'Bafata' comes from the Mandinka phrase 'baa faata' meaning' the river is full, in reference to the Geba river.
History
Bafata was founded in the mid 1800s by Malam Santi, a Mandinka veteran of Portuguese 'pacification campaigns' in the interior.[2] By the 1880s it was an established trading centre for the Portuguese, including peanuts, cattle, hides, textiles, and salt.[4]
The presidio of nearby Geba was transferred to Bafata 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.[2] It became a town in 1913.[5]
Landmarks
The town is served by Bafatá Airport, an airstrip,[6] and a regional hospital.[7] 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.[8] The town is in a derelict state; the streets contain tumbleweeds and cracked tarmac.[9] Several of the main avenues are named Bissau, Brazil and Guiana.
Bafatá has a tropical savanna climate (KöppenAw), 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 from November to May with dusty harmattan winds and sweltering, rainless weather, and a monsoonal wet season from June to October featuring heavy thunderstorm rains almost every day and hot, uncomfortably humid conditions.
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