Cape Verde–Guinea-Bissau Relations
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Cape Verde–Guinea Bissau relations refers to the
bilateral relationship Bilateralism is the conduct of political, economic, or cultural relations between two sovereign states. It is in contrast to unilateralism or multilateralism, which is activity by a single state or jointly by multiple states, respectively. When ...
between the Republic of Cape Verde (Cabo Verde) and the Republic of Guinea-Bissau. Cape Verde is an
island country An island country, island state, or island nation is a country whose primary territory consists of one or more islands or parts of islands. Approximately 25% of all independent countries are island countries. Island countries are historically ...
about 900 km north-west of Guinea-Bissau, a coastal
West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...
n country. Both were colonies of the
Portuguese Empire The Portuguese Empire was a colonial empire that existed between 1415 and 1999. In conjunction with the Spanish Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It achieved a global scale, controlling vast portions of the Americas, Africa ...
and they campaigned together for independence with a plan for unification, but the countries separated after 1980. The two countries were both founder members of the
Community of Portuguese Language Countries The Community of Portuguese Language Countries (; : CPLP), also known as the Lusophone Commonwealth or Lusophone Community (), is an international organization and political association of Lusophone nations across four continents, where Portug ...
(CPLP) in 1996, and are each members of the
African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the African Union. The b ...
and the
Economic Community of West African States The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS; also known as CEDEAO in French and Portuguese) is a regional political and economic union of twelve countries of West Africa. Collectively, the present and former members comprise an area ...
(ECOWAS).


Colonial history

The area on the mainland under Portuguese rule now containing Guinea-Bissau was originally called "Guiné de Cabo Verde". Cape Verde was a site of transit in the slave trade from Guinea-Bissau to the Americas.
Portuguese Cape Verde Cape Verde was a colony of the Portuguese Empire from the initial settlement of the Cape Verde Islands in 1462 until the independence of Cape Verde in 1975. History 15th century The islands of Cape Verde were discovered in 1460-62 by Pri ...
supplied many colonial officials for the mainland
Portuguese Guinea Portuguese Guinea (), called the Overseas Province of Guinea from 1951 until 1972 and then State of Guinea from 1972 until 1974, was a Portuguese overseas province in West Africa from 1588 until 10 September 1974, when it gained independence as G ...
, later Guinea-Bissau, at one point making up three-quarters of the civil service.


Independence

Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau campaigned together for independence from
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...
, chiefly led by
Amílcar Cabral Amílcar Lopes Cabral (; – ) was a Bissau-Guinean and Cape Verdean agricultural engineer, political organizer, and diplomat. He was one of Africa's foremost anti-colonial leaders. He was also a pan-Africanist and intellectual nationalist ...
's Marxist
African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde The African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (, PAIGC) is a political party in Guinea-Bissau. Originally formed to peacefully campaign for independence from Portugal, the party turned to armed conflict in the 1960s and was o ...
(PAIGC) from 1956. Cape Verde provided the bourgeoisie that led the anti-colonial movement in Portuguese Guinea. An ideology of unity was key to Cabral's theory of African liberation, and Cabral was himself Cape Verdean Guinea-Bissauan, though the call for unity was partly a tactic to avoid Guinea-Bissau becoming independent without Cape Verde, as the latter had closer ties to Portugal. The PAIGC then fought the
Guinea-Bissau War of Independence The Guinea-Bissau War of Independence (), also known as the Bissau-Guinean War of Independence, was an armed independence conflict that took place in Portuguese Guinea from 1963 to 1974. It was fought between Portugal and the African Party for t ...
(part of the wider
Portuguese Colonial War The Portuguese Colonial War (), also known in Portugal as the Overseas War () or in the Portuguese Empire, former colonies as the War of Liberation (), and also known as the Angolan War of Independence, Angolan, Guinea-Bissau War of Independence ...
), and declared independence in 1973, being formally granted independence in September 1974. Cape Verde joined Guinea-Bissau in independence from Portugal when it peacefully negotiated independence on 5 July 1975, following the April 1974
Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution (), code-named Operation Historic Turn (), also known as the 25 April (), was a military coup by military officers that overthrew the Estado Novo government on 25 April 1974 in Portugal. The coup produced major socia ...
in Portugal, and Aristides Pereira of the PAIGC became president. The intent was unification, as written into the two countries' constitutions. The PAIGC viewed them as "sister republics" with "two bodies with only one heart", and the countries shared a flag and national anthem. However, the elites in Cape Verde opposed unification, there were constitutional and legal differences, and the trade between them was minor. On November 14, 1980, a ''
coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...
'' by
João Bernardo Vieira João Bernardo "Nino" Vieira (; 27 April 1939 – 2 March 2009) was a Bissau-Guinean politician and military officer who served as President of Guinea-Bissau from 1980 to 1999, except for a three-day period in May 1984, and from 2005 until ...
against "foreign"
mestiço ''Mestiço'' is a Portuguese term that referred to persons of mixed European and Indigenous non-European ancestry in the former Portuguese Empire. Mestiço community in Brazil In Colonial Brazil, it was initially used to refer to , persons b ...
s overthrew the government of Luís Cabral (half-brother of Amílcar) in Guinea-Bissau, leading to Cape Verde separating under
Pedro Pires Pedro de Verona Rodrigues Pires (; born 29 April 1934) is a Cape Verdean politician who served as Prime Minister of Cape Verde from 1975 to 1991, and later as president from 2001 to 2011. Life and career Pires was born in São Filipe, Fogo, Cap ...
on January 20, 1981 and forming the ruling
African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde The African Party for Independence of Cape Verde (, PAICV) is a democratic socialist political party in Cape Verde. It was the sole legal party in the country from 1981 to 1990. Its members are nicknamed "" (the tamarinds) in Portuguese, and t ...
(PAICV).


