Francisca Lucas Pereira Gomes (born 1942), normally known as Francisca Pereira, is a former

Bissau-Guinean This is a demography of the population of Guinea-Bissau including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. Population According to the 2 ...

nurse, independence activist and current politician. She was born in Bolama, the former capital of the Portuguese colony of

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 ...

. As a young woman she joined the Guinea-Bissau Liberation Movement (''Movimento para Independência Nacional da Guiné Portuguesa'') (later the PAIGC) in 1959/60. She first worked in the Secretariat of the PAIGC in

Conakry Conakry ( , ; ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guinea. A port city, it serves as the economic, financial and cultural centre of Guinea. Its population as of the 2014 Guinea census was 1,660,973. The current population of C ...

, being sent in 1965 to Kiev in the former USSR to receive training as a nurse. From 1967, she was deputy director of the ''Escola Piloto'' in Conakry, a training centre for Guinea-Bissauan child soldiers and war refugees. During the years of revolution she worked as a nurse in PAIGC-occupied areas in Guinea and then at the PAIGC hospital at

Ziguinchor Ziguinchor (; ; ) is the capital of the Ziguinchor Region, and the chief town of the Casamance area of Senegal, lying at the mouth of the Casamance River. It has a population of 214,874 (2023 census). It is the eighth largest city of Senegal ...

in Senegal. Between 1970 and 1975 she represented the women's corps at several PAIGC conferences. Since independence, Pereira held various offices in the Guinea-Bissau state. She was the Mayor of her home town of Bolama and chairman of the Guinea-Bissau Women's Union (''União Democrática the Mulheres da Guiné-Bissau''). After the democratization of Guinea-Bissau and the introduction of the multi-party system, Pereira held positions such as Minister for Women's Affairs (from 1990 to 1994), the first Deputy President of the National Assembly (from 1994 to 1997) and Minister of the Interior (from 1997 to 1999). In 2002 she was appointed Minister of State for political affairs and diplomacy.

References

* This article is based on a translation of the equivalent article in German Wikipedia. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pereira, Francisca 1942 births Living people Bissau-Guinean activists Bissau-Guinean women activists Bissau-Guinean nurses Women's ministers of Guinea-Bissau Government ministers of Guinea-Bissau Female interior ministers Women mayors of places in Guinea-Bissau Mayors of places in Guinea-Bissau People from Bolama region African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde politicians 20th-century women politicians 21st-century women politicians Women government ministers of Guinea-Bissau African women in war