From: George M. Houser American Committee on Af~ica 164 Madison Avenue New York, N.Y. 10016
May 21, 1975 For limited circulation. Quotation & reprinting by permission only. (Part I)
A REPORT ON GUINEA-BISSAU, CAPE VERDE & ANGOLA
On February 24th Ray Gould and I left New York together for a one day stop in Dakar, nine days in Guinea-Bissau, one week in the Cape Verde Islands. Then I traveled alone for 10 days in Angola. The trip also included about 2 days in Lisbon.
This was a particularly fascinating trip for me of the many which I have taken to Africa over the last 21 years. During the long years of the liberation struggle against Portuguese colonial• ism, I was one of many who was prohibited from visiting the Por tuguese colonies. I had never been to Cape Verde. On my first trip to Africa in 1954 I had spent two weeks in Angola. I spent another two weeks in northern Angola in liberated areas in Jan uary 1962. I had has a brief visit into the southern liberated zone of Guinea-Bissau in Jun3 1973. Therefore to be able to go into these former Portuguese areas of Africa through the "front door" was an exciting experience. I will try to swnrnarize our experiences and observations as briefly as possible.
G,T:t:NEA-BISSAU
Those who knew Arnilcar Cabral and have had contact with other leaders of the PAIGC have a special hope for Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde Islands. The principles enunciated by Cabral has been realized to an unusual degree in the some two-thirds of Guinea Bissau which the PAIGC controlled during the struggle. The ques tion that remains is: Will the PAIGC be able to put into practice a people-centered democracy for which they had so long striven? Will they avoid establishing another elitist society changing a set of foreign rulers for a~;. other set who, although indigenous, will claim special privileges for themselves? Although our nine day visit to the country only four or five months after the PAIGC government was really in a~ thority hardly would be the basis for an in-depth analysis, never:theless our reaction to our experiences was definitely affirmativeo (2)
A few brief examples might set the tone. Ray and I went on a trip from Bissau to the island of Boloma, the capital of one of eight regions of the country. It was only a 15 or 20 minute flight in a six-seater.plane. As we were about to embark on our return trip to Bissau at the small airstrip at Bolama we noted that there were more people wanting to get on the plane than it could accom modate. There were to be no more planes that day. Quite a dis cussion in Creole was taking pl ace among those gathered at the air port, including the Gover11or uf the region, which we could not understand of course. TWo of those who wanted to fly to Bissau were leaders of the PAIGC ~ But also waiting for a flight was a peasant woman with a sick baby in her arms. We can only guess what the discussion \'Jas all about. What we do know is that when we got on the plane the t wo party workers stayed behind and the woman with the sick baby fle~ ; to Bissau. subsequently we learned that the the party leaders l oft on a boat later that night for the six hour trip across the water to the capital city.
The Governor of the Bolv.ma region is Francesca Pereira. Con sidering the totally subservient role which women had during the Portuguese colonial era, it is part of the revolution to do away with all forms of discrimination including that b~sed on sex.
When we visited Bafata the capital of one of the regions in the east of the country, Chico Ba, the Governor, showed us a place situated on a promontory which had a beautiful view of the Geba River where there had previously been a private club for the Por tuguese c·ivilians and troops. This was not now being used. Chico Ba told us "this will be made into a recreation club for all the people of Bafata."
The General Atmosphere of our Trip
The PAIGC were our hosts. This was rather essential because there is very little Englic: h spokeno Therefore it was necessary to have someone with us who could interpret. We were asked at the outset what we wanted to s ee and wher e we wanted to go. Practic ally everyone of our re qu c~ts was r ealized with no restriction. We wandered around Biss au during all times of the day or night en our own with no sense what~ oe ver of insecurity. Bissau is the largest city of t h e country with a population that ~.: - ranges somewhere between 50,000 a~d 100,000. This is quite a spread in estimate, but there h a s bP zn no organized census taken recently and it is felt that the l c·.n; e:;7 estimate would be quite incorrect now. For a country which has just liberated itself after an 11 year military struggle, t~ ~ atmosphere was remarkably relaxed. We felt no tension o ~ hostility, nor did we see more than a few military personnel or civilian 9 0liceo At one time there were as many as 3000 Portuguese living i n the country.. The newly appointed Portuguese Ambassador t o Guinea -Bissau, with whom we spent an hour or more, said that there we re only a bout 200 Portuguese in the coun try now but some were begi1;ning to return .. Everything we saw about the good relationship between the Portuguese settlers and the people of Guinea-Biss au and with t h e PA IGC leadership would reinforce a basic tenet of the PAIGC tha t their struggle was against Portuguese colonialismr no·t aga inst the Portuguese people~ A PAIGC memorandum during the struggle had said, 'Y.Ye make a distinction between Portu guese colonialism ~ nd Po~tu gu ese s e ttlers just as we distinguish between a vehicle and its whe e"'s ~" Ray and I might have easily been taken for PortuguGse& obvi ously we were white foreigners. We were looked at with sorr.a curicsity as we wandered around Bissau and other towns of the cou ntry, b ut t he attitude was always friendly, never hostile.
