Bafatá is the second-largest city in
Guinea-Bissau
Guinea-Bissau, officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, is a country in West Africa that covers with an estimated population of 2,026,778. It borders Senegal to Guinea-Bissau–Senegal border, its north and Guinea to Guinea–Guinea-Bissau b ...
, known as the birthplace of
Amílcar Cabral.
The town has a population of 22,501 (2008 est). It is the capital of
Bafatá Region as well as the seat of the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Bafatá, which was established in March 2001 with
Carlos Pedro Zilli as bishop.
Etymology
'Bafatá' comes from the
Mandinka phrase 'baa faata' meaning 'the river is full', in reference to the
Geba river.
History
Bafatá was founded in the mid 1800s by Malam Santi, a
Mandinka veteran of
Portuguese 'pacification campaigns' in the interior.
By the 1880s it was an established trading centre for the Portuguese, including peanuts, cattle, hides, textiles, and salt.
The ''presidio'' of nearby
Geba was transferred to Bafatá in 1906, dramatically raising the town's profile and importance. Soon thereafter, Commandant Vasco de Sousa Calvet de Magalhães arrived, and used forced labor to build the market, port, bridge, and other infrastructure.
It became a town in 1913.
Landmarks
The town is served by
Bafatá Airport, an airstrip, and a regional hospital. There is a hotel, the Bafatá Apartamento Imel. The restaurant ''Ponto de Encontro'' serves Portuguese cuisine. The surrounding forests are noted for their monkey and antelope populations, and Maimama Cape, owned by a Cape Verdean, organizes trips to visit the animals for tourists.
The town is in a derelict state; the streets contain tumbleweeds and cracked tarmac.
Several of the main avenues are named Bissau, Brazil and Guiana.
Bafatá is noted for its
brick
A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...
making.
Climate
Bafatá has a
tropical savanna climate
Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry "winter") and ''As'' (for a dry "summer"). The driest month has less than ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...
''Aw''), not dissimilar to Bissau although about a third drier overall and substantially hotter during the afternoons due to its inland location. As with all of Guinea-Bissau, there are two extremely contrasting seasons: a
dry season
The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The t ...
from November to May with dusty
harmattan
The Harmattan is a season in West Africa that occurs between the end of November and the middle of March. It is characterized by the dry and dusty northeasterly trade wind, of the same name, which blows from the Sahara over West Africa into th ...
winds and sweltering, rainless weather, and a monsoonal
wet season
The wet season (sometimes called the rainy season or monsoon season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. Generally, the season lasts at least one month. The term ''green season'' is also sometimes used a ...
from June to October featuring heavy
thunderstorm
A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustics, acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorm ...
rains almost every day and hot, uncomfortably humid conditions.
Gallery
File:Mercado de Bafatá 2.jpg, Bafatá market
File:Colonial building on Avenida Principal, Bafatá, Guinea-Bissau 1.jpg, Bafatá, Guinea-Bissau
File:Day221-Bike-130612 (9290907859).jpg, Bafatá, GBW
File:Rua principal de Bafatá - 20130612-DSC 9045.jpg, A residential street in Bafatá
File:Bafatá_cathedral,_Bafatá,_Guinea-Bissau_2.jpg, '' Catedral de Nossa Senhora da Graça'' church, Downtown Bafatá
File:20130612-DSC 9048 (9293655064).jpg, Children playing and fishing in the river
File:Regional education administration in Bafatá, Guinea-Bissau.jpg, Regional education administration building of Bafatá
References
Bafatá region
Populated places in Guinea-Bissau
Geba River
Sectors of Guinea-Bissau
{{GuineaBissau-geo-stub