Guinea - Bissau ... more memories

By Rene Franken

I made a few very interesting visits to Guinea Bissau, the first being in June 1989, before the ANC top Brass was released from prison. It was only for a few hours. We went by private plane belonging to Anglo- Vaal. Glenn Babb, Colin Paterson, Colonel Thackray from the SADF and myself, flew into Bissau from Cape Verde.

Our acquaintance the Cape Verde Foreign Minister, Silvino da Luz, arranged for this visit. It must be mentioned that at this stage Guinea- Bissau had  Marxist one party rule and we had no connections whatsoever with that country. The purpose of the visit was to talk peace (especially the Angola situation) and to see how they could be included with the other Portuguese speaking countries in Africa, the so called PALOP-Group, to assist with any reconciliation between the rivalry groups in Angola The next day we met Jonas Savimbi,Unita President, in Abidjan. 

I mention all of this because I wanted to write something about Guinea Bissau. We spent a couple of days in Guinea Bissau and our contact, Finance Minister Manuel dos Santos (Manecas) actually a Cape Verdean, but was a prominent leader in the rebel movement in the war against the Portuguese there, until independence and since then he was actually the number two in that country. Paul Runge (SAFTO), Nelia Botha and John Deacon from the SA Panorama and myself where on this trip. We visited a number of places in Guinea Bissau 

The purpose was to make a future edition of the SA Panorama on Guinea Bissau which subsequently appeared. One night we were having dinner at the old Portuguese army barracks which was later transformed into a hotel, when a person suddenly appeared which I immediately recognized but could not place. He also reacted recognizing me but at a loss to who I was. I went to him and he told me he was working in Bissau to set up a television station there with Portuguese government help and that he worked before for the television station on Madeira. Then I realized that I knew him from my stint on Madeira and that he was guest in our residence there. He was really surprised that we, as South Africans, were there as this was still all considered confidential.