We took three side trips from Bissau. One was to Bafata in the east; a second was to Bolama, the capital of the region of the Bijagors Islands; and a third was to Bissora and other towns and villages in the nort ~ rn area of the country., The trips to Bafata and Bissora were by road. We spent an hour or more with Luis Cabral1 the President, Joao Bernardo Vieira {Nino), the President of the National Assembly; Fidelis Al mada the Commissioner of Justice; Jose Araujo, Commissione r without portfolio in the government and many other leaders of the party and the government. Others we saw were leaders in the field of heal t~ , education, agriculture, trade, com merce, etc.
Historic Leaders and Sites
Amilca:: Cabral is t he vener ated lGader of the struggle, At the entrance to the Pr0sid ential Palace above the large doors there is a painting of Cabral " 'l'he ma.i.n avenue through Bissau which used to be called the "Avenue o f Republic " has been renamed "Avenue Arnilcar Cabral". There wer ~ s t i l l posters in many store windows and on public places comrr.e:norat.ing the assassination of Cabral on January 20, 1.973 , The •tJo rdjng on ~. he~e posters -was'7 something like "Eternal Glory to l>,mi J.car C2.bral , H. ilitant #1 of the PAIGC. Founder of the Nation .. "
Cabral's na:n.e COIEcs nat ura lly i nto many conversations though he is gone ., The I-llarty l.t~ ad s:- ~s S ·3.Y "we know what Amilcar' s ideas were. They are in ma ny ~ We spent many hours at the Pidjiguiti Dock, the scene of the massacre of August 3, 1959 which changed the course of the struggle in Guinea-Bissau. On ·that day the workers peacefully demonstrated against shamefully low wageso Some 50 dock workers were shot down and killed and many more were wounded. We talked with some of the dock workers who h ~d been there on that day and gave us a vivid discription of what had happened, We learned of the courageous action of a man ?Y the name of ocante, who had helped to rescue many of the. workers caught in a crossfire and after whom one of the principle boats of the government is now named. We spent an hour or so with Fernando Fortes, now the under commissioner -for telecommunications.. He is one of the most impor tant figures in the history of the struggle and of the growth of - -- - .. the PAIGC for he was one of the six original founders. He took us to the home where the clandestine meeting had been held Se~ ber 19, 195-6 when the PAIGC was formed& and _also where it was de- - cided41_ after the Pidj iguiti strike, that if the PAIGC was to survive .. it must .organize the peasants who were the majority of the people in the country, for an -armed struggle. He described his own par ticipation in the struggle, his correspondence with Cabral whom he had last ssen in October 1959 just before Cabral went to Conakry to set up the training institute for peasants. He also described ·'-·- his- own. travail, as he stayed behind in Bissau., was arrested on .numerous occasions, finally being sent to a prison .in southern ·. Angola from which he was just_. released a week after the coup in Portugal in 1974. Reminders of the War and Struggle Against Colonialism We were constantly remi~ded by what we heard and ·saw ·that the ·- war· for ...libe-ration had only been concluded a few months earlier. -Near the Bissau Airport and in-other areas which had been militarily_ . strategic for the Portugueser there were prominent signs saying in --;,...... -- ·Portuguese· "Danger to your Life - Landmines". In truly c~eative fashionL the government is converting many -··· of· the former Portuguese m).litary bases to schools 11 clinics, or - -·- even. hotels. We had dinner one evening in what is now called. the· -· ·-·· Pidjiguiti Hotel which was formerly the barracks and the mess hall . _for naval officerso One of the .. two- kindergartens in Bissau is ·,_housed in what used to be the Portuguese Air Force- Base -located .. near· the airporto There a:r:e still signs on the walls saying ·llS.ilence··· is Goldene Remember . Th5.s , " as a reminder to the· Portuguese air f~rce persoru1e.l that "J....ooE e Lips Sink. Ships"~ The PAIGC people remarked jokingly that mayLe they would keep this sign there because it's not bad advice to school children who might talk too much in class .. · {5) Alo~g the road on our trip to Bissora we went through Biambi. Here there was an aldeamento (fortified village) and alongside it a Portuguese base whel'e there was a monument to the Portuguese who had lost their lives in the war ~ The barbed wire was still around the fortified village. We stopped at one Portuguese military post on the road to ljafata where there may have been 12 to 15 Portuguese troops headquarted. 