Bissau, Guinea-Bissau

Capital City

At over 400,000 residents, Bissau is Guinea-Bissau's largest and most crowded city. The capital may serve as the country's administrative and commercial center, but it's also a chaotic, infrastructure-challenged mess. Power outages are common, with the city even losing electricity for over a day in 2023 due to an unpaid bill. And despite the city's strategic importance, the government maintains only a tenuous grip - the Papel peoples' resistance to colonial rule lingers, with violent clashes erupting as recently as the 1990s. Those seeking an orderly, modern African metropolis would do well to look elsewhere.