The Portuguese statues, on display awaiting a museum, in the fort of Cacheu

Visit to Guinea-Bissau and the Memorial of Slavery and Slave Trade of Cacheu

Abstract

Sunday, November 12, 2023 we traveled in two all-terrain vehicles from the capital Bissau to Cacheu, on the way to the Slavery and Slave Trade Memorial at 9 am. In one of them was all the material that accompanied us for the three-day stay, namely a fan, a Data Show, digital camera, and a huge load of bottles and bags (photo 1) of drinking water, for consumption since there is no basic sanitation or running water on site. We were also accompanied by several diesel jerricans because there is no electricity at the memorial and the supply would thus be guaranteed and rationed with a generator that they turn on between 7 pm and 6 am either for the operation of the fans to ward off mosquitoes or for charging mobile phones. In the other car, in addition to the project coordinator, a nurse, on a mission in Guinea-Bissau, an obstetrician and a doctoral student in medicine, who were also on a mission in Bissau and thus intended to visit, on that Sunday, the city of Cacheu. The temperature in the morning exceeds 30ºC and the humidity is always above 80%. Which makes it only comfortable to be either indoors or in the car with air conditioning on. Otherwise, we are constantly sweating and any walk or physical effort, no matter how small, becomes quite painful. The distance from Bissau to Cacheu is about 120km, approximately two hours, and the roads just after leaving the vicinity of Bissau are pieces of tar full of huge craters, eaten by the rains, sometimes several kilometers on dirt, which do not allow us to move safely above 60/70 km/h, reducing almost to immobility to cross some of the biggest holes. Cars often cross the wrong way as everyone dodges these obstacles as they can.