Bissau

關於Bissau

Bissau is the capital and largest city of Guinea-Bissau. As of 2015, it had a population of 492,004. Bissau is located on the Geba River estuary, off the Atlantic Ocean, and is Guinea-Bissau's major port, as well as the country's administrative and military center.

The term "Bissau" may have come from the name of a clan, N'nssassun, in its plural form Bôssassun. Intchassu (Bôssassu) was the name given to the nephew of King Mecau—the first sovereign of the Bissau—son of his sister Pungenhum. Bôssassu formed a clan of the Papel peoples.

From well before the arrival of Europeans to the early 20th century, the island of Bissau was governed as a kingdom inhabited by the Papel people. According to oral tradition, the kingdom was founded by Mecau, the son of the king of Quinara (Guinala), who moved to the area with his pregnant sister, six wives, and subjects of his father's kingdom. The kingdom was composed of seven clans, descended from the sister and six wives. The Bossassun clan, which descends from the sister, inherited the throne. The Kingdom of Bissau was highly stratified. The king's coronation involved the practice...

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.