'I'heir task was to protect a bridge across the rice fields close byo Inside this small base the soldiers posted a sign they had painted callin9 t ·nemselves "The Crocodiles of Bolanha"o We were told that Bolanha means "rice fields"o On this road to Bafata one PAIGC commander travelling with us remarked that he had crossed this road.LF:umerable times during the struggle as ·he walked from the north to the south. The road from Mansaba to Bafata was all dirt. :t had been unused during the conflict because it was not safe for any Portuguese vehicle to travel it and the PAIGC didn't use vehicles o We saw the sites of ambushes and gaping holes still in the roads where landmines had been detonated ~ In Bissora we met one of the top commanders in the conflict, Quemo Mane. He had been the first PAIGC military leader to arrange a regional cease-fire with the Portuguese military authorities after the coup in Portugal. In Bissau, Bolama, and other cities and towns of the country, it was impossible not to notice that the statues which the Portu guese had constructed to commemorate historic figures in the golden age of Portugal's explorations, were torn down. Right in front of the Pidjiguiti Dock there had been a statue to Nuno Tristao who in 1446 was the first Portuguese explorer to land in Guinea-Bissau. It was particularly interesting for us to note in Bolama that the statue of Ulysses So Grant had been torn down last January 20th, the second a _miversary of Cabral' r.; assassination, by students at the nearby school., Gr<:int had arbitrated a dispute back in 1870 between the British and the Portuguese as to who would be the colonial power in Guinea-Bissuuo The memory of the strugg- le is fre.sh in the mind and the exper ience of everyone with whom we t a lked .. In any conversation the question came up of "where were you in the struggle?" The reply always came back in t e:: rms of "I was in prison", or "I escaped and joined the PAIGC in the north or in the south or in the east .. " Or "I was serving in a clinic, or I was teaching in a school", etc. This~ of course, is very much of a transition period in Guinea- ~ 6) Bissau. Top leaders such a s Lu ~ s Cabral, Aristides Pereira, and Nino and others did not come to Bissau until late October or November 1974. The Commission o f Foreign Affairs is using the buildings of what used to be the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce. The Commissioner of Justice told us that there was a backlog of 5000 cases in the courts leftover from the Portuguese era which they will try to liquidate as soon as possible. At the time we were in Bissau there had been n o trials yet of those who had been enemies of the PAIGC. We were ~old that there would not be many put on trial because most o f the people in the town and urban areas of the country were c a ught within the Portuguese colonial structure. Re-education would be their focus. It was interesting to notG that the Portuguese personnel who were working for the Guinea -Bis sau government were not the same ones who may have been there during the conflict. At the Bissau kindergarten which we visited, for example, there were three Por tuguese teachers. But all of them had come since January. There are Portuguese doctors in the hospitals, but they too are new arrivals. During the period we were in Bissau, there was as yet no news paper. The first edition of the paper was to come out on March 8th, the day after our departure. There is no telex system yet estab lished and even the government must use the regular cable system. Diplomatic representation from other countries was just in its beginning stages. Portugal and Senegal both had ambassadors there. There were charg~s on hand from a number of countries in cluding the Soviet Union, Brazil, and the German Democratic Repub lic. Other countries which h a d recognized Guinea-Bissau before the Portuguese did still had representation in Conakry Guinea where the PAIGC had been represented in exile~ A two-man delegation from the United States State Depar tment had been in Bissau the week before we arrived to look ove r the situation prior to establishing some kind of presence there Q Facing the Problems and Buildinq the New The PAIGC faces tremendous problems as they try to build a new nation. Some of these problems are vestiges of the colonial era. Some are bound to be p ar.~ of the experience and the situation of the country over the long haul. The leaders are quite prepared to discuss these problems v ery frankly. Among them are: 1. Unemployment - Again and again we were given the figure (7) of 17,000 Guinea-Bissau people who had either been in the Portuguese armed forces or had been employed as part ot military effort in the towns and cities of the country who were now without jobs. The ecomony of the country under the Portuguese had beengeared almost completely to the war effort. The Portuguese mi1itary left Guinea Bissau by November 1st. Pay continued for those who had been employed by the military until December 31st. Then literally over night they went from the best paying jobs in the country to no jobs at all. 2. Political Education - It had been almost impossible during the struggle for the PAIGC effectively to reach the people in the cities and the towns under Portuguese domination with their politi cal and economic ideas o In the countryside and in the liberated areas, the PAIGC had free reign. The PAIGC now therefore has a challenging and difficult task. In a short period of time, the