After more than ten years of warfare the
former colony of Portuguese Guinea was made independent in 1974 and now is the
Republic of Guinea-Bissau. A small West African nation covering an area of
36,125 square kilometres (13,948 square miles).
The Bijagos Archipelago, just off the
southwest coast forms part of the country. Senegal is on its northern boundary,
to the south it is bounded by Guinea and on the west by the Atlantic
Ocean.
The country can be divided into three regions: the
north eastern highlands, the interior plain, and coastal lowlands. Coastal
rainfall averages 254 centimetres (100 inches) per year and reduces to
less than 130 centimetres (50 inches) in the highlands.
In the drier interior there are land crops such as millet, sorghum and cotton.
The tropical crops raised in the coastal area are rice and various fruits like
peanuts, cassavas, sugarcane, bananas, sweet potatoes and coconuts. Forests also
cover about 38 percent of the land. The official language is Portuguese.
