Pre-European contact The ancient history of what is now Guinea-Bissau is poorly understood by historians. The earliest inhabitants were the
Jola,
Papel,
Manjak,
Balanta, and
Biafada peoples. Later the
Mandinka and
Fulani migrated into the region in the 13th and 15th centuries respectively. They pushed the earlier inhabitants towards the coast and onto the
Bijagos islands. The Balanta and Jola had weak or non-existent institutions of kingship but emphasised decentralization, with power invested in heads of villages and families. Relations between the kingdom and the Portuguese colonisers were initially warm, but deteriorated over time.
Biafada kingdoms The
Biafada people inhabited the area around the
Rio Grande de Buba in three kingdoms:
Biguba,
Guinala, and Bissege.
Bijagos Islands In the
Bijagos Islands, people of different ethnic origins tended to settle in separate settlements. Great cultural diversity developed in the archipelago. Mali declined gradually, beginning in the 14th century. By the early 16th century, the expanding power of
Koli Tenguella cut off formerly secure Mali. Kaabu became an independent federation of kingdoms. The ruling classes were composed of elite warriors known as the
Nyancho (Ñaanco) who traced their patrilineal lineage to Tiramakhan Traore. The Nyancho were a
warrior culture, reputed to be excellent cavalry men and raiders. The Kaabu Mansaba was seated in
Kansala, in what is today the
Gabú region. The slave trade dominated the economy, and the warrior classes grew rich with imported cloth, beads, metalware, and firearms. Although the Portuguese authorities initially discouraged European settlement on the mainland, this prohibition was ignored by
lançados and
tangomãos, who largely assimilated into indigenous culture and customs.
Slave trade Guinea-Bissau was among the first regions whose people engaged in the
Atlantic slave trade. For centuries its warriors had sent captives as slaves to North Africa. While it did not produce the same number of enslaved people to export to the Americas as other regions, the effects were still significant. In Cape Verde, Guinean slaves were instrumental in developing the labor-intensive
plantation economy: they cultivated and processed, growing
indigo and
cotton, and also wove the panos cloth that became a standard currency in West Africa. After Cabral's death, party leadership fell to
Aristides Pereira, who would later become the first president of the
Republic of Cape Verde.
Independence (1973–2000) forces raise the
flag of Guinea-Bissau in 1974. Independence was unilaterally declared on 24 September 1973, which is now celebrated as the country's Independence Day, a
public holiday. The country was formally recognized as independent on 10 September 1974.
Nicolae Ceaușescu's
Romania was the first country to formally recognise Guinea-Bissau and the first to sign agreements with the
African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde. Upon the nation's independence, it declared "
Esta É a Nossa Pátria Amada" as its national anthem. Until 1996, this was shared with
Cape Verde, which later adopted its own official national anthem "
Cântico da Liberdade".
Luís Cabral, brother of Amílcar and co-founder of PAIGC, was appointed the first
president of Guinea-Bissau. The country was controlled by the military council until 1984. The first multi-party
elections were held in 1994. An army uprising in May 1998 led to the
Guinea-Bissau Civil War and the president's ousting in June 1999. Elections were held again in 2000, and
Kumba Ialá was elected president.
21st century In September 2003, a
military coup occurred. The military arrested Ialá on the charge of being "unable to solve the problems". After being delayed several times,
legislative elections were held in March 2004. A mutiny in October 2004 over pay arrears resulted in the death of the head of the armed forces. In June 2005,
presidential elections were held for the first time since the coup that deposed Ialá. Ialá returned as the candidate for the PRS, claiming to be the legitimate president of the country, but the election was won by former president
João Bernardo Vieira, deposed in the 1999 coup. Vieira beat
Malam Bacai Sanhá in a run-off election. Sanhá initially refused to concede, claiming that
tampering and electoral fraud occurred in two
constituencies including the capital, Bissau.
Foreign monitors described the elections as "calm and organized", despite some reports of arms entering the country prior to the election and few "disturbances during campaigning", including attacks on government offices by unidentified gunmen. Three years later, Sanhá's PAIGC won a strong parliamentary majority, with 67 of 100 seats, in the parliamentary election held in November 2008. In November 2008, President Vieira's official residence was attacked by members of the armed forces, killing a guard but leaving the president unharmed. On 2 March 2009, however, Vieira was assassinated by what preliminary reports indicated to be a group of soldiers avenging the death of the head of joint chiefs of staff, General
Batista Tagme Na Wai, who had been killed in an explosion the day before. Vieira's death did not trigger widespread violence, but there were signs of turmoil in the country, according to the
advocacy group Swisspeace. Military leaders in the country pledged to respect the constitutional order of succession. National Assembly Speaker
Raimundo Pereira was appointed as an interim president until a nationwide
election on 28 June 2009. It was won by Malam Bacai Sanhá, against
Kumba Ialá as the presidential candidate of the PRS. On 9 January 2012, President Sanhá died, and Pereira was again appointed as an interim president. On the evening of 12 April 2012, members of the country's military staged
a coup d'état and arrested Pereira and a leading presidential candidate. Former vice chief of staff, General
Mamadu Ture Kuruma, assumed control of the country in the transitional period and started negotiations with opposition parties. The
2014 general election saw
José Mário Vaz elected President of Guinea-Bissau. Vaz became the first elected president to complete his five-year mandate. In the
2019 presidential elections, Vaz was eliminated in the first round, and
Umaro Sissoco Embaló was elected president. Embaló, the first president to be elected without the backing of the PAIGC, took office in February 2020. On 1 February 2022, there was
an attempted coup d'état against Embaló. On 2 February 2022, state radio announced that four assailants and two members of the presidential guard had been killed in the incident. The
African Union and
ECOWAS both condemned the coup. Six days after the attempted coup d'état, on 7 February 2022, there was an attack on the building of Rádio Capital FM, a radio station critical of the Bissau-Guinean government; this was the second time the radio station suffered an attack of this nature in less than two years. On 11 September 2024, Embaló announced that he would not seek a second term in the upcoming presidential elections scheduled for November 2025. On 3 March 2025, Embaló said that he would run for a second term in November, contrary to his earlier vows to step down. On 26 November 2025,
soldiers announced on state television that they
had seized power, three days after the
2025 general election. The military imposed a
curfew, closed national borders, and suspended media outlets; Embaló and opposition leader
Domingos Simões Pereira were arrested. ==Politics==