Guinea Bissau

Visited: December 2008

Duration of visit: 5 days

Capital city: Bissau

Population: 1.5 million (2009)

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

• The most bizarre country I visited until 2009.
• Bissau seems more a big devastated village than the capital city of an official country.
• Presidential Hummer perforated by bullets after recent terrorist attack.
• Long adventurous ride on dirt roads to Guinean border.

When I was looking for words to describe my feelings about Guinea Bissau, it occurred to me that this former Portuguese colony might be defined as bizarre.

Since Guinea-Bissau won its independence from Portugal in 1974, it has experienced almost non-stop political instability. Political leaders are frequently ousted – or even assassinated and a new leader steps in. The presence of six different presidents over the past nine years accounts for the unstable political climate.

Due to ongoing instability, conflicts, and a lack of resources, Guinea Bissau ranks among the poorest countries in the world.

Guinea Bissau was part of my three-month trip to West Africa in 2008-09, from Morocco to Ghana.

The infrastructure in the capital city Bissau (just under 500.000 people) is far more rudimentary than in my hometown of 5.000 people: electrical failures occur several times on daily bases, there are just a bunch of cars and streets are almost empty. The three paved main roads are falling apart, average travel speed by car is around 20 kmph.

There is a significant number of deteriorating buildings that could seamlessly act as locations for war movies, with no requirement for special effects to enhance the scenery.

I couldn’t spot a landmark, museum or any other beautiful area that would be attractive.

During my trip in West Africa, which I had started a month ago, I was convinced that Mauritania was the poorest country in the world. Nonetheless, after spending some time in Guinea Bissau, I realized that my previous judgement was incorrect. I dare to say that Guinea-Bissau is the absolute winner so far when we talk about poverty.

Neither water nor milk is sourced locally. All goods are imported from Europe or neighboring countries. The cost of imported products is prohibitively high, making them unaffordable for the average local consumer.

People are friendly, but the situation in Bissau seems tense. There are very little lights at night and general security situation is not very good. I avoided walking around at night.

In spite of people’s friendliness, the communication is not easy. Official language is Portuguese, but only a small portion of population speak it. Creole and African dialects are much more common. They are completely incomprehensible and plenty of improvisation helped me to get by.

I met a Spanish guy, who spent half of his life in Bissau doing business. He was buying old cars in Europe and driving them overland to Bissau. Quite a challenge to cross various countries in the region, but the reward was worth it. He invited me to an informal street restaurant renowned for its delectable fried fish. It was the best meal during my stay in the country.

The former presidential palace remained completely looted and empty following the recent bombing that led to its destruction. The citizens of Bissau-Guinea appear to be fatigued due to the president’s inactivity. His contributions have significantly added to the drowsiness of the city, which appears to be trapped in the past.

It was hard for me to believe that people of Guinea-Bissau are rebellious, but my new Spanish friend showed me the consequences of attack on the Presidential Hummer. It had happened some weeks ago, when a group of terrorists wanted to take over the government and unsuccessfully attacked the President in front of his residence in downtown Bissau.

Being the president of Guinea Bissau is associated with considerable safety concerns. Political leaders are exposed to attacks by small rebellion groups and always at faith of military junta, which is willing to take over the country at any time, as in neighboring Guinea.

I made an effort to remain optimistic in my search for landmarks that might be worth visiting, yet I found that there is, in fact, very little of interest to see in the capital city of Bissau.

The Old Presidential Palace was hit during the war and a huge hole in the roof is still there; Old Portuguese Quarter with colonial buildings in colorful Mediterranean style gave me a feeling that this used to be a pleasant area some decades ago.

Most of the existing buildings were raised during colonial times, when the Portuguese still had money and interest to invest in their overseas territories. You can only imagine in what state these properties are, considering they were built from 1951 to 1972.

There is no indication of any renovations occurring since the Portuguese departed in 1974.The only new structure in the city is the parliament building, the National Assembly of Guinea-Bissau, officially completed in 2005 and handed over to the Government of Guinea-Bissau by China.

In addition to its rural appearance and the scarcity of activities typically found in other African nations, the overall atmosphere in the capital is notably bleak. I didn’t notice much interest and effort of people to work hard or wish to progress.

