|RNational holiday:|N Independence Day, September 24.
|RNature and climate:|N The greater part of the country is a forested, swampy coastal plain that in the interior turns into savannah.
Average temperature 27°C all through the year.
Percipitation about 2000 mm.
|RPeople:|N Many different tribes of which Bolente 30%, Fula 20%, Manjaca 14% and Mandingo 13% are the biggest.
|REconomy:|N 82% of the labour force is occupied in agriculture. The most important crops are peanuts, coconuts and palmproducts for export and rice, root crops, maize, beans and bananas for domestic consumption.
Fishing is under developement and accounts for 30% of the exportrevenues.
Guinea-Bissau deposits of oil, bauxite and phosphates, but very little is exploited.
manufacturing is undeveloped and at the moment aimed at processing the agricultural resources.
|RHistory:|N The area was explored by Portuguese sailors from the mid 15th century and was a part of the Portuguese province Cape Verde until the end of the 19th century, when Guinea-Bissau became a separate colony.
During the 17th and 18th centuries there was an extensive trade with slaves in the area and colonization did not start until in the 19th century.
In the 1960:s the fight for independence started and in 1973 the African Party for Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, PAIGC, controlled 75% of Guinea-Bissau andproclaimed the independent country.
The president was ousted in a coup led by the prime minister and general Joao Bernardo Vieira in 1980. Vieira has since then been an absolute ruler. He has been elected and re-elected president in 1984 and 1989.
