Word: guinea-bissau
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With a large crowd of dignitaries looking on, Portuguese Foreign Minister Mario Scares last week took a historic step for the world's oldest empire. He signed an agreement in Algiers granting independence to the 600,000 people of the West African territory of Portuguese Guinea, henceforth to be known as Guinea-Bissau. It was the first official move by Portugal to give independence to its African territories, which have been racked by guerrilla war; Angola and Mozambique will be next. And it came four months and a day after a coup in Lisbon paved...
From the balmy streets of the Mozambique capital of Lourenço Marques on the Indian Ocean to the jungles of Guinea-Bissau on the Atlantic to the porticoed halls of Lisbon's presidential palace, the news announced last week by Portuguese President Antonio de Spinola was for the most part greeted with shouts and demonstrations...
...Guinea-Bissau (3,000 whites, 500,000 blacks) is the smallest problem. It will be the first territory to be given independence. The nationalist African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (P.A.I.G.C.) declared a republic last year, which is now recognized by 80 countries, including the Soviet Union. Portuguese authorities said that Lisbon will almost certainly recognize the existing government...
...Spinola, 64, the announcement climaxed a long struggle of conscience that began in 1968 when, as a brigadier general, he served in Guinea-Bissau as commander and military governor. After returning home to a hero's welcome last year, he wrote a controversial book, Portugal and the Future, in which he argued that there was "no viable military solution" to the problem of the colonies and that continuation of the war would "irremediably compromise the survival" of Portugal. The book became an instant bestseller, and Spinola was fired as deputy chief of the armed forces. A few weeks later...
Finally, a word about the caliber of leadership among African nationalist movements. Professor Rogers suggests that Guinea-Bissau alone has an able leadership ready to take over the reins of government and implies that Lisbon is in a position to groom leaders for both Mozambique and Angola. Apart from the fact that Lisbon has lost the colonial prerogative to decide "when the native is ready for independence," the fact of the matter is that thirteen years of fighting have produced a more seasoned leadership than four hundred years of Portuguese colonialism could master. In my opinion such leaders as Samora...