One of the most famous Carnivals in the world

In February, when the weather is at its most pleasant, the streets of Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau, come alive with the cultural spectacle known as the Carnival. The four days leading up to Lent see a carnival unlike any other. Less than 10% of Bissau Guineans identify as Catholic, despite the fact that Easter is traditionally a Christian holiday; the remainder either worship Allah or the demons of the islands and forests. According to a long-time Portuguese resident of the city, the current carnival, which has been going on for as long as anybody can remember, is about "local ethnic traditions blended with a Portuguese date." Guineans have appropriated an alien religious holiday and used it as justification for a massive cultural event.

Like at the opulent carnivals of Rio or Venice, there are no motorized cavalcades with extravagant, expensive costumes or amplified music. Instead, thousands of groups, each representing a different tribe from around the nation, charter beaten-up vehicles and wooden boats, dress in costumes made of leaves, cow horns, shells, or the blown-up spined husk of a boxfish, and then stream into the city to exhibit their culture.