Guinea-Bissau War of Independence

Portuguese colonialism Portuguese Guinea (as well as the nearby Portuguese Cape Verde archipelago) had been claimed as a Portuguese territory since 1446 and was a major trading post for commodities and African slaves during the 18th century. However, the mainland was not fully "pacified" until the late 1930s, by which time the Portuguese regime of António de Oliveira Salazar was preoccupied with the development of its Angolan and Mozambican colonies. From the outset, its main objectives were the unity of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde and their independence from Portuguese rule. The massacre led PAIGC to rethink its policies: in the aftermath, it reiterated its commitment to national liberation, but with a new emphasis on the political mobilisation of the rural peasantry. Cabral ordered the party to go underground and its political cadres to organise in exile in Conakry, the capital of the newly independent Republic of Guinea on the southern border of Portuguese Guinea. Between 1960 and 1963, PAIGC was "totally transformed" as it prepared for armed struggle against the Portuguese regime. Scores of cadres were trained in Conakry and sent to the Guinean countryside to mobilise the population, while the political leadership launched a diplomatic offensive that secured the full cooperation of the government in Conakry, the "tacit support" of the Senegalese government, and contacts with several other liberation movements and left-wing political parties. On April 18, 1961 PAIGC together with FRELIMO of Mozambique, MPLA of Angola and MLSTP of São Tomé and Príncipe formed the Conference of Nationalist Organizations of the Portuguese Colonies (CONCP) during a conference in Morocco. The main goal of the organization was cooperation among the different national liberation movements in the Portuguese Empire. Also in 1961 PAIGC commenced sabotage operations in Guinea-Bissau. At the start of hostilities the Portuguese had only two infantry companies in Guinea Bissau and these concentrated in the main towns, giving the insurgents free rein in the countryside. The PAIGC blew up bridges, cut telegraph lines, destroyed sections of the highways, established arms caches and hideouts, and destroyed Fula villages and minor administrative posts. In late 1962 the Portuguese launched an offensive and evicted the PAIGC cadres that had not integrated with the local population. Open hostilities broke out in January 1963. == Belligerents and forces ==

Liberation/PAIGC forces Guinea-Bissau's liberation movement was led and dominated by PAIGC, which was led by Cabral until his assassination in January 1973. By the early 1970s, PAIGC had the support of a majority of the Guinean population, but its combat strength was estimated at no more than 7,000. Organisation In 1964, PAIGC held its Cassaca Congress, which decided on reforms to discourage militarism inside the organisation. Thereafter the war effort was carried out not by autonomous guerrilla groups, but by guerrilla units within a nationwide army, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of the People (Forças Armadas Revolucionárias do Povo, FARP). From then until the close of the war, the basic fighting unit in FARP was the highly flexible "double group" (bi-grupo), which comprised two distinct commandos of 15 to 25 men each, normally operating together but also capable of remaining operational if separated (or if joined with other double groups). (Brazil, itself a former Portuguese colony, also offered to mediate.) At the same time, however, Senegal provided safe haven to PAIGC from 1966, when Senghor's government formally agreed to allow PAIGC soldiers free movement in and out of Senegal, where PAIGC would be allowed to establish bases. and from the new revolutionary government of Algeria. A Marxist organisation operating at the height of the Cold War, it was also supported, from the early 1960s, by socialist states further afield, including the People's Republic of China, the Soviet Union, and Czechoslovakia. Between 1966 and 1974, PAIGC was supported by the government of Fidel Castro in Cuba, which deployed a handful of doctors, military instructors, and technicians to PAIGC camps. Cuban soldiers saw some limited combat while in Guinea, but the Cuban military mission was small – it averaged 50–60 men at any time, primarily artillerymen – and Cabral declined its repeated offers to take a more active role in combat. and Sweden. Between mid-1969 and mid-1975 PAIGC received 45.2 million Swedish kronor in aid from the Swedish state, representing two-thirds of the Swedish assistance to African liberation movements during this period. Sweden was the most important donor of non-military material for PAIGC during the latter phase of the liberation war. Finally, PAIGC received significant support from the Bissau-Guinean diaspora, which burgeoned as a result of mass displacement during a 1964 PAIGC offensive and during Portuguese bombing campaigns in 1965 and 1967. and 32,000 Spínola planned – and fought with Lisbon – to abolish the distinction between and discrimination among metropolitan soldiers and local recruits, undertaking instead to create a regular and coherent African army whose structure mirrored that of the metropolitan army. Africanization fostered a large increase in indigenous recruitment into the armed forces. By the early 1970s, an increasing percentage of Guineans were serving as non-commissioned or commissioned officers in Portuguese military forces in Africa. Elite local troops were trained at Portuguese Centres for Commando Instruction, including inside Guinea, where the first such centre was established in 1964, but in many cases in Angola. Portuguese recruitment was also assisted by colonial propaganda, coercion, and the offer of salaries to conscripts. of the Portuguese Air Force, 1970s.In addition, at the outset of the war, Portugal recruited local militias – 18 companies by 1966 – to organise the "self-defence" of local populations, thus freeing the expeditionary army for offensive operations. Once Spínola was appointed, recruiting selectively from among the existing militias, created Special Militias of local combatants organised in combat groups, structured similarly to the Portuguese army (in companies divided into platoons), and operating fairly autonomously. In 1968, he proposed to create five such Special Militias, but Lisbon had authorised only two by 1970, concerned both about financial constraints and about the "informality of procedures" introduced by Africanization. According to post-war estimates, locally recruited troops in Guinea numbered 1,000 in 1961 (21.1% of all Portuguese troops there), 3,229 (14.9%) in 1967, and 6,425 (20.1%) in 1973. Many thousands more locals were included in Portuguese-aligned militias. In all, there were "at least on paper, upwards of 17,000" African fighters in Guinea; on one estimate, upon the eve of the Portuguese withdrawal in 1974, the total Portuguese force in the territory numbered about 31,000 fighters, of whom 24,800 were black and 6,200 white. == Conflict (1963–1974) ==

