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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 10, No. 5

Publication Date: May 25, 2023

DOI:10.14738/assrj.105.14726.

Proença, C. S., Faria, R., & Magalhães, J. (2023). National Social Identity in Guinea-Bissau: An Exploratory Essay Inspired by The

Methodology of J. Cheek, S. Briggs, S. Smith and L. Tropp. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(5).148-171.

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

National Social Identity in Guinea-Bissau: An Exploratory Essay

Inspired by The Methodology of J. Cheek, S. Briggs, S. Smith and

L. Tropp

Carlos Sangreman Proença

University of Aveiro. Center of Studies on Africa

and Development of the University of Lisbon

Raquel Faria

Center of Studies on Africa and

Development, Lisbon (CESA)

José Magalhães

Centre for Research in Economic and Organizational

Sociology (SOCIUS), University of Lisbon

ABSTRACT

The research is defined as exploratory and aims to evaluate whether the

methodology of inquiry and analysis of the identity of J. Cheek, S. Briggs, S. Smith

and L. Tropp [8], can be adapted to a fragile state like Guinea-Bissau. This

methodology consists in the assessment of the importance attributed by the

respondents of 70 sentences from which the characteristics of individual and social

identity (family and collective) are extracted (Cheek, J.M. & Briggs, S.R. [7]). The

phrases were sent by digital means to 102 Guineans known in person or only by

Facebook with a request for response and dissemination and obtained 183

responses. These answers, calculated according to the methodology adopted,

allowed to define some identity characteristics of the respondents. We tried to

interpret these results using other surveys conducted since 2014 in Guinea-Bissau

with different themes. It is concluded by realizing that this is a method that can

contribute to the knowledge of the national identity of Guineans, but insufficient.

This conclusion remains to be demonstrated if it is carried out with a statistically

significant sample.

Keywords: National Social Identity, Guinea-Bissau, Fragile states

INTRODUCTION - THE OBJECTIVES

National identity is a very difficult concept to define with sufficient precision to be measured,

although it is increasingly used either by scientists and academics, by varied social groups, or

even, by the media. Because it consists of multiple variables, it is evolutionary (that is, it

changes with time and circumstances) and it wants to be the synthesis of personal identities

that are also very different from each other and evolutionary. Its usefulness comes from

believing that this knowledge allows to characterize the social essence of a people and,

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Proença, C. S., Faria, R., & Magalhães, J. (2023). National Social Identity in Guinea-Bissau: An Exploratory Essay Inspired by The Methodology of J.

Cheek, S. Briggs, S. Smith and L. Tropp. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(5).148-171.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.105.14726

therefore, to seek with more security ways to give cohesion to the social agreement necessary

to live collectively.

Thus, the methods of defining identity are still in the experimental phase around the world,

obtaining so far unconvincing results. This essay is an attempt to contribute to this process in

the case of fragile state Guinea-Bissau. Its main goal is to present a narrative that defines the

identity of the people of present-day Guinea-Bissau, in an operational way, with the very clear

awareness that the data collected are a sample without statistical representativeness. That is,

we seek to build scientific knowledge on reality (Weber, [27]) as an instrument in the hands of

public and private actors, national and international, residents and non-residents, who

intervene civically and/or politically in the country. In fact, in the line of Amílcar Cabral when

he says that one cannot confuse what "we have in our head with reality" with awareness that

"Our reality, like all other realities, has positive and negative aspects, has strengths and

weaknesses." (Cabral, A. [5]). To fulfill this objective, the methodology followed is explained in

detail so that we can clearly understand what we set out to do.

Much of what is written in this essay comes from the knowledge derived from 37 years of

consulting, research, advisory work in Guinea-Bissau and two years of residence in the country

(86/87) of one of the authors and the contributions in multiple conversations of many Guinean

men and women. If we are aware that in any society there are always many secrets, that are

never revealed, we consider that the knowledge acquired after all these years is a basis that we

hope will be sufficient with the help of the Guineans themselves who responded to the survey

(as a first step in the research we propose).

