Colonialism left Guinea-Bissau in the obscurantism that still hurts
The Minister of Foreign Affairs (MNE) of Guinea said today that colonialism "left Guinea in obscurantism" with an intentional lack of training of cadres that still harms the country, although it does not intend to ask Portugal for compensation.
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Mundo Guiné-Bissau
"The Government of Guinea-Bissau will not claim reparations or compensation, but this does not mean that we are not sensitive to the subject", noted Carlos Pinto Pereira, in an interview with Lusa and other Portuguese media outlets in Bissau.
The Guinean government official stated that the subject, raised by the Portuguese President, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who admits that Portugal should consider compensating the African countries it colonised, is controversial, with positions "of all kinds".
"But there is a reality that is the existence of colonialism and that it had different impacts in various countries where it was present", noted Carlos Pinto Pereira.
The consequence of colonialism, said Pereira, was evident when the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) took over the new State in 1974, when, he recalls, there were no more than "half a dozen cadres" trained in Guinea-Bissau.
"This situation was intentionally caused by colonialism, which decided to leave Guinea in obscurantism, in illiteracy. Now, someone has to be held responsible for this. We cannot continue to whistle in the wind as if nothing happened. No, this happened and it is a reality", declared the Guinean MNE.
Carlos Pinto Pereira considered that the current situation in Guinea-Bissau, "which is now on everyone's lips", is also derived from the lack of training of cadres by Portuguese colonialism.
"In fact, Guinea was abandoned and it is not fair that people today say no, that we have nothing to do with it", defended the Guinean government official, who is not concerned that Portugal took gold, diamonds and other resources from Guinea.
The dissatisfaction, an idea repeated by Carlos Pinto Pereira, is the fact that Portugal did not train cadres in the former territory.
The Guinean MNE also urges Portugal to include in history books what happened during the colonisation of African territories and to help Guinea-Bissau do the same.
"We here in Guinea have the right to know what happened", noted Pinto Pereira, who "perfectly" understands Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa's position on the matter.
Read also: More than 40 dead in the repression of protests in Guinea-Conakry since 2021 (Portuguese version)
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