Nearly all entrepreneurs buy products in bulks and later sell them individually: chocolate, candy, chewing gum and other sweets. Cashew nuts represent the most significant local product cultivated extensively in Guinea Bissau. Overall, the situation on the countryside is not too bad, as agriculture is prevalent and the soil is rich.

In a country with so many internal problems, anarchy, lack of control and thousands of young people without proper future, it is a matter of time for bad things to happen; not on individual level, but on the big scale.

No wonder why Guinea Bissau has officially become a narco transit country. Alarmingly, the country has been declared by United Nations as the first narco-state in Africa due to its position as a transit point for cocaine from Colombia to Europe and heroine from Southeast Asia to the United States.

The two-days drive from Guinea-Bissau to the city of Labe in Guinea is one of the legendary road trips that I could set alongside livestock truck ride in northern Kenya or an all-night bounce on a broken pick-up in the Colombian Andes in Colombia.

I showed up at the bus stop in the village of Gabú at 7:30am, but it took more than two hours before other six passengers appeared and we were ready to set off for the Guinean border (65 kilometers far) in a worn-out Peugeot sept place.

No big deal, there is no hurry in Africa. At least I had a hearty breakfast, exchanged money and chatted with the locals, while waiting. The car filled up quickly and we departed in good mood. Only a few kilometers later, a shock absorber on the rear wheel started to squeal, but we continued driving until we met one of the rarely oncoming vehicles, which offered us traction to a mechanic.

After hitting a broken shock absorber with a single piece of tool (a large wrench) for a few minutes, our driver was happy to be back on track. But not for long. Precisely at the halfway point, about two hours into the journey, the transmission failed. Following some hopeless attempts to start the engine by pushing the car and violent maneuvering of the driver, the vehicle was parked along the road and retreated into the shade.

The situation seemed hopeless as we were right in the middle of nowhere located between two villages; but soon a completely empty taxi appeared out of nowhere, collected us and transported onward.

An hour later we came across a farmer with two bags of peanuts, who wanted to transport them to a nearby market. All of a sudden, they started unloading already perfectly packed bags from the roof to find more space for additional baggage. Intense discussions regarding the transportation fee commenced, becoming progressively more contentious.  It was obvious that the poor farmer didn’t want and probably also couldn’t pay the price for his peanut’s bags, so I decided to interfere. I offered to pay for the cargo, if we were going to move immediately.

The farmer suddenly ran to the bush and started to haul seven additional bags, each weighing 25 kilograms. No problem, there is always enough space for more people or cargo in Africa.

Upon completing four hours of travel, we reached the border, having covered a distance of 65 kilometers.

I quickly arranged border formalities for the crossing from Guinea Bissau to Guinea and I was already sitting in the next Peugeot sept place bush taxi, which took us to the first major village in Guinea for a few Guinean francs. This time the waiting time to fill up the vehicle was less than an hour and apart from military checkpoints there were no special inconveniences.

Saraboydi, however, was not my final destination that day; it was another 15 kilometers to the village of Koundara, where I planned to spend the night. By the time we reached our destination, it had been dark for a few hours, approaching 9:00pm.

In summary, it took more than twelve hours to cover a distance of 95 kilometers, requiring a lot of patience and, aside from a fulfilling breakfast, there was no food available along the route. Welcome to Guinea Bissau!

Twelve hours to cover a distance of 95 kilometers was only the first part of the legendary journey, which continued to Labe in Guinea the day after.

In 2009, Guinea Bissau is not a popular tourist destination, nor a place to enjoy sightseeing, tourist attractions or special cultural experience or traditions.

It is a country where constant political and military conflicts have directed people’s focus to survival on a daily bases without any plans, ambitions or particular interest in the future. I admire foreigners who come to do business in this complicated and unstable environment, and also backpackers who give priority to Guinea Bissau, instead of many other beautiful destinations around the globe.

Various national parks, beautiful beaches and exotic islands are theoretically available for exploration. In reality, they may be difficult to access, prohibitively expensive to visit or simply off-limits.

Guinea Bissau still has a long way to stabilize and normalize before it can attract a greater number of foreign visitors.