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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Portugal's Civilizing Mission in Colonial Guinea-Bissau: Rhetoric and Reality
Author:Mendy, Peter KaribeISNI
Year:2003
Periodical:International Journal of African Historical Studies
Volume:36
Issue:1
Pages:35-58
Language:English
Geographic terms:Guinea-Bissau
Portugal
Subjects:colonialism
History and Exploration
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/3559318
Abstract:This article explores Portugal's 'civilizing mission' in Guinea-Bissau (former Portuguese Guinea) during a colonial presence that was firmly established in the early years of the 20th century, and which ended abruptly in 1974, following a decade-long bloody war of independence. This 'civilizing mission' was used as justification for colonial domination and exploitation. However, its hollowness was evident in the paucity of the very institutions needed to impart the much-lauded Lusitanian culture. On the eve of the launching of the armed liberation struggle, Guinea-Bissau had the highest illiteracy rate among Portugal's five colonies in Africa. For those contemptuously referred to as natives or uncivilized, the harsh realities of the civilizing mission meant, in particular, the systematic use of forced labour and corporal punishment under the indigenato regime - a system based on the widespread abuse of fundamental human rights. The Guineans whom the colonial regime considered uncivilized revolted against colonial exploitation and oppression. The revolt emerged as both spontaneous and sporadic, but it was soon organized and led by a group the regime considered assimilated and civilized. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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