Drawing on both ethnographic and historical accounts, this paper describes how ethnic identification patterns of belonging are fashioned out of localized, national, regional, and global processes of both engagement and protectionism. The Bijagos of Guinea-Bissau have maintained a sense of group cohesion during periods of contact, conflict, and resistance. This paper argues that the contemporary local-global interplay is fostering a new moment of rupture in time and space for the Bijagos. The Bijagos, oft footnoted in the accounts of Bissau-Guinean culture and history, are actively contributing to the social dialogue of resistance against the homogenizing effects of globalization. How do the Bijagos experience cultural, political, and economic pressures: positively as innovations leading to advances in interests, or negatively as disorienting and alienating?