Cacheu - Travel & Tourism Guide Cacheu - Guinée-Bissau

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Nestling on the left bank of the eponymous river, Cacheu is around 100 km from the capital via a passable tarmac road. The former capital of Portuguese Guinea was one of the nerve centers of the African slave trade between the 15th and 18th centuries. Over a million slaves were shipped from here to the Americas. A slavery memorial, opened in 2016, retraces this poignant history through a chronological tour. The town is dominated by a fort built in 1588, whose primary function was to protect Cacheu from attack by privateers. Statues of the first Europeans to land in Guinea in the 15th century can be seen here.