This book tells the forgotten story of women's participation in the Struggle for the Liberation of Guinea-Bissau, one of the most remarkable guerrilla wars of the anti-colonial movement of the 20th century

Catarina de Castro Laranjeiro, Nova University of Lisbon, Portugal

In this highly original and carefully researched work, Aliou Ly peels back decades of bias to reveal the powerful and fundamentally transformative role of women in Guinea Bissau's liberation. Framed provocatively as an incisive methodological inquiry, Ly exposes how women's accomplishments were literarily and figuratively concealed, minimized, and erased by successive generations of male combatant-cum-politicians even as isolated individuals were celebrated as national heroines. Women of the Portuguese Guinea Liberation War dramatically recasts prevailing historical narratives such that the remaining survivors of the independence struggle, both male and female, may finally recognize themselves and their achievements. Bissau women may not have shared the fruits of liberty with their male counterparts, but future generations of citizens may now appreciate the complexity and significance of their revolutionary acts.

Benjamin N. Lawrance, University of Arizona, USA

Readers interested in gender studies in Africa and decolonialization as well as anthropologists and oral historians more broadly will find this book particularly relevant.

Review for Democracy