Guinea-Bissau
Guinea: population and cities
Population
Population
According to Countryaah website, Guinea-Bissau has around 1.9 million residents. In addition to the high HIV
infection rate of more than 10% and a very high infant mortality rate, the low
life expectancy of both sexes is particularly alarming. It is less than 50
years.

Ethnic composition
The country's population is made up of more than 25 West African ethnic
groups. Of these, about 30% are Balante, 20% Fula, 14% Mandjako, 13% Mandindo
and 7% Pepel. The name of the country, Guinea-Bissau, also goes back to the
latter group or its Portuguese name Bisãos. The ethnic groups differ in
language, culture and way of life. Cape Verdeans, Portuguese, Syrians and
Lebanese dominate among the foreigners living in the country.
Religious affiliation
About half of the population of Guinea-Bissau profess Islam. 40%
adhere to natural religions and another 10% to Christianity. The latter are
mostly Roman Catholic.
National languages It is a grotesque fact that most of the
residents of Guinea-Bissau have a poor or no command of Portuguese, the official
language of the country and the only language of instruction in schools. A mere
14% can claim to speak Portuguese.
The colloquial language in the country is mainly Crioulo or Kriol, a type of
Creole Portuguese that is understood by about 60% of the people. West African
tribal languages are also spoken. They include Fulani, Balante and Mandinka.
Capital and other cities
Bafatá
This pretty town is also the birthplace of the Bissau-Guinean national hero
Amílcar Cabral, whose birthplace can be found near the old market. The city of
22,500 residents impresses with its interesting colonial center, which extends
on the picturesque banks of the Rio Gêba. The capital of the Bafatá region is
the seat of the Catholic diocese of the same name and is surrounded by a rich
animal world, the most striking representatives of which are macaques and
monkeys. According to Abbreviation Finder, GNB stands for Guinea-Bissau in English. Click to see other meanings of this 3-letter acronym.
Bissau
Of the approximately 1.9 million residents of Guinea-Bissau, 500,000 live in
the very quiet capital Bissau, the political, administrative and economic center
of the small country. Almost all foreign trade runs through the city, which also
has Guinea-Bissau's only international airport. The economic center is the
former Portuguese city center, the Praça. This is where the city's ministries,
banks and large hotels are located. The city, however, suffers from a deplorably
weak infrastructure, which was fatally blown by the civil war of
1998/99. Electricity, water supply, roads - everything is in a dilapidated
condition, and even the former presidential palace only rises up into the sky as
a dreary ruin. As one of the last capitals in the world, Bissau is almost
completely in the dark at night. Even the public buildings are falling into
disrepair. If there were sights in the city, they are only a shadow of
themselves. A small ray of hope is the Carneval, which is well worth seeing,
which takes place in Bissau every year at the end of February/beginning of
March.
Bolama
On the island of the same name, about 65 km² in size, lies Bolama, the port and
capital of the administrative region Bolama. It was the capital of the
Portuguese colony until 1941, as evidenced by numerous fascinating colonial
buildings that have survived the ravages of time and the civil war.
Unfortunately, Bolama is decaying more and more, so that streets and buildings
are slowly overgrown by trees and bushes.
Buba
On the Rio Grande de Buba and near the Contanhez National Park is Buba, the
largest city in southern Guinea-Bissau with just 8,000 residents. The port and
capital of the Quinara region had even been chosen as the capital of
Guinea-Bissau by Kumba Yala, the country's former president, a plan that was
never implemented.
Cacheu
The capital of the region of the same name, Cacheu, is located in the north-west
of Guinea-Bissau and has almost 11,000 residents. The once important ferry
port in the country has some interesting structures that are worth seeing. In
addition to the colonial fortress, the Tarafes de Cacheu mangrove nature park
extends near the city.
Farim
In northern Guinea-Bissau and on the northern bank of the Rio Cacheu, Farim is
spreading, a city with about 7,000 residents that was once an attractive
trading center, but suffered greatly from the independence and civil war.