THE STATE FRAGILITY OF GUINEA-BISSAU

Guinea-Bissau is a small independent state since 1973 (recognized by Portugal in 1974), after

ten years of war against the colonial regime Portuguese. Situated in West Africa, with borders

with Senegal and Guinea-Conakry, it has a young population estimated at 1.8-1.9 million people

(the last census is from 2009), a diaspora mainly in Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Conakry, Cape

Verde, Portugal, France, Spain, and the United Kingdom, with 32 ethnicities without any being

a majority, who practice Christianity, Islam, and animist beliefs without religious radicalism.

After independence the characteristics of the politicized military during the war of liberation

against colonialism led to three coups d'état (1980, 2003 and 2012), a civil war very centered

in the capital, Bissau, in 1998/99, the assassination by the military of an elected president in

2009 and a permanent instability, although with frequent legislative and presidential elections.

The difficulty of the transition process from liberation movement to state led to an instability

with situations of violence against the media and people from opposition parties to those who

support the government and the president (Lopes [16]).

The financial and monetary system is integrated into the Union Économique et Monétaire Ouest

Africaine (UEMOA) and aid from external donors supports about 75 percent of the national

budget. (UNIOGBIS [25]). Which means a fragility of dependence on external decisions.

It has an informal sector that encompasses all economic and social activities and is the

livelihood of most of the population outside agriculture. It has no industry and no tax system

that covers the entire population. The main sources of public and private revenue are the export

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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 10, Issue 5, May-2023

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of raw cashew nuts (Vietnam, India, Singapore), the sale of fishing licenses (European Union,

China, South Korea) and trade agreements for future exploitation of natural resources, such as

bauxite (Angola), phosphates (consortium of companies from several countries), heavy sand

(Russia), raw hardwood (China and Portugal) and oil (France, China, and Australia). Imports of

all kinds of goods and services come mainly from the euro area (Portugal), the UEMOA

countries and Asia (India, Vietnam, Pakistan, China, and Singapore).

It has water and river fish throughout the territory, a little mechanized agriculture, but fertile

in rice, vegetables and fruit with enough production to feed the population (the fragility are the

structures and means of transport between the producing areas and the consuming cities),

cattle and domestic breeding of chickens and pigs, some electricity from thermal power plants

and solar panels and communications via mobile phones and internet still of poor quality.

The regime is semi-presidential with separation of powers (legislative, judicial, and executive),

with a National Assembly, multiparty since 1994 of 100 deputies, and a directly elected

president of the Republic. The dispute of executive power between government and president

is one of the sources of instability. The judicial and prison system works but could work much

better (UNIOGBIS [25]. It has a strong and interventionist civil society (including various

organizations defending and promoting the social identity of civilian and military women) that

contrasts with weak state institutions unable to provide education, health, security, justice, etc.

services that respond to the aspirations of the population.

The fragility of the institutions, the corruption, the interference of the military in political life,

the scarcity of revenues and the existence of about 100 islands on the coast, led to the country

being included in the drug corridors of West Africa between Latin America and Europe, with

tentacular and transversal complicities in which the investigation of the justice and the judicial

police is blocked by the military and by the politicians involved.

The overall result is a poor population (at a high risk of falling in poverty (Vários [26]) with

little money, which is slowly raising education and health levels: since 1990, life expectancy in

Guinea-Bissau has increased by almost 11 years – to 58 – and the average years of schooling by

almost seven. The World Bank estimates a per capita income of $698 in 2019. With permanent

instability, the country has low levels of international indicators whatever they may be

(SDO/Agenda 2030, Human Development Index, Doing Business, Democracy Index, Human

Rights, Global Gender Gap, Index of African Governance, etc.).

METHODOLOGY

The research began with the design, execution, and analysis of an exploratory project, to test

the methodology designed by Jonathan Cheek, Stephen Briggs, Shannon Smith and Linda Tropp.

These researchers propose the classification of phrases with a Likert scale, of choice with 5

degrees of importance, namely:

1. I don't think it's important.

2. It has some importance.

3. It is quite important.

4. It is very important.

5. It is extremely important.