The Last of Africa’s Cold War Conflicts: Portuguese Guinea and its Guerrilla Insurgency, Al J. Venter, Pen and Sword, 2020, 210p, £25-00. ISBN 9781526772985

This book offers more than its title suggests. It is an analysis of how the longest-standing colonial power in Africa suddenly retreated after a domestic ‘coup’ in Portugal in 1974. Al Venter offers us his vast journalistic experience as a specialist in African politics and he explores how the underlying weaknesses of the Portuguese political and economic situation, with budget challenges, manpower shortages and lack of economic advantage, contributed to this sudden turn of events.

Britain and France, and rather more spectacularly Belgium, had abandoned their colonial roles but seemingly Portugal was unaffected by this wider trend. Of course, in reality they had been affected and, as Venter points out, their battles against insurgency in Mozambique, Angola and Guinea had endured for longer than the Americans had ever been in Vietnam. Its effect was draining the Portuguese economy.

Whatever effect it had on Portugal, Venter's wider perspective reveals the degree to which Cuba and the Soviet Union had, almost unobtrusively, supported insurgency in the various parts of Portugal’s overseas possessions, and the damaging economic and financial consequences that they experienced from their involvement.

Within this wider perspective, Al Venter does provide a clear picture of exactly how Portuguese Guinea became Guinea-Bissau, and also the role of General Spinola who came close to securing Portuguese control of this small enclave and then became President of Portugal’s post-‘coup’ government in Lisbon.

This is well-researched, clearly written and well-recommended.