Initial PAIGC gains: 1963–1967 PAIGC officially launched its armed struggle inside Guinea in early 1963, despite difficult conditions and very limited weapons supplies.''' They were also demoralized by the steady growth of PAIGC liberation sympathizers and recruits among the rural population. In a relatively short time, the PAIGC had succeeded in reducing Portuguese military and administrative control of the country to a relatively small area of Guinea. The scale of this success can be seen in the fact that native Guineans in the 'liberated territories' ceased payment of debts to Portuguese landowners as well as payment of taxes to the colonial administration. These weapons effectively undermined Portuguese air superiority, preventing the destruction by air of PAIGC encampments in territory it controlled. Invasion of Guinea: November 1970 In late November 1970, Portugal launched Operation Green Sea, an amphibious attack on Guinea-Conakry designed to capture the PAIGC leadership, including Cabral, and to topple Guinean President Ahmed Sékou Touré, ideally to be replaced by a leader more willing to cooperate with the Portuguese and to obstruct PAIGC's supply lines. The United Nations (UN) Security Council unanimously condemned the operation in Resolution 290, and the following year passed Resolution 291 condemning other cross-border incursions by Portugal into Guinea. Over the next two years, Portugal failed to make military advances or to forestall the consolidation of PAIGC's advances. By the beginning of 1972, although territorial boundaries remained blurry, most of the country belonged to one of PAIGC's liberated zones; Meanwhile, however, PAIGC had launched a flurry of political activity – having judged in roughly 1971 that independence was feasible and even imminent, its leadership had begun preparing for independence, including by creating new domestic political structures (with elections held in 1972) and by conducting an intense diplomatic offensive abroad. by disgruntled PAIGC members. PAIGC purged the traitors, and regrouped under the joint leadership of Aristides Pereira and Luís Cabral, Amílcar's half-brother. Rather than disabling the group, the assassination of PAIGC's leader was followed by some of its most ambitious offensives, as it destroyed or took over key Portuguese positions in the north and on the southern border. Having acquired new weaponry, and in particular new ground-to-air missiles, PAIGC began in March 1973 to attack with vigour the Portuguese Air Force, "effectively neutralising" Portugal's air superiority – which until then had been Portugal's most marked tactical advantage, and a significant one given Guinea's difficult ground terrain. As PAIGC deployed its new ground-to-air missiles, as well as new large-caliber mortars and rockets (reportedly from Soviet-bloc suppliers), the war "increasingly took on a 'conventional' rather than guerrilla character". In July 1973, PAIGC artillery destroyed the important Portuguese strongpoint of Guileje, which previously had been held by an elite garrison of 400 mostly European troops and which had presented a major obstacle to PAIGC's communications with the government in Guinea-Conakry. By then, Portuguese forces were largely confined to the major cities and a diminished collection of fortified camps, and the Portuguese strategy increasingly amounted to little more than – in the phrase of Portuguese officer Major Carlos Fabião – "holding on as best as possible" ("aguentar enquanto fosse possível"). It launched no further offensives in the war. == End of Portuguese rule in Guinea ==

