Tatyana Denisova

Sergey Kostelyanets

• Occupation: Senior Research Fellow, Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences; Associate Professor, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University); Senior Research Fellow, International Center of Anthropology, National Research University
• Affiliation:
  Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences
  Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University)
  International Center of Anthropology, National Research University Higher School of Economics
  
• Address: Russian Federation, Moscow

The year 2019 in Guinea-Bissau was marked by two extremely important events: in September, the country celebrated the 45th Anniversary of Independence, and in December, Umaro Sissoco Embalь, a representative of the Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), won the presidential election.

Just like in other African countries, the processes of decolonization and social transformation in Guinea-Bissau were not smooth, largely because former fighters for independence, who have been in power for almost the entire period of post-colonial development, have  not  always  followed  the  very  ideals  in  which  they  themselves  believed  when  they  were  liberating  the  country  from  the Portuguese colonialists and making plans for the establishment of a sovereign state.

As a result, after gaining independence, Guinea-Bissau was in a state of permanent political instability: military coups took place in the country, governments were dissolved, political assassinations became commonplace - all this against the background of a weak economic development and massive poverty of the population.

Nowhere  in  the  world  do  individual  countries  reflect  the  character  of  their  presidents  so  strongly  as  in  Africa.  The  path  of national development often depends solely on who is heading the nation. A new strongman comes, and the country may begin to move in a completely different direction. The peaceful transfer of power that took place in Guinea-Bissau and the relative stabilization of the domestic political situation make it possible to hope that under the new regime this small West African state, with which Russia has had friendly relations since Amilkar Cabral, will be able to solve its main problems and begin to move in the direction that will contribute most to its effective political and socio-economic development.

The article discusses the causes and precursors of political instability and potential stabilization in Guinea-Bissau; electoral processes are analyzed and characters of political leaders who have left the greatest trace in the history of the country are scrutinized.