Stories about Guinea-Bissau
Children Back in Guinea Bissau After Senegal Fire
The blog of the Association of Friends of Children (AMIC) reported [fr] that 20 ‘talib’ children from Guinea-Bissau who had been caught in a raging fire at an Islamic school in the capital of Senegal, Dakar, in early March, have now been handed back to their families. As Rising Voices reported back in...
Guinea-Bissau President Caught up in ‘Arms for Drugs’ Conspiracy
A drug and arms trafficking scheme in Guinea Bissau appears to go straight to the top. On the eve of the first anniversary of a military coup in Guinea Bissau that thwarted last year's presidential elections, US court documents seemed to implicate the country's interim president in a failed plan to smuggle weapons to Colombian rebels and cocaine into Guinea Bissau.
VIDEO: Guinea-Bissau Community Radio Serves People, Not Politics
Guinea-Bissau's community radio does much more than fill local airwaves with music, according to the documentary "Voice of the Population". Stations have saved lives during a cholera outbreak, fought against illegal logging, and pushed back against gender discrimination, all the while uniting local communities around the rich musicality of Guinea-Bissau.
Nine Street Kids Die in Senegal Quran School Fire
A raging fire that broke out in Dakar, Senegal in a crowded Islamic school room where students were sleeping killed at least nine children on the night of Sunday 3 March, 2013. The tragedy has highlighted just how tough living conditions for Quran school students, known as talibs, can be.
Guinea-Bissau is Second Worst Democracy
The Democracy Index 2012 from The Economist Intelligence Unit, published on March 19, 2013, places Guinea-Bissau second to last in the ranking, just before North Korea. The same day a coalition of civil society organizations released a roadmap with concrete proposals for the restoration of constitutional order following the military...
New UN Envoy Blogs from Guinea-Bissau
Ex-President of East Timor, UN representative and Nobel Peace Prize winner José Ramos-Horta is blogging from Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau. He writes of his warm reception by people at a marketplace. He republishes his posts on his Facebook page where they are widely commented on.
Hand-painted Ads in Guinea-Bissau
In Guinea-Bissau “there is a real market of experts on painting wall advertisements”, says landscape architect Manuel Bivar. In 2011, he shared a collection of photos featuring hand-painted ads from Guinean shops on the African contemporary culture website, Buala.
Panic and Terror Walk Hand-in-Hand in Guinea-Bissau
As the world's attention is focused on another part of West Africa, the citizens of Guinea-Bissau struggle to bring a worsening human rights situation to regional and international attention. Guinean Human Rights League released a major report on the human rights situation today, a serious wake-up call for those who think everything is okay in the country.
Three Portuguese Language States Ignore UN Convention Against Torture
Three Portuguese language countries are part of a short list of states which have not ratified the UN Convention against Torture: São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola and Guinea Bissau. Fábio Pereira, Communications Officer and Assistant Editor of Torture Journal, shares an open letter [pt, pdf] he has sent to the Portuguese Language...
Nobel Peacemaker Ramos Horta's Mission to Guinea Bissau
The political chaos in which Guinea Bissau finds itself embroiled - and more so since the April 2012 coup d'etat - may be a little closer to finding a resolution with the recent appointment of Nobel Peace Prize winner and former President of East Timor, José Ramos-Horta, to lead the United Nations Integrated Peace-Building Office in the country.
From Indigenous Protests to Online Preaching, Portuguese Language Countries in 2012
As the last day of the calendar approaches, we select a few glimpses of citizen media from the action and imagination of the Portuguese-speaking online world.
New GV e-book: African Voices of Hope and Change
"African Voices of Hope and Change," gives you an intimate perspective into the stories and people of Africa's Sub-Saharan region, through our best English-language posts from 2012 - a perfect gift to salute the new year.
Guinean Journalist Mysteriously Disappears in Angola
Where is Milocas Pereira? The question echoes through social networks on the disappearance, six months ago, of the journalist and university professor in the Angolan capital city Luanda, where she has lived since 2004. On the Internet a petition directed to the UN High Commission of Human Rights has been launched.
Searching for Bissau-Guinean Journalist who Disappeared in Angola
Journalist and university professor Milocas Pereira, from Guinea-Bissau, disappeared from Luanda, Angola, where she lived, more than six months ago. Celina Spencer, President of Guinea-Bissau Community Association of Immigrants in the U.S.A, has recently launched a petition asking for assistance from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in...
Guinea-Bissau: International Arrest Warrant Against Blogger
The most visible face of Guinea-Bissau's blogosphere, António Aly Silva, wrote [pt] that he is being accused of “the crime of incitement to war” and that an international arrest warrant was issued against him by the regime in power since the coup of April 2012. In an interview [pt] for...
Guinea-Bissau: More citizen frustration with turmoil
Buala blog shared a message circulating via email by Moema Parente Augel e Johannes Augel [Pt] raising international awareness about the “abusive and illegal regime” in Guinea-Bissau and what they deem to be an attempted counter-coup on October 21. IT specialist Gabriel Vaz also shared his dissatisfaction with turmoil in his...
Guinea-Bissau: Chinese Loggers near Buba River
The minutes of a youth and citizenship meeting held in October 2012 in Guinea-Bissau mentions [pt] the “massive logging of pau de sangue” woodtrees (Pterocarpus violaceus Vog.) by Chinese companies in the region. The post stresses the lack of information and “the silence of local and national authorities”. Novas da Guiné...
Guinea-Bissau: Citizen Frustration and Defiance in Face of Turmoil
On October 21, a violent incident occurred at an airbase outside Bissau. Six people were reported killed, and gruesome images of bodies of accused assailants circulated on the internet. While the international institutions express "concern" and conduct meetings, the people of Guinea-Bissau have little outlet for their fears and frustrations.
Africa: The Challenges of Building African Platforms
John Karanja discusses the challenges of building African platforms: What is an African platform? What does it look like? and perhaps more importantly what does it do? Will it address a Need or a Want? What exactly will make it African? Will it work elsewhere in the World?
Guinea-Bissau: Suspected Coup Leader Pansau N'Tchama Captured
Zenaida Machado posted on her twitter feed: “@zenaidamz: #GuineaBissau: Pansau N´Tchama, the man who allegedly plotted Sunday attack to army barracks which killed six, has been captured”
Guinea-Bissau: Six Killed in Attack to Military Base
An attack to a military base [pt] in Guinea-Bissau on the night of October 20, 2012, took the lives of at least six people. BBC journalist Zenaida Machado (@zenaidamz) informs on Twitter that the alleged mastermind of the attack is Captain N’Tchama, a member of the army elite unit who...
