The Bissagos Islands or Bijag s Archipelago are a group of some eighteen major islands and dozens more smaller ones in the Atlantic Ocean. They are a part of Guinea-Bissau. In pre-colonial times the islands were central to the trade along the coast of West Africa and they built up a powerful navy. It 1535 this enabled them to rout the Portuguese when they attempted to conquer the islands. The islands were not taken by Portugal until 1936.
Today only twenty of the islands are inhabited and the others have only small populations of the Bijag s people. The southern islands are today a nature reserve. The islands of Bubaque, Bolama, and Caravela are the most populated and are visited by tourists. This continued even during the years of unrest in Guinea-Bissau as the islands remained isolated from those events.
Visiting the island of Formosa in the Bijagosarchipelago, a jewel of the world's biosphere, we are at first seduced by its beauty.
The confidence and creativity of the Bijagos communities spring from a profound sense of belonging to the land and to a culture shaped by age-old knowledge.
Like the Bijagos, such people have the confidence to act based on who they are and what they know, and to offer a quiet resistance rooted in their ancestral memory.
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