1980s–2000s

From 1980 to 2000, during the Vieira presidency in Guinea-Bissau, the countries were less closely involved. Guinea-Bissau experienced a lack of development and periods of violence while Cape Verde was relatively stable. Guinea-Bissau was, like other "non-aligned" African states, closer to the Soviet Union, while Cape Verde, nominally Marxist, formed relations with Western countries due to a dependence on food imports following drought. Diplomatic relations were restored after the presidents met in June 1982, and an ambassador from Cape Verde was received by Guinea-Bissau in July 1983. After multi-party politics was introduced in Cape Verde in 1990, the victorious Movimento para Democracia changed the flag and national anthem away from being similar to that of Guinea-Bissau. In the 1998
Guinea-Bissau Civil War The Guinea-Bissau Civil War was fought from 7 June 1998 to 10 May 1999 and was triggered by an attempted 1998 Guinea-Bissau coup attempt, coup d'état against the government of Heads of State of Guinea-Bissau, President João Bernardo Vieira led ...
, triggered by a crackdown on Senagelese separatists in Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde called for the withdrawal of troops from Senegal and Guinea-Conakry from Guinea-Bissau, there to support Viera. Cape Verde also opposed Viera's request for ECOWAS to send peacekeepers. Cape Verde took in refugees from Guinea-Bissau and helped to negotiate peace as part of the CPLP, with Cape Verdean foreign minister José Luís de Jesus chairing the discussions on a Portuguese warship that led to a ceasefire agreement. The Cape Verde president Peres also mediated during the violent 2005 presidential election campaign in Guinea-Bissau, and following the 2009 assassination of Vieira.


Bilateral relations post 2010

Relations have improved since the election of
Malam Bacai Sanhá Malam Bacai Sanhá () (5 May 1947 – 9 January 2012) was a Guinea-Bissau politician who was President of Guinea-Bissau from 8 September 2009 until his death on 9 January 2012. A member of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and ...
in Guinea-Bissau in 2009. The air connection between the countries operated by TACV, which had been suspended following the April 2012 coup in Guinea-Bissau, was restored in June 2015 during a visit of Cape Verdean Prime Minister José Maria Neves to Bissau to meet
Domingos Simões Pereira Domingos Simões Pereira (born 20 October 1963) is a Guinea-Bissau, Bissau-Guinean politician who was Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau from 2014 to August 2015. He previously served as Executive Secretary of the Community of Portuguese Language Co ...
and discuss economic and business relations. Neves had last visited in 2011. The countries signed an agreement on avoiding
double taxation Double taxation is the levying of tax by two or more jurisdictions on the same income (in the case of income taxes), asset (in the case of capital taxes), or financial transaction (in the case of sales taxes). Double liability may be mitigated ...
that September.


Cultural relations

Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau share the
Portuguese language Portuguese ( or ) is a Western Romance language of the Indo-European language family originating from the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is the official language of Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and São Tomà ...
as their official language, and the Portuguese creole Crioulo language as a recognised language. Cape Verdean Guinea-Bissauans have formed an Associação dos Filhos e Descendentes de Cabo Verde, and Guinea-Bissauan Cape Verdeans, who number around 8–9000, have formed an Associacao dos Guineeneses Residentes em Cabo Verde. Despite their shared language and culture, immigrants from Guinea-Bissau are often viewed as " manjacos", a derogatory term used for people from mainland Africa and the legalisation of Guinea-Bissauans in Cape Verde has been long delayed.


Resident diplomatic missions

* Cape Verde has an embassy in
Bissau Bissau () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Guinea-Bissau. it had a population of 492,004. Bissau is located on the Geba River estuary, off the Atlantic Ocean, and is Guinea-Bissau's largest city, major port, its administr ...
. * Guinea-Bissau has an embassy in
Praia Praia (, Portuguese for "beach") is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde.Conference of Nationalist Organizations of the Portuguese Colonies *
Foreign relations of Guinea-Bissau The Republic of Guinea-Bissau follows a nonaligned foreign policy and seeks friendly and cooperative relations with a wide variety of states and organizations. France, Portugal, Angola, Brazil, Egypt, Nigeria, Libya, Cuba, the Palestine Liberati ...
*
Foreign relations of Cape Verde Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United S ...
* Cape Verdean Guinea-Bissauan *


References


External links


News on Cape Verde–Guinea-Bissau relations
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Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau, officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, is a country in West Africa that covers with an estimated population of 2,026,778. It borders Senegal to Guinea-Bissau–Senegal border, its north and Guinea to Guinea–Guinea-Bissau b ...
Cape Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...