Guinea-Bissau, a tiny country in West Africa (map), ranks 173 out of 177 on the UN’s Human Development Index, which means that the average lifespan, literacy, and GDP per capita are very low.   The picture above, from 1998, is part of the reason -- they had a civil war.  The nice new building that Amidou and Abuldai Sila had built for their business had the misfortune of being between the two armies and it got bombed.   Computers don’t survive bombs.  Buildings don’t either.   Ideas can survive, and people with dedication and heart pick up the pieces and rebuild to make the future better for their children.

When Amidou and Abdulai were growing up the ruling Portuguese severely discriminated against the local people.   Their father could not read or write but sent them to a local Catholic school (even though they were Muslim). 

After Independence there were selected to go to the University in Brazil; Abdulai also worked in Germany for a time.   They came back to Guinea-Bissau and eventually built their business and the building, and helped bring the first Internet service to Guinea-Bissau. 

Rumor has it that what started as a coup turned into a war with Senegalese troops involved after the incumbent Guinea-Bissau President made a $100M payment from his personal account to the Senegalese President, which helped persuade him to honor a mutual defense treaty.  After the 1998 war destroyed their building and equipment Amidou and Abdulai started over and now have the the top Internet Service Provider company, Eguitel. 

They

covered an unexploded bomb in concrete, bought and installed a new satellite antenna and built a

radio mast.  Their business is doing pretty well, although like all businesses in Guinea-Bissau, they face incredible challenges, including power.   Pretty much all businesses there must have their own diesel generator because power is cut off much of the day and

all of the night.   One of the reasons is that government departments don’t pay their bills to the power company, which can therefore only afford to run their generators part of the day.  It’s all very inefficient.   And, like most places in Africa, all communications with the rest of the world is through satellite systems.  They work, but they are far more expensive and slower than the fiber optic systems used elsewhere.

I went to Guinea-Bissau because Brian King (above) knew it well from working in the Peace Corp and then supervising USAID projects.   While he was there he learned Portuguese, Kriol (a mixture of local languages and 15th century Portuguese), and Fulani.    Back in the US he discovered that a famous Guinea-Bissau musician,

Ze Manel, lived down the street from him.   In the 70’s Ze Manel was one of the leaders of Super Mama Djombo, a legendary band that started in the back country with kids in Boy Scout camp (!!) in the mid-sixties, and grew into the national band of the Independence struggle.   They regularly toured to open for President Luis Cabral's speaking engagements and their concerts were broadcast live on the national radio.   Their music, like many emergent sounds of that time in West Africa, was electrified folk music.  Years later, Brian helped make a record label to publish their only recordings, made in Lisbon in 1980.  I really like it; you can listen to them here and read more about them here; it’s a great story.  

On Thursday we

drove to Gabu, in the east of the country, to inspect some towers that could be used for Eguitel’s backbone network.   One was built by the Catholic mission Carritas, which has a significant presence in the country, partly staffed from Brazil and Italy.   Equitel helps them with their FM broadcast radios and some IT training classes, and uses their towers.  I sat through a very nice lunch at their compound near Bafida, presided by the Bishop, a very friendly and energetic person from Brazil and a strong leader.    Most of conversation was in Portuguese, so I sat there imaging what they were saying; once in a while after a funny story they’d explain it to me.

The other tower was being built by a large multinational cell phone operator; Eguitel

hoped to have a partnership with them and use their towers and in return integrate their corporate clients to this company’s voice system.   The tower was quite tall -- 76 meters.   As in much of the developing world, much of the foreign investment is for telecom, such as this tower.   In countries such as this where many things are built poorly or not maintained, the telecom infrastructure stands out: this tower is built to last, and the cellular operators, making good profits, are continuing to invest in infrastructure and people.

A construction crew of mostly Susa speaking people from Sierra Leone and Guinea-Conakry was

building the cellular tower.   When the Europeans colonized the area they claimed sections based on their ports and influence, which had little to do with the local languages and peoples, so the Susa people are spread over an English speaking country (Sierra Leone), a French speaking country (Guinea-Conakry), and a Portuguese speaking country (Guinea-Bissau).   Amidou’s mother was a Susa from Guinea, so he could speak to them in Susa.   Or French, or English.  Conversations with a group of people tend to jump around in a couple languages.   Of course, I only speak English and a bit of German.

On the

way we drove through miles and miles of cashew trees, some rice fields, and occasional villages and towns.   The people are very poor but don’t starve as the land supports a variety of fruits, grains, and vegetables.  All land tilling is done by hand -- no tractors and not even animals pulling ploughs.   I think their activities alternate from back-breaking work, planting crops, carrying things, etc., to sitting around waiting for something to happen.

People sit around a lot.   Men sit together,

women together, maybe with a radio or boombox or a deck of cards.   Or maybe with a few items to possibly sell.  I think I’d go crazy with boredom.  Boys or girls sit alone on the side of the road next to a small pile of fruit, hoping someone will buy it.  Small boys, maybe 4-5 years old, help tend cattle.   That means standing around for hours watching the cattle, occasionally prodding them to go somewhere.    There is an saying “The Europeans have the watches, but the Africans have the time”.

People there

walk a lot, some ride bicycles, some get rides in shared taxis.   Mostly they carry things on their heads.   Bicycles can carry quite a bit, and the small vans used as buses are often piled high with all manner of good.

Most

of the people now live in newer compounds, with metal roofs made from sections of corrugated metal (called “zincs”).   A few are still living in the more traditional round buildings with thatch roofs.   They’re quite picturesque, but I guess given a choice what we might think is crummy looking is actually better.   They certainly choose to spend some of their little money on zincs for their roof.

Small children,

maybe 4-6 years old, look after younger children, often carrying them around.  This girl is from a prominent local family in a town; thus the nice dress she has.   Poorer children in the country barely have clothes.

Some of the towns have had population decline as people moved to Bissau.   Wow.  Bissau is not great place by any means, but I guess that means they see better opportunities there.

The US diplomatic situation is funny.   The Embassy building was damaged in the war and is closed.  The Ambassador to Senegal also covers Guinea-Bissau and comes by once in a while (see NY Times story).   The official

US presence is two rooms in Equitel’s building.  No sign, just an extra strong office door with metal detector inside.  One ‘security guard’ (fortunately not armed), and very casual), and one official behind a desk.   We went in and said hi.  Later the fellow came to a NetAcad graduation ceremony, which was nice.  One reason for the US to get back engaged is that narco-trafficers have been using the islands in the archipelago as a shipping hub to Europe.   Ugh!   This is not good.

Brian and

Ze Manel have a plan to establish a recording studio in Bissau for local and regional performers, such as this fellow playing a traditional one-stringed fiddle-like instrument.  The music could be played over the network of radio station and MP3’s made available on local servers. That would be nice for the country.

The night

before I left Guinea-Bissau I went to a club with Abdulai and heard a group playing similar music, including  the now-blind saxophone player from Mama Djombo.

Amidou and Abdulai took me to the airport, helped me through the procedures and talked their way through passport control without any documents.   They stayed, chatting with various friends and officials, such as the Minister of Interior.  The plane was delayed for two hours past its scheduled 2:00 AM departure.   I thought, “Well, par for the course in Africa”.   This caused me to miss connections in Lisbon and therefore Frankfurt, so I had to stay overnight and get home the next day.  In Europe everything was neat, clean, and as it should be, which was a relief.  Today the United flight home was delayed an hour and a half.   I didn’t mind because I was nicely ensconced in a upgraded seat and didn’t have any more connections, but it made me a bit less smug about things.

More pictures here.