Declaration
PAIGC unilaterally declares Guinea-Bissau's independence, 1973
The PAIGC unilaterally declared the independence of Guinea-Bissau on 24 September 1973, while Portuguese forces still controlled parts of the territory and over a year before Portugal's own 1974 revolution.
What happened
Amid its armed independence struggle, the Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde (PAIGC) unilaterally declared the independence of Guinea-Bissau on 24 September 1973, according to the scholarly reference work Encyclopedia of African History, more than a year before the April 1974 revolution in Portugal that led Portugal to negotiate the decolonisation of its other African territories.[1] At the time of the declaration, Portuguese military forces still controlled parts of the territory.[2] In the months that followed, individual states began recognising Guinea-Bissau: the Soviet Union on 6 October 1973, Hungary on 15 October 1973, and Czechoslovakia on 19 October 1973, among others.[3]
Sources for this page
Each number marks a specific claim. Notes give the source, its locator and how it relates to the claim.
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1.
Claim: The PAIGC unilaterally declared the independence of Guinea-Bissau on 24 September 1973, while Portuguese forces still controlled parts of the territory, more than a year before Portugal's own April 1974 revolution.
- Shillington, Kevin, Encyclopedia of African History (Fitzroy Dearborn, 2005) , Guinea-Bissau entry. Source record
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2.
Claim: On 2 November 1973 the General Assembly adopted resolution 3061 (XXVIII), which "welcomes the recent accession to independence of the people of Guinea-Bissau, thereby creating the sovereign State of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau," while "strongly condemn[ing] the policies of the Government of Portugal in perpetuating its illegal occupation of certain sectors of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau" and demanding the withdrawal of Portuguese forces; this diplomatic welcome preceded both Portugal's own recognition and Guinea-Bissau's admission to UN membership.
- United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly resolution 3061 (XXVIII): Illegal occupation by Portuguese military forces of certain sectors of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau and acts of aggression committed by them against the people of the Republic (United Nations, 2 November 1973) link, preamble and operative paras. 1, 3. Source record
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3.
Claim: Following the PAIGC's September 1973 declaration, individual states recognised Guinea-Bissau on dated occasions including the Soviet Union (6 October 1973), Hungary (15 October 1973), Czechoslovakia (19 October 1973), Yugoslavia (10 May 1974), Egypt (11 June 1974) and Senegal (10 August 1974); no verified aggregate count of the total number of states that had recognised Guinea-Bissau by any given date was found, and widely repeated claims of "over 80 states" are treated as unverified.
- International recognition of Guinea-Bissau (Wikipedia) link, International recognition section. Source record