We (Jørgen and Heidi, pregnant with Jenny) spent a few days in Bissau during the carnival of 2008. The theme of the year was ‘fight against drugs and illegal emigration’, vividly illustrated in the parade. Guinea-Bissau is a former Portuguese colony in West Africa, and one of the smallest and poorest countries in the region. Bissau’s carnival ‘is like no other’ writes our friend Rose Skelton in the Guardian. ‘Hundreds of groups representing the country’s various different tribes charter wooden boats and battered trucks and, wearing costumes made of shells, cow horns, leaves, or the blown-up spined husk of boxfish, pour into the city to show off their culture.’ Here are my photos.