1. Slave Coast
Guinea-Bissau was part of the Portuguese African colony. Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau were controlled as one unit under the name of Portuguese Guinea. It was called also Slave Coast because it was a center of slave trade. Slaves were shipped from Guinea-Bissau to Cape Verde and from there to the American continent. Guinea-Bissau was the center of slave trade for 400 years.
2. Unstable political situation
Since the independence of Guinea-Bissau (1974) no president has successfully served a full five year term. That's a pretty amazing fact and shows how hard it is to be the president there. The living conditions deteriorated after getting independence from Portugal and the poor situation of the country has created optimal conditions for coups and unrests.
3. Poor literacy rate
The literacy rate in Guinea-Bissau is 55,3% which is one of the worst in the world. It's in the top20 worst countries in this statistic. The literacy rate was catastrophically bad in the beginning of their independence when it was just 5%, so some improvement has happened.
4. Drugs and Guinea-Bissau
Guinea-Bissau is becoming a narco-state. Since 2005 drug cartels from Latin America started to use Guinea-Bissau and some other West African nations, as a transshipment point to Europe for cocaine. Little has been done to stop drug trafficking by the military and the government.
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| Drug trafficking routes |
5. Business in Guinea-Bissau
Guinea-Bissau is a great place to do business if you like uncertainty and waiting. On average it takes 233 days (about 33 weeks) to register a new business in Guinea-Bissau. According to The Economist this is longer than in any other country of the world except Suriname ! Besides that the GDP per capita is one of the lowest in the world in this country which is highly dependent on agriculture. Fish, cashew nuts and ground nuts are its biggest export products.
Timeline
1446 The Portuguese sail to the country which was part of the Mali Empire
1956 Freedom party PAIGC of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde
1963 PAIGC starts the fight for freedom
1974 War ends after 11 years in the Portuguese Revolution
1980 Coup, the relationship with Cape Verde ends
1991 Single party system is abandoned
1994 PAIGC wins the elections
1998 Civil war
2009 President Vieira murdered
Sources:
Maailman liput maat ja historia - Kimmo Kiljunen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea-Bissau
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