Left: Amilcar Cabral Right: Siphiwe Baleka
This article explains:
Amilcar Cabral taught that our history began before imperialism and Portuguese colonialism.
Prince Henry of Portugal learned about the land of Guine in 1415 during the Battle of Ceuta and decided then to invade Guine.
Pope Nicholas V and the King of Portugal declared War against Guine on June 18, 1452 in a document called the Dum Diversas.
The final battle of the Dum Diversas War began on August 3, 1961 and was led by Amilcar Cabral.
The Dum Diversas War, which lasted 521 years, ended on September 24, 1973 at Madina do Boe when Independence was declared.
Guinea Bissau’s Independence is not yet complete because the prisoners of the Dum Diversas War that were captured and taken to the Americas and elsewhere have not yet been repatriated according to the Geneva Convention.
The government of Guinea Bissau has a responsibility, under the Geneva Convention, to negotiate the repatriation of the remaining prisoners of the Dum Diversas War with foreign governments.
The final project of Guinea Bissau’s Independence is called the Decade of Return Initiative and is being led today by Siphiwe Baleka.
“In our specific case, the struggle is the following: the Portuguese colonialists have taken our land, as foreigneers and occupiers, and have exerted a force on our society. on our people. The force has operated so that they should take our destiny into their own hands, has operated so that they should halt our history for us to remain tied to the history of Portugal, as if we were a wagon on their train. And they have created a series of conditions, within our land; economic, social, cultural conditions, etc. For this they had to overcome a force. During almost fifty years they waged a colonial war against our people: war against Manjaco, Pepel, Fula, Mandinga, Beafada, Balanta, Felupe, against nearly all the ethnic groups of our land in Guine. In Cape Verde, the Portuguese colonialists found the islands deserted. At the period when the great exploitation of African men as slaves in the world appeared. . . . they decided to turn the archpelago into a storehouse for slaves. Folk taken from Africa, namely from Guine, were placed. . . as slaves. . . .There was constant resistance to this force. If the colonial force was acting in one direction, there was always our force which acted in the opposite direction.”
- Amilcar Cabral, Part 1: The Weapon of Theory - Party Principles and Political Practice: 4. Unity and struggle
Amilcar Cabral said that the Portuguese took our land. He also said that at the period when slavery started, there was constant resistance by the people of Guinea Bissau. Amilcar Cabral also said,
“There is a preconception held by many people, even on the left, that imperialism made us enter history at the moment when it began its adventure in our countries. . . . We consider that when imperialism arrived in Guinea Bissau it made us leave history - our history. . . . The moment imperialism arrived and colonialism arrived, it made us leave our history and enter another history.”
When did imperialism enter the history of the people of Guinea Bissau? When did the Portuguese start the war against the people of Guinea Bissau of which the start of the final battle was declared on August 3, 1961?
ON THIS, THE 48TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DECLARATION OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF GUINEA BISSAU, IT IS IMPORTANT TO RECLAIM OUR OWN HISTORY. THE INDEPENDENCE OF GUINEA BISSAU IS NOT YET COMPLETE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE DUM DIVERSAS WAR.
BACKGROUND TO THE DUM DIVERSAS WAR
Excerpt taken from Volume II of Balanta B’urassa, My Sons: Those Who Resist, Reman:
“An anonymous writer of the twelfth century describes the bartering of salt for gold as follows:
‘In the sands of the country is gold, treasure inexpressible. They have much gold, and merchants trade with salt for it, taking the salt on camels from the salt mines. They start from a town called Sijilmasa… and travel in the desert as it were upon the sea, having guides to pilot them by the stars or rocks in the desert. They take provisions for six months, and when they reach Ghana, they weigh their salt and sell it against a certain unit of weight of gold, and sometimes against double, or more of the gold unit, according to the market and the supply.’
Timbuktu first became an important market as early as the eleventh century. The notable part it so long played in the commercial life of the interior of northwestern Africa was due to its geographical position. Situated close to the navigable waterway of the Niger and on the threshold of the desert, it was the meeting place of those who travelled by water with those who travelled by land – the people of the Sudan and the people of the desert. The former brought gold, grain and kolanuts which they exchanged for the salt, dates, and merchandise of the Maghreb. By the end of the thirteenth century it had become an important entrepot for the trade between Jenne, higher up the Niger, and Walata, and was trading not only with all parts of the Maghreb but also with Egypt. . . .
Mansa Musa acquired a European reputation as the result of a spectacular pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324, when he dazzled Cairo with his prodigal display of wealth. As we have already seen, the impression he then made earned him a reputation sufficient to win him a prominent place and a tribute to his wealth on the Catalan map of Abraham Cresques who calls him Musa Mali . . . .His wealth, like that of the independent city of Jenne, was due to the proximity of Wangara. Today this name survives only as that of a Moslem branch of the Mandingo people, but for centuries it was the name of the great-gold bearing districts of Bambuk and Bure, bounded on the north by the Senegal, on the west by the Faleme, on the east by the Niger and on the south by the Tinkisso. It was the region to which the great trans-Sahara gold route led, either by way of Timbuktu or Walata. It was for centuries the goal of all who traveled this ancient road . . . .