Gabú
Gabú, the largest city in East Guinea-Bissau, acts as the capital of the region
of the same name. Around 40,000 people currently live in the market and trading
town, which is dominated by the Muslim Fulbe.
Guinea-Bissau: geography, map
Guinea-Bissau consists of the mainland part and the Bissagós archipelago, the
shortest distance to the mainland of which is a little less than 10 km. The
archipelago consists of around 88 islands, 21 of which are inhabited. The most
famous islands are Ilha de Orango, Ilha Caravela, Ilha Bolama with an airfield
and the holiday island Formosa. Check
topmbadirectory for politics, flags, famous people, animals and plants of Guinea-Bissau.

Guinea-Bissau is a very flat country in West Africa on the Atlantic Ocean. Due
to the tides, around 8,000 km² of the mainland are regularly flooded by the
rising rivers.
The country covers an area of 36,125 km². Thereof:
- Forest
Over 30% of the country is forested area - mostly tropical rainforest.
- Meadow and pasture land
Around 40% of the land is used as meadow or pasture land.
- Fields and fields
Around 20% of the land is used as arable land or fields, especially for
growing rice, maize, millet, cassava, yams, potatoes and sugar cane
(subsistence farming) as well as peanuts, cashew nuts and oil palms for
export.
Guinea-Bissau borders the following two countries:
- Guinea with a length of 386 km and
- Senegal with a length of 338 km.
Guinea-Bissau has a coast to the Atlantic Ocean with a length of 350 km.
Tidal range
In Guinea-Bissau the mean tidal range is around 3.50 cm.
For detailed explanations of ebb and flow, see Tides, Ebb and Flow.
Compare
The world's highest tidal range can be found in the Bay of Fundy in Canada,
where it is up to 16 m, and at spring tide even over 20 m. The Bay of Fundy is
located on the Atlantic between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova
Scotia, which is called Nova Scotia in German and whose capital is Halifax. On
the German North Sea coast it varies between 1 m and 3 m. In the western Baltic
Sea, on the other hand, the tidal range is only 0.3 m, while it is barely
noticeable in the eastern Baltic Sea.
Longitude and latitude
Guinea-Bissau extends over the following geographical latitude (abbreviation
Δφ) and geographical longitude (abbreviation Δλ):
Δφ = from around 11 ° to 12 ° north latitude
Δλ = from around 13 ° to 17 ° west longitude |
You can find detailed information on this subject under Longitude and
Latitude.
Time
For Guinea-Bissau, the following value applies to Central European Time
(CET), i.e. the time (without summer time)
in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. A minus sign means that it is earlier
there and a plus sign that it is later than after CET:
Further and detailed explanations of the time can be found under Time zones,
time.
The highest point of the sun in Bissau
Bissau lies at a northern latitude of around δ = 12 °.
If the declination δ of the sun has the value of 12 ° N, and so the image point
of the sun is exactly above the city, the sun is perpendicular there. This
happens exactly twice a year, roughly 45 days before June 21st and again 45 days
after June 21st.
Attention
If the image point of the sun and thus the declination is north of the latitude
of Bissau, the sun is not in the south at noon, as in our latitudes, but in the
north. In this case, the sun moves from east to north to west, where, like us,
it sets.
mountains
The highest "mountain" in Guinea-Bissau is the Madina do Boé
with a height of 262 m.
Rivers, lakes
The longest river in the country is the Mansôa with a length
of km.
Other rivers are
- Río Gêba
- Río Cacheu
- Río Corubal
- Tombali
- Féfiné
There are no larger lakes in Guinea-Bissau.
Islands
Off the coast lies the Bissagos Archipelago, which consists
of 88 islands, 21 of which are inhabited, and is a UNESCO World Heritage
Site. These include the Ilha de Orango, Bolama, Bubaque, Caravela, Rubane, João
Viera, Como and Pecixe.
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