Today, Western media reports frequently present Guinea-Bissau as a “failed state” with a “narco-economy.” These disparaging labels strip the country out of its context in the global economic system and erase the legacy of European colonialism and the Cold War, giving the false impression that its problems are self-generated.

By looking at the international dimensions of Guinea-Bissau’s history, we can counter such misleading views and shed light on an anti-imperialist revolution that had a major impact well beyond this comparatively small West African territory. The revolutionary struggle launched by the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (Partido Africano para a Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde or PAIGC) not only led to the independence of Guinea-Bissau itself. It also made a vital contribution to the demise of Portuguese colonialism throughout Africa and the fall of Portugal’s own long-entrenched dictatorship.

This in turn had decisive consequences for the coming of democracy in Spain and South Africa alike. These two countries with a combined population of well over a hundred million people today owe a considerable debt to Guinea-Bissau, which has a population of two million. Branding Guinea-Bissau as a “failed state” erases the outsized contribution it has made to the modern world.