Guinea biography definition

Country in West Africa

Not to be confused with French Guiana, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, or New Guinea.

For the region, see Guinea (region). For other uses, see Guinea (disambiguation).

Guinea^[a] officially the Republic of Guinea^[b], is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sierra Leone and Liberia to the south. It is sometimes referred to as Guinea-Conakry, after its capital Conakry, to distinguish it from other territories in the eponymous region, such as Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea.^{[8][9][10][11]} Guinea has a population of 14 million and an area of 245,857 square kilometres (94,926 sq mi).^[12]

Formerly French Guinea, it achieved independence in 1958.^[13] Guinea has a history of military coups d'état.^[14][15][16] After decades of authoritarian rule, it held its first democraticelection in 2010.^[16][17][18] As it continued to hold multi-party elections, the country still faces ethnic conflicts, corruption, and abuses by the military and police.^[18][19] In 2011, the United States government claimed that torture by security forces and abuse of women and children (including female genital mutilation) were ongoing human rights issues.^[20] In 2021, a military faction overthrew president Alpha Condé and suspended the constitution.^[14][15][16]

Muslims represent 90% of the population.^[8][21][22] The country is divided into four geographic regions: Maritime Guinea on the Atlantic coast, the Fouta Djallon or Middle Guinea highlands, the Upper Guinea savanna region in the northeast, and the Guinée forestière region of tropical forests. French, the official language of Guinea, is the language of communication in schools, government administration, and the media. More than 24 indigenous languages are spoken, and the largest are Susu, Pular, and Maninka, which dominate respectively in Maritime Guinea, Fouta Djallon, and Upper Guinea, while Guinée forestière is ethnolinguistically diverse. Guinea's economy is mostly dependent on agriculture and mineral production.^[23] It is the world's second-largest producer of bauxite and has deposits of diamonds and gold.^[24] As of the most recent survey in 2018, 66.2% of the population is affected by multidimensional poverty, and an additional 16.4% are vulnerable to it.^[25] The country was at the core of the Western African Ebola virus epidemic.

Name

Further information: Guinea (region) § Etymology

Guinea is named after the Guinea region which lies along the Gulf of Guinea. It stretches north through the forested tropical regions and ends at the Sahel. The English term Guinea comes directly from the Portuguese word Guiné which emerged in the mid-15th century to refer to the lands inhabited by the Guineus, a generic term for the African peoples south of the Senegal River, in contrast to the "tawny" Zenaga Berbers above it, whom they called Azengues or Moors.^{[citation needed]}

In 1978, the official name became the People's Revolutionary Republic of Guinea. In 1984, the country was renamed the Republic of Guinea after the death of the first president, Ahmed Sékou Touré.

History

Main article: History of Guinea

The land that is now Guinea either bordered or was situated within a series of historic African empires before the French arrived in the 1890s and claimed the terrain as part of colonial French West Africa. Guinea declared independence from France on 2 October 1958. From independence until the presidential election of 2010, Guinea was governed by multiple autocratic rulers.^[26][27][28]

West African empires and kingdoms

Main articles: Imamate of Futa Jallon and Wassoulou Empire

What is now Guinea sat on the fringes of various West African empires. The earliest, the Ghana Empire, grew on trade and ultimately fell after repeated incursions of the Almoravids. It was in this period that Islam first arrived in the region by way of North African traders. The Sosso Empire came and stayed from 12th to 13th centuries; later, the Mali Empire came when Soundiata Kéïta defeated the Sosso ruler Soumangourou Kanté at the Battle of Kirina in c. 1235. The Mali Empire was ruled by Mansa (Emperors), including Kankou Moussa, who made a hajj to Mecca in 1324. After his reign, the Mali Empire began to decline and was ultimately supplanted by its vassal states in the 15th century.

The Songhai Empire expanded its power in about 1460. It continued to prosper until a civil war, over succession, followed the death of Askia Daoud in 1582. The empire fell to invaders from Morocco in 1591, but the kingdom later split into smaller kingdoms. After the fall of some of the West African empires, various kingdoms existed in what is now Guinea. Fulani Muslims migrated to Futa Jallon in Central Guinea, and established an Islamic state from 1727 to 1896 with a written constitution and alternate rulers. The Wassoulou or Wassulu Empire (1878–1898) was led by Samori Toure in the predominantly Malinké area of what is now upper Guinea and southwestern Mali (Wassoulou). It moved to Ivory Coast before being conquered by the French.

Colony

European traders competed for the cape trade from the 17th century onward and made inroads earlier.^[29][30] Guinea's colonial period began with French military penetration into the area in the mid-19th century. The defeat of the armies of Samori Touré, Mansa (or Emperor) of the Ouassoulou state and leader of Malinké descent, in 1898 gave France control of what today is Guinea and adjacent areas.

France negotiated Guinea's present boundaries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the British for Sierra Leone, the Portuguese for their Guinea colony (now Guinea-Bissau), and Liberia. Under the French, the country formed the Territory of Guinea within French West Africa, administered by a governor general resident in Dakar. Lieutenant governors administered the individual colonies, including Guinea.

In 1958, the French Fourth Republic collapsed due to political instability and its failures in dealing with its colonies, especially Indochina and Algeria. The French Fifth Republic gave the colonies the choice of autonomy in a new French Community or immediate independence in the referendum of 28 September 1958. Guinea voted overwhelmingly for independence. It was led by Ahmed Sékou Touré, whose Democratic Party of Guinea-African Democratic Rally (PDG) had won 56 of 60 seats in the 1957 territorial elections.

The French later withdrew, and on 2 October 1958, Guinea proclaimed itself a sovereign and independent republic, with Sékou Touré as president. Later, Opération Persil was planned by Jacques Foccart; they planned to create large quantities of forged Guinean francs to hyperinflate Guinea's economy and to arm Touré's opposition figures.^[31] However, the operation was leaked, and soon, the Guinean was issuing a number of official complaints.^[32]

Post-colonial

Under Touré's rule

In 1960, Touré declared the Democratic Party of Guinea the country's only legal political party, and for the next 24 years, the government and PDG were one. Touré was re-elected unopposed to four 7-year terms as president, and every 5 years voters were presented with a single list of PDG candidates for the National Assembly.

On 22 November 1970, Portuguese forces from neighbouring Portuguese Guinea staged Operation Green Sea, a raid on Conakry by several hundred exiled Guinean opposition forces. Among their goals, the Portuguese military wanted to kill or capture Sekou Touré due to his support of PAIGC, an independence movement and rebel group that had carried out attacks inside Portuguese Guinea from their bases in Guinea.^[33] After some fighting, the Portuguese-backed forces retreated. Guinea was elected as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council 1972–73.

In 1977, a declining economy and a ban on all private economic transactions led to the Market Women's Revolt, a series of anti-government riots started by women working in Conakry's Madina Market. Touré vacillated from supporting the Soviet Union to supporting the United States. The late 1970s and early 1980s saw some economic reforms. After the election of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing as French president, trade increased and the two countries exchanged diplomatic visits.

Under Conté's rule

Sékou Touré died on 26 March 1984 after a heart operation in the United States, and was replaced by Prime Minister Louis Lansana Beavogui, who was to serve as interim president, pending new elections. PDG was due to elect a new leader on 3 April 1984. Under the constitution, that person would have been the only candidate for president. Hours before that meeting, Colonels Lansana Conté and Diarra Traoré seized power in