War: Guinea-Bissau

Above on the left is a map of the Casamance region in Senegal, the flashpoint for the conflict. On the right is ECOWAS .

Like in Sierra Leone , the war in Guinea-Bissau had decisive language elements both in the internal situation and in the international response. Guinea-Bissau is a former Portuguese colony surrounded by former French colonies, all part of ECOWAS.

The main two actors in Guinea-Bissau were the dictator, Vieira, and the Chief of the Army, Mane. Mane (d. 2000) was a Gambian Jola speaker, but had been part of the independence struggles for Guinea-Bissau from the beginning.

The Casamance region of Senegal was negotiated away from Portugal in 1888, to France. During the Guinea-Bissau war of independence from Portugal, rebels found sanctuary in the Casamance region. In the late 1980s the MFDC , a rebel group, allegedly representing the Jola speakers of Casamance, but armed, trained and based in Guinea-Bissau, began attempts to bring Casamance into Guinea-Bissau's sphere.

Vieira was initially in favor of this, but in the mid-1990s, in an attempt to move towards closer relations with France, he began to distance himself from the MFDC. This came to a head in 1998, when he sacked Mane, a strong MFDC supporter (and fellow Jola speaker). Mane began the revolt the next day with strong backing from the Armed Forces and support from the MFDC rebels.

Initially the United Nations, the European Union, the African Union, and ECOWAS all supported the dictator Vieira over Mane. In ECOWAS, the Anglophone faction, led by Nigeria, was uninterested, and the lead fell to the Francophone group1 . Francophone Senegal and Guinea sent troops to support the Vieira government.

Initial support for Mane came from the Roman Catholic Bishop of Guinea-Bissau. Guinea-Bissau is only 5% Roman Catholic, but the Bishop, who had lived in the country since 1955, was widely respected. The international Lusophone group, CPLP , specifically Portugal and Angola, tacitly sided with Mane.

An agreement reached in Abuja, Nigeria, led to the replacement of Senegalese and Guinean troops with an ECOMOG force. As in the case with Sierra Leone , the ECOMOG force was principally from one of the three main language groups of the region, in this instance Francophone Benin, Niger, and Togo with only one Anglophone country, The Gambia, taking part.2 . Senegalese and Guinean troops were objected to by Mane, so perhaps the Gambian troops were there with Senegalese urging.

Mane eventually ran a caretaker government until elections could be held. He then interfered with the elected government, which had him killed.

Ethnologue reports that Jola speakers in Guinea-Bissau and Mane's home Gambia are few in number.

Historical and linguistic forces brought about the Casamance struggle. The Francophone, Anglophone and Lusophone factions of ECOWAS and in the international community generally seems to have determined which side the international actors backed.