Guinea-Bissau was a Portuguese colony from the 15th century until independence in 1974, making it one of the last African countries to gain independence and one of the few achieved through armed struggle rather than negotiation. Portuguese is the official language, but only a minority speak it as a first language — the true lingua franca is Guinea-Bissau Creole (Crioulo), a Portuguese-based creole that developed along the West African coast during the slave trade and is spoken by nearly the entire population across ethnic lines. The country is home to over 20 indigenous ethnic groups — Fula, Balanta, Mandinka, and Papel among the largest — each with their own language. This makes Crioulo indispensable as a neutral common tongue that belongs to no single group.