John I of Portugal acceded in 1390 and ruled in peace, pursuing the economic development of his realm. The only significant military action was the siege and conquest of the city of Ceuta in 1415.
Prince Henry of Portugal resolved to devote his energies to the conquest of Africa from 1415 when, at age twenty-one years, he won his spurs at the capture of Ceuta.
In Africa Prince Henry of Portugal first heard of the ancient caravan traffic of the Sahara bringing gold, slaves, ivory, and ebony from the remote countries of the negroes, already known as Guinea. It was this rich trade which kept the ports of Barbary thronged with Christian galleys bartering the trade goods of Europe with the Moorish merchants who controlled this traffic. Though at various times during the fifteenth century the directors of Portuguese policy toyed with the idea of territorial expansion in northern Africa, with the object of securing the trans-Saharan traffic for themselves, an alternative method and one promising more success was to attempt to establish contact with the sources of the wealth by sea, and so divert trade from the land routes and the Moorish middlemen.
[This motive is, in fact, attributed to Prince Henry by Dr. J. Munzer, who moved in official Portuguese circles, and may here be recording a tradition. ‘Knowing that the King of Tunis, that is, of Carthage, obtained much gold each year, he (Prince Henry) sent spies to Tunis, and having ascertained that this king dispatched merchants to southern Ethiopia who exchanged their goods for slaves and gold, determined to do by sea what the king of Tunis had done for many years by land.’]
It is stated in the Introduction to The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea Volume II that,
“Here, by the capture of Ceuta (area north of Fez on the African side of the Straight of Gibraltar south of Spain), Prince Henry gained a starting-point for his work; here he is said (probably with truth) to have gained his earliest knowledge of the interior of Africa; here especially he was brought in contact with those Sudan and Saharan caravans which, coming down to the Mediterranean coast, brought news, to those who sought it, of the Senegal and Niger, of the Negro kingdoms beyond the desert, and particularly of the Gold land of ‘Guinea.’ Here also, from a knowledge thus acquired, he was able to form a more correct judgment of the course needed for the rounding or circumnavigation of Africa, of the time, expense, and toil necessary for that task, and of the probable support or hindrance his mariners were to look for on their route. . . .
The voyages initiated by Prince Henry were not, therefore, thrusts into the unknown, but part of a sustained attempt to wrest control of an important economic artery then in alien and often hostile hands. . . . The control of this trade was no doubt Prince Henry’s initial objective. . . .
Under king Edward, the colony at Ceuta rapidly became a drain on the Portuguese treasury, and it was realized that without the city of Tangier, possession of Ceuta was worthless. In 1437, Duarte's brothers Henry and Ferdinand persuaded him to launch an attack on the Marinid sultanate of Morocco. The resulting attack on Tangier, led by Henry, was a debacle. Failing to take the city in a series of assaults, the Portuguese siege camp was soon itself surrounded and starved into submission by a Moroccan relief army. In the resulting treaty, Henry promised to deliver Ceuta back to the Marinids in return for allowing the Portuguese army to depart unmolested. The Portuguese needed to find a new source of wealth.
It appears fair to say, therefore, that by 1448 the Portuguese were approaching Sierra Leone and had begun the detailed examination of the coastline between Cape Verde and the latter landmark. It is important to realize this, so that the voyages of the next decade can be appreciated in their true light, that is, as the completion of the work of their predecessors, and as commercial ventures, rather than as voyages of discovery. . . .”
In the years 1451-4 Portugal was also engaged in war with Castile over the Canaries. The difficulties of Prince Henry in regard to the financing of these expeditions was resolved by a proclamation of war in 1452 called the DUM DIVERSAS.
THE DUM DIVERSAS: POPE NICHOLAS V AND THE KING OF PORTUGAL DECLARE WAR ON GUINEA
The Papal Bull Dum Diversas issued by Pope Nicholas V, June 18, 1452, stated,
“we grant to you full and free power, through the Apostolic authority by this edict, to invade, conquer, fight, subjugate the Saracens and pagans, and other infidels and other enemies of Christ, and wherever established their Kingdoms, Duchies, Royal Palaces, Principalities and other dominions, lands, places, estates, camps and any other possessions, mobile and immobile goods found in all these places and held in whatever name, and held and possessed by the same Saracens, Pagans, infidels, and the enemies of Christ, also realms, duchies, royal palaces, principalities and other dominions, lands, places, estates, camps, possessions of the king or prince or of the kings or princes,
and to lead their persons in perpetual servitude, and to apply and appropriate realms, duchies, royal palaces, principalities and other dominions, possessions and goods of this kind to you and your use and your successors the Kings of Portugal.”
