José Carlos Schwarz
Guinea-Bissauan musician
José Carlos Schwarz (Bissau, December 6, 1949 – Havana, May 27, 1977) was a Bissau-Guinean poet and musician.
Biography
José Carlos Schwarz was born in Bissau (Portuguese Guinea) from well-to-do parents of Cape Verdean, Portuguese Guinean, and German descent. After his high school education in Senegal and Cape Verde and a short stay in Lisbon, he returned to Guinea-Bissau in 1969. In 1970 he formed the Le Cobiana Djazz band with a group of friends (Aliu Bari, Mamadu Bá, and Samakê). The band was a considerable local success, partly because the band started to play more and more gumbe, an original West African music style. Schwarz wrote in Portuguese and French, but he sang in Creole.
He also became politically active and joined the resistance against the colonial ruler. He was imprisoned and tortured by the PIDE/DGS and transported to Ilha das Galinhas (Guinea-Bissau) for his participation in the struggle for the independence of his country, where he spent two years in prison. Inspired by this experience, he composed the song "Djiu Di Galinha".
Following the independence of Guinea-Bissau in 1974, Schwarz became director of the Department for Art and Culture, also responsible for Guinea-Bissau's youth policy.
The public source identifies “José Carlos Schwarz” as guinea-Bissauan musician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around José, Carlos and Schwarz.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3322725. VIAF identifies the subject as 12232576. The Library of Congress control number is nr2001014721. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1949, 1977, 1969 and 1970.
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This entry incorporates text from “José Carlos Schwarz” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.