. Unilateral independence: September 1973 On 23–24 September 1973, the People's National Assembly (Assembleia Nacional Popular de Guiné) met in Madina do Boé, near the border with Guinea-Conakry, and declared the independence of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau. The Assembly comprised 120 delegates, overwhelmingly from PAIGC, who had been appointed following elections held by PAIGC in 1972 in the so-called liberated zones – areas which PAIGC controlled with little Portuguese interference. On 2 November, the UN General Assembly passed, by 93 votes to seven, a resolution which welcomed "the recent accession to independence of the people of Guinea-Bissau", recognised the state's sovereignty, condemned Portugal's continued presence in parts of the territory, and called on the UN Security Council to take "all effective steps to restore the territorial integrity of the Republic". Algiers accord: August 1974 Evidence published by the Portuguese newspaper Expresso in 1994 suggests that the Portuguese regime held secret diplomatic talks with PAIGC in London on 26–27 March 1974. Spínola, who had been at the head of the Portuguese effort in Guinea-Bissau, himself became president of the new National Salvation Junta. In May, the new Portuguese government agreed to negotiate with PAIGC. With the assistance of the British Foreign Office, meetings between PAIGC and the new Portuguese regime were held on 25–31 May 1974 at the Hyde Park Hotel in London. Also in August, the UN Security Council recommended Guinea-Bissau's admission into the UN. after over eleven years of armed conflict. Historian Norrie McQueen notes that the accord and its implementation preserved an ambiguity with respect to the legal status of the withdrawal – that is, as to whether it constituted a negotiated transfer of power, or a belated recognition of the 1973 declaration of independence. Nonetheless, by the time the Portuguese withdrawal was completed later in September, the independence of Guinea-Bissau "had been established beyond any political or legal debate".''' The neighbouring Cape Verde archipelago, which also formerly belonged to Portuguese Guinea, attained independence in 1975 as the Republic of Cabo Verde. == Aftermath ==

With the coming of independence, the PAIGC moved swiftly to extend its control throughout the country. A Marxist one-party state controlled by the PAIGC and headed by Luís Cabral was established. Indigenous troops who had served with the Portuguese Army were given the choice of either returning home with their families while receiving full pay until the end of December 1974, or of joining the PAIGC military. A total of 7,447 black African soldiers who had served in Portuguese native commando units, security forces, and the armed militia decided not to join the new ruling party and were summarily executed by the PAIGC after Portuguese forces ceased hostilities. == Gallery ==

ASC Leiden - Coutinho Collection - G 23 - Life in Ziguinchor, Senegal - Carrying weapons to Hermangono, Guinea-Bissau - 1973.tif|PAIGC soldiers loading weapons, 1973. ASC Leiden - Coutinho Collection - G 24 - Life in Ziguinchor, Senegal - Carrying weapons to Hermangono, Guinea-Bissau - 1973.tif|Kalashnikovs for Hermangono, 1973. ASC Leiden - Coutinho Collection - 2 17 - PAIGC soldiers in Guinea-Bissau - Woman PAIGC soldier playing cards - 1973.tif|Female soldier playing cards, 1973. ASC Leiden - Coutinho Collection - G 16 - Life in Ziguinchor, Senegal - Learning how to shoot - 1973.tif|PAIGC recruits learning how to shoot in Ziguinchor, Senegal, 1973. ASC Leiden - Coutinho Collection - 4 15 - PAIGC soldiers and their families in a military camp, Guinea-Bissau - 1974.tif|PAIGC soldier with his family in a military camp, 1974. ASC Leiden - Coutinho Collection - F 27 - Farim, Northern frontline, Guinea-Bissau - Children's drawings - 1974.tif|Drawings showing PAIGC soldiers in Farim, 1974. ASC Leiden - Coutinho Collection - C 39 - Walk from Candjambary to Sara, Guinea-Bissau - Village burnt down by the Portuguese - 1974.tif|Village burnt down by the Portuguese, 1974. ASC Leiden - Coutinho Collection - 19 11 - Manten military base in the liberated areas, Guinea-Bissau - 1974.tif|PAIGC soldier with a rocket-propelled grenade at Manten military base in the liberated areas, 1974. ASC Leiden - Coutinho Collection - D 20 - Hermangono, Guinea-Bissau - Morning roll-call in Hermangono - 1974.tiff|Morning roll call in Hermangono, 1974. ASC Leiden - Coutinho Collection - C 37 - Candjambary, Guinea-Bissau - Unexploded bomb - 1974.tif|Unexploded Portuguese bomb in Canjambari, 1974. ASC Leiden - Coutinho Collection - F 37 - Life in Sara, Guinea-Bissau - Armed escort carrying the wounded to the Senegalese border - 1974.tif|Armed escort carries a wounded person from Sara to the Senegalese border, 1974. LG&CD - Guine Dakota Comandos.jpg|Portuguese commandos en route to Bafatá in 1966. Alouette III fazendo uma evacuação sanitária.jpg|Portuguese Alouette III conducting a sanitary evac. LG&CD - Guine Banjara Dest1.jpg|Portuguese army barracks at Banjara. LG&CD - Chuveiros Cantacunda.jpg|Portuguese forces showers at Cantacunda in 1968. LG&CD - Guine Mansambo 1968 Duches.jpg|Portuguese showers at Mansambo, 1968. LG&CD - Ave caçada 2.JPG|Portuguese soldiers in Guinea with hunted game, 1968. LG&CD - Guine Comandos Bissalanca.jpg|Portuguese troops in Bissalanca in 1965 or 1966. LG&CD - Guine Como NT2.0.jpg|Portuguese troops eating rations on the cloth of a tent laid out on the ground. ==See also==