leaders must try to inculcate their ideas into the experience and the minds of those who they were not able to reach during the many years of the conflict. Chico Ba, the Governor of the Bafata region said what others repeated many times "it was much easier for us during the struggle than it is now." In visits to some of the schools, particularly the Kwame Nkrumah High School in Bissau (renamed under the PAIGC government) this same problem was brought up. Many of the 1144 students in the high school had been there during the Por tuguese era. They had been exposed to Portuguese history. Now the PAIGC .has a task of "bringing them into their own history" as Cabral outlined in many speeches and articles. There are subsid- iary problems of a very concrete type unconnected with political education. Onethat was brought to our attention wasfue problem of drugs in the urban areas~ There had been no such problem in the liberated zones o But drugs are currently being smuggled in from Senegal and Gambia~ The drug is grown from a plant which is called Iarnba Habachin The Portuguese encouraged the use of such drugs, we were told, partic•.1larly for some of the Africcn troops serving in their forces~ The PAIGC is trying to stamp out drug use. There is also a problem of alcoholism because the Portuguese used to pay off some of their employees (specifically mentioned were those who served on sports teams) in wine. 3. Agriculture Production - The economy of Guinea-Bissau rests primarily on agriculture. Rice, peanuts, maize, sesame seeds, palm products, and lumber from the good hardwood trees are the main products. The war caused production to be dramatically reduced. In the liberated areas, the PAIGC was self-sufficient. However rice production, according to Portuguese sources, was reduced in volume from something over 100,000 tons a year to just over 29,000 (8) tons. Peanut production was reduced from 64,000 tons to 28,000 tons. Maize from 50,000 tons to about 24,000 tons. Guinea Bissau used to be a rice and peanut exporting country. They are now planning, on a three year program, to become exporting again, we were told in discussion with those in the Commission for Agri culture and Live Stock - the Under Commissioner, Samba Lamine Mane and Avita Silva, (an agronomist). 4. Imports and Exports - The PAIGC recognizes that they must establish, and they are in the process of doing it, new priorities for imports. In some of the shop windows in Bissau we saw a num ber of expensive goods such as tape recorders, transistor radios, etc., left over from the Portuguese Regime. The PAIGC is going to stop the import of such "luxury" goods which would be beyond the means of the mass of the people~ in order to reserve resources for bringing in essential goods. s. Taxation and a Money Economy - During the years of the struggle, the PAIGC operated in the liberated areas without taxation or money. Commerce was carried on through barter in The People's Stores. The peasants contributed goods and produce to finance the struggle. No one, including the highest PAIGC officials, received any pay. Now however a banking system, a currency, and taxation is being instituted we were told by the Commissioner of Finance, vasco Cabral. Initially this will w~rk through the structure that the Portuguese left behind. That is, the currency and the banks are the same as during the colonial era. 6. Industry - Very little industry exists at the moment in Guinea-Bissau. There is a beer factory in Bissau. There is the beginnings, on a small scale, of peanut oil manufacturing and an expansion of this is planned for the future. There is a strain of bauxite which is an e x tension of the much larger deposit in the Republic of Guinea-Conak~y. No extensive work has yet been done in the extraction of the bauxite. For many years that there had been a contract with Exxon exploring for off-shore oil. We were told by Aristides Pereira, the Secretary General of the PAIGC whom we saw in Cape Verde, that this contract had been terminated. 7. Transportation and Communication -We spent some time talking with Herculano Vieira, Secretary General of the Commission for Communication and Transportation. Originally Herculano came from Cape Verde. After the struggle began he joined the PAIGC in Conakry and became commander offue small maritime force which the PAIGC had. The water in the Bissau harbor is deep enough to handle fairly large ships. However Bissau is not a major West African {9) port. The responsibilities of Herculano include not only sea going traffic but also internal transportation. The road system is f~ly rudimentary, and particularly poor in the southern part of the country~ The Portuguese paved the roads leading outside of Bissau but could only do so for a few miles because it was not safe for vehicles totravel any distance for fear of landmines and ambushes~ Most of the Portuguese traffic around the country was by plane. Mail from Bissau to other centers is carried by small planes or by buses or priv ate car e Tha government has two heli copters which the Portuguese l eft b (~ hind n