Great report

The Bijagos, a changing matriarchal archipelago

Audio 7:30 p.m.

The Bijagos Archipelago, Guinea-Bissau.

Marie Casadebaig/RFI

By: Amandine Réaux

"Great report" in Guinea-Bissau, this small Portuguese-speaking country of two million inhabitants located south of Senegal.

Off the continent, a few hours by boat, an archipelago unique in West Africa: the Bijagos, 88 islands and islets, of which only 23 are inhabited.

The archipelago is governed by a so-called matriarchal society, that is to say that women have their place in the decision-making bodies of the villages.

Within the home, they have more power than elsewhere in Africa.

But these traditions are now in danger.

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In question: evangelization, globalization and tourism, in short, the arrival of modernity in a place long isolated from the rest of the world.  

“The Bijagos, a changing matriarchal archipelago”, a major report by Amandine Réaux.

(Rebroadcast from December 7, 2021)

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