Here then is the formal Declaration of War that started the fight with the Portuguese that was ended on September 24, 1973 when the PAIGC National Assembly met at Madina do Boe and victory and Independence was declared. By October 4, the new Republic of Guinea Bissau was recognized by 38 nations.
Thus, the Dum Diversas War began on June 18, 1452 and ended on September 24, 1973. According to Amilcar Cabral,
“For the Africans who for five centuries have lived under Portuguese domination, Portuguese colonialism represents a reign of evil, and where evil reigns there is no place for good.” [ Part 1: The Weapon of Theory, Portuguese Colonial Domination]
The eleven-year armed liberation struggle that began on August 3, 1961 led by Amilcar Cabral, was merely the final battle of the Dum Diversas War that lasted 521 years! This fact has important implications for Guinea Bissau today, and especially for the descendants of the priosners of war that were captured and taken from Guinea Bissau to the Americas and elsewhere.
THE DUM DIVERSAS PRISONERS OF WAR AND THE GENEVA CONVENTION
Documentation exists showing some of the data on the number and identity of the Dum Diversas Prisoners of War from Guinea Bissau (see below). From 1701 to 1843, for example, 112,539 prisoners of war were captured and enslaved in the Americas.
The 1949 Geneva Convention, Article 4 (1) defines prisoners of war as
“Members of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict, as well as members of militias or volunteer corps forming part of such armed forces.” Article 5 states, “The present Convention shall apply to the persons referred to in Article 4 from the time they fall into the power of the enemy and until their final release and repatriation. Should doubt arise as to whether persons, having committed a belligerent act and having fallen into the hands of the enemy, belong to any of the categories enumerated in Article 4, such persons shall enjoy protection of the present Convention until such time as their status has been determined by a competent tribunal.”
The new Geneva Convention Protocol on Prisoners of War, which the United States has signed but not yet ratified and which went into force for some states on 7 December 1978, has provided in Articles 43 through 47 broader standards for prisoners of war, who come from irregular and guerilla units, than the terms of the 1949 Article 4. Article 45 of the 1978 Protocol states that a
“person who takes part in hostilities and falls into the power of an adverse Party shall be presumed to be a prisoner of war… if he claims the status of war, or if he appears to be entitled to such status, or if the party on which he depends claims such status on his behalf.”
Until recently, the descendants of the people who were taken from Guinea Bissau as prisoners of the Dum Diversas War, could not identify themselves because of the ETHNOCIDE that was committed against them. However, because of the advent of the African Ancestry DNA test. such descnendants can now identify themselves. It should be noted that, according to the Geneva Convention, these living descendnats are still classified as PRISONERS OF WAR since they have NEVER BEEN RELEASED AND REPATRIATED.
The first of these prisoners of war to organize themselves and to declare their status are the Binham Brassa, or Balanta people, in the United States. Exaclty one year ago, on the 47th Anniversary of the Independence of Guinea Bissau, the President of the balanta B’urassa History and Genealogy Society in America, Siphiwe Baleka, notified United States Secrtary of State Michael Pompeo that,
“the liberation and independence of the people of Guinea Bissau is not yet complete. The Balanta, Fulani, Mandinga, Papel, Manjaco, Beafada, Mancanha, Bijago, Felupe, Mansoaca, and others who were taken to the Americas - North, South and Central - as well as the Caribbean, are still living under foreign domination in the lands of their captivity and enslavement. . . . We invite the United States Government to do its part to complete the liberation and independence of Guinea Bissau by negotiating with us and the Government of Guinea Bissau, a peaceful Reparations and Repatriation treaty that would provide the justice due to the Balanta, Fulani, Mandinga, Papel, Manjaco, Beafada, Mancanha, Bijago, Felupe, and Mansoaca people in America who have yet to be returned to their independent homeland.”
Since then, Siphiwe Baleka has been the first to repatriate to his ancestral homeland and receive citizenship to Guinea Bissau. This is a significant start to the Decade of Return Initiative that has been launched. Two groups have already returned and the third group will be returning November 23-30. It is our hope that during this event, Guinea Bissau will conduct the first ever Prisoner of War Repatriation Citizenship Ceremony conferring citizenship on those descendants whose Naturalization Applications have already been submitted to the Ministry of Tourism.
Now, on this 48th Anniversary of the Independence of Guinea Bissau, the world, and especially the people and Government of Guinea Bissau, is reminded that Guinea Bissau’s Indpendence is not yet complete. Independence imposes a duty on the Government of Guinea Bissau to bring justice to its remaining prisoners of the Dum Diversas War by negotiating their repatriation with the various governments in the Americas, in Europe, and through the United Nations.
