Guinea-Bissau: the cause of nationalism and the foundation of the PAIGC

Abstract

In the aftermath of the Second World War, some reformist elements of the Portuguese regime, led by Governor Sarmento Rodrigues, tried to convert Guinea-Bissau in a «model-col­ony», based on administrative autonomy, social and economic development and an alliance with the native Muslims. It was a period marked by the consolidation of the colonial appara­tus and a reasonable degree of social cohesion. In the early 50's, the Portuguese government began to take steps to prevent being harassed by the anti-colonial movement, such as the rev­ocation of the Colonial Act, the opening of branches of the Political Police (PIDE) in the colo­nies, and more thorough inquiries into the activities of the civic associations. Guinea was one of the first overseas territories where the independentist aspirations emerged, but the seditious acts were not inspired by exterior movements or by Islamic groups or individuais. They were led by a urban and «creole» political elite with strong connections to other disaffected nation­alists from the Portuguese overseas territories. In 1959, two dramatic events contributed to the escalation of this political unrest. One was the «Pindjiguiti massacre», which is the object of a systematic research in this article based on new materiais; the other is the «decisive» (in the words of Amilcar Cabral) PAIGC meeting of 19 September 1959. If we adopt the perspective that the formation of the PAIGC resulted not from a single event, but from a process, then we will have to consider that only after the Tunes Pan-African Conference of 1960 and the Dacar Conference of Cadres from the Nationalist Organisations was the PAIGC foundation complet­ed.