A short walk from the Port of Bissau stands a large, fist-shaped sculpture known as the Mão de Timba (Hand of Timba). This monument along the Geba River commemorates a critical event in the history of Guinea-Bissau’s fight for independence. For centuries, the people of Guinea-Bissau lived under Portuguese colonial rule. Portuguese traders first showed up in the early 15th-century in what was then the kingdom of Kaabu, a region subordinate to the powerful Mali empire. In 1687, the Portuguese founded the city of Bissau on land that had belonged…
