Cashew country and the Bijagos — Portuguese ruins, palm wine and islands beyond the horizon
Bissau is the capital of Guinea-Bissau, one of the world's 20 poorest countries and one of the least-visited nations in West Africa — a city of faded Portuguese colonial palaces crumbling into lush tropical vegetation, hammocks under mango trees, and an extraordinary offshore island world. The Bijagos Archipelago — 88 islands of which only 20 are inhabited — is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and one of West Africa's last pristine coastal wildernesses, home to saltwater hippos, sea turtles, and the indigenous Bijago people whose matrilineal society traces ancestry entirely through the female line.…
The territory was a major node in the transatlantic slave trade under Portuguese control — the Bijago Islands' seafaring people were among the few West African groups who successfully raided Portuguese ships and resisted full colonisation for centuries. The independence war (1963–1974) was led by Amílcar Cabral's PAIGC, which achieved independence simultaneously for both Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde in 1974 after the Portuguese Carnation Revolution ended the Estado Novo regime. Since independence the country has had more coups than years of stable government — nine successful coups in 50 year…