There is a technical assistance crew of 18 Portugue se a s signed to the airport. There is a telephone system to the variou ~~ towns around the country. As mentioned previously there is no telex system for the govern ment itself. What the Government and the PAIGC are Doinq The PAIGC has always had a very practical approach. Success will depend on how the government and the party can meet the real needs of the people~ A theoretical ideology is not stressed. This was the position which Amilcar Cabral took. He once said, "I am a freedom fighter. You must judge from what I do in practice. If you decide that its Marxism 3 tell them ies Marxism. If you decide it's not Marxism, tell them it's not Marxism. But the labels are your affair; we don't like these kinds of labels". Jose Araujo, in conversation on this point when asked if one could call their country "Socialist", said "We don't like to name it. What is socialism? There are many J~inds - African, Swedish, the British Labor Party, China, Russia n We are not any of these. We are what wearer" The government is actively seeking assistance from abroad, but it must be without strings in line with their own international policy of neutralismo The Uniteo Nations Development Program has an office and a resident official in Bissau and where a $2,000,000 program is already in progress to deal with some of the develop ment schemes. A ten person medical team is coming from Sweden. Airport technicians, teach ~ rs, experts on roads, etco, are already at work. In this brief report I would like just to mention seven areas of development which especially struck us: 1. The Cons truction of New Villages - As we were going along the road to Bafata we were intrigued by the fact that we saw people walking along the road carrying goods on their heads, reaching a given area, and depositing their goods thereo They were, in fact, rebuilding their villages on the site where they had lived prior (10 ) to the beginning of the war in 1963. Many people, sympathetic to the aims of the PAIGC had left their traditional villages and had moved into newly constructed villages in the forests of the liberated zones~ Now they were beginning to come back. We stop ped at one such village on March 2nd ~ The people had arrived (there must have been 1 00 me n, women and children in this partic ular place) the day bef ore . They were already beginning to put up the poles and the sides o f huts for their dwelling places. They were in process bf building a new 1 :i.fe under a new government with which they had been fami l i a r from their yearsm the liberated areas. 2. The Place o f Women - There are many women in key positions in the party and in the gov ernment o Francesca Pereira I have al ready mentioned is the Governor of the Bolama region. We were intrigued by the extensive p~ ans for the celebration of Interna tional Womens Day, March 8th ; unforturlately the day following our departure . Argentina Sil v a ~ >llho is in charge of Social Affairs in the regional government of Oio in the north said laughingly to us several days b e fore March 8th, "On Saturday the men will do the cooking and will serve us o " 3. Schools - The educational structure is basic to the plans and program of the government. There was a certain inheritance from the Portuguese of some school buildings. More importantly there was the experience of many years of an educational program in the liberated areas o For many years the ACOA and The Africa Fund have supported the program of the PAIGC under the Friendship Institute. This system has now been taken into the newly indepen dent country& The Friendship Institute is under the Commission of Education and National Culture. I t s responsibility is for the ten boarding schools 0 where the children actually live on the school grounds. This i ncludes k indergartens, primary schools and the pre paratory years for secondary s chools.* There are 2000 children in the ten boarding schoolso Ther e are three high schools in the country. We visited the Kwame Nkrumah High School in Bissau which has something over 1100 students and 60 teachers with three shifts a morning, and afternoon a nd an evening session. There are about 700 students studying abro~d~ mostly in secondary and technical schools but about 30 in universi t ies~ There are about 1000 who have studied abroad during t h e struggle who have already returned home. Some 35 of these are uni vers ity graduates~ We visited many of the schools ~ The Pilot School which used to be in Conakry has now been placed in Bolama. As with so many of the schools, the actual buildings are former Portuguese military bases. *We were given statis t i cs o f 72,000 children in 694 secondary schools. (11) 4. Hos~itals - Over the years ACOA and rhe Africa Fund have helped to support the health program of the PAIGC in liberated areas. Our primary contact has been with Dr. Manuel Boal. We met him in Cape Verde on this trip where he was traveling with Aristides Pereira. We met other doctors working under the Com mission of Health in Bissau and in other centers in the country. At