Colonization and

Decolonization
Prof. Lus Nuno Rodrigues
Nicole Batista
ISCTE- 2015

Portugals Civilizing mission in

colonial Guinea Bissau: rhetoric
and reality
Peter Mendy

 Peter Karibe Mendy: Associate Professor

of History and African Studies at Rhode
Island College, with a doctorate in Political
Science and West African Studies from the
University of Birmingham, England.
Published in Internacional Journal
African Historical Studies, 2003

of

 Main objective: To explore Portugals civilizing

mission in Guinea Bissau, that starts in the early
years of the 20th century until 1974.
Sources: Historical documents and bibliographic
research.

 Central thesis: To show the essencial meaning

of the so-called parternalistic process of
governement and administration by focussing on
the policies of the colonial state.

 When we talk about Empire, we just mean

community of peoples. We live together, we do
not subjugate. We practice, it is certain, with
regards to the native population of Africa, a
paternalistic
process
of
government
and
administration, but in this paternalism are implicit
loving
care,
human
solidarity,
Christian
communion.
(Marcelo Caetano, prime minister of the New State in 1968)

Early Encounters
1446: Luso-Guinean encounter
The Portuguese faced 450 years of resistance in
Guineas colonization
During this time the Portuguese had little
influence in that territoriy.
1878: The disaster of Bolor

Establishing the Pax Lusitania

1912: Portuguese authorities notice that they did
not have any effective control on Guineas
territory.
1913-1915: Military campaigns with the help of
African mercenary to guarantee effective
domination of all the territory.

Under colonial domination:

The indigenato regime
1917: Organic Charter of Guinea (divided the
population between civilized and uncivilized)
Conditions to becoming a citizen aimed to deAfricanize the Guineans.
1918: Office of Native Affairs (a policy of
association, of the intelligence of the European who
thinks and the hands of the native that execute.)
Civilizing the natives through the obligation of work

The indigenato code

Political, Civil and Criminal Statute of the Natives
(1929)
Colonial Act (1930)
Organic Charter
Empire(1933)

of

the

Portuguese

Overseas Administrative Reform (1933)

1961: end of the indigenato code

Colonial

Colonial Economy Policies and Practices

The military campaigns incurred an enormous
financial cost.
1903: Payment of a hut tax.
Monopolization of trading activities
The colonial economy in Guinea was basically a
peasant economy
1970: Better Guinea program

The civilizing mission: Education,

assimilation and revolt
Policy of assimilation: the objective was to create
an African people speaking only Portuguese,
embracing
Christianity,
and
as
intensely
nationalist Portuguese as the metropolitan
citizens themselves.
The natives were treated as having an infantile
mentality, and a prelogical reasoning.
High levels of iliteracy

The civilizing mission: Education,

assimilation and revolt
The literate elites of Guinea and Cape Verde started to
reactions against the governement policies, that were
repressed by the Portuguese.
1950s: The agitations for independence starts in
Guinea leaded by Amilcar Cabral.
Portugals Vietnam: 35000 soldiers, napalm bombs,
liberal use of torture, summary executions.
The war culminated with the declaration of
independence of Guinea on September the 24 of 1973.

Conclusion
Civilizing mission was revived as justification for
colonial domination and explotation p. 57

The harsh realities of the civilizing mission

meant, in particular, the systematic use of forced
labor and corporal punishment under the
indigenato regime - a system based on the
widespread abuse of fundamental human rights.
p. 58

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O-obP3r6Hw

Thank you!