the moment there are about five hospitals (Bissau, Bolama, Cachungu, Bafata and Gabu). The plan is to build three more hos pitals with approximately 100 beds each in the next three years and a network of smaller hospitals with about 20 beds each. Each of the larger hospitals will cost something over $1,000,000 each and the smaller hospitals $200,000 to $300,000. This cannot be accomplished without assistance from the WHO and other international agencies for this workc At the moment there are about 35 doctors in the country. including 18 Portuguese, 8 to 10 Cuban, Yugoslavian and Soviet doctors. There are about 7 Guinea-Bissau doctors train ing overseas and about 9 working in the field. Just last year there was a tragic loss in an automobile accident when Dr. Fernando Cabral, Amilcar's brother was killed. The main hospital in Bissau has been renamed after Simao Mendes, one of the heroes of the war who was killed by a mortar shell in the north in 1966. We visited the site of one of the hospitals about which Dr. Boal talked which will probably be constructed at a small place called Mores in the north; where a team of 10 Swedish doctors were going to come. Construction was just barely beginning and wells were being dug at the site when we were there. During this period medical work is being carried on. It just happened when we were going through the ·town of Mansaba, vaccinations against smallpox were being given to the small children in the town by a health unit under the supervision of a Portuguese doctor. 5. Justice - As already mentioned we spent some time talking with the Commissioner of Justice, Fidelis Almada. A system of tribunals already existed in the liberated areas. This system is now being set up to cover the whole country through tribunals on sector, regional, and the national level through a Supreme Tribunal. This Tribunal will be composed of five persons. Three of them must be lawyers and the other two need not necessarily be. The President of the Supreme Tribunal is approved by the National Assembly and was not yet chosea_:: when we were there because the National Assembly had not yet convened. Almada told us that they were trying to set up a new organization of lawyers (there are very few in the coun- try as yet) which would administer the fees the lawyers would receive for their services. Under the plan, the citizen could choose any lawyer he wanted, but the lawyer would be paid by the organization rather than by the individual. Almada thought that under this system there would be a gradation of lawyers distinguishing between those who were young and inexperienced and those who, had more (12) experience. The system of payment would be by the decision of the lawyers themselves within their own organization. 6. Research Farm - We visited a research farm at Pravis 20 miles or so outside of Bissau, where there is a program for devel oping seeds and a nursery for small plants grown under the best conditions possible in the country and for distribution to other areas of the country. New wells going down perhaps 80 or 90 meters were being drilied while we were there. At Bissora we visited an animal husbandry experimental station which was trying to develop livestock that could benefit the coun try as a whole. 7. The People's Stores - We spent some time talking with the Under Commissioner for Commerce, Armando Ramos. During the struggle he has been responsible for organizing many of the People's Stores in the liberated areas. He also had worked with Amilcar Cabral in the Political Institute which had been established in Conakry in 1960. He is now basically responsible for the system of People's Stores which are a basic part of the government economic program dealing with the purchasing and the distribution of goods. The system is quite similiar to that which was followed in the liber ated zones during the struggle. But now of course it is all with in the money economy. The stores become warehouses for goods pur chased from the peasants. They also are trading centers for in ternal as well as external distribution and trade. We visited the principle People's Store in Bissau. Each town has a major store and a network of subsidiaries in each of the sectors of the region. At the Bissau store we saw bags of peanuts, grown mostly in the northern part of the country and brought to Bissau for export. This store had previously been a warehouse for the Portuguese army. One could tell at a glance that it was newly established. There were hundreds of crates piled up on the grounds where the store was located. The boxes still had the original address to which the goods had come from overseas - PAIGC, Conakry, Republic of Guinea. These crates with their goods had been brought by ship from Conakry to Bissau. The task of building the new nation of Guinea-Bissau is just beginning inspite of the great problems. The way in which the PAIGC leadership is facing its overwhelming task gives one hope that in spite of its small size, Republic of Guinea-Bissau will serve as something of a model of what can be done in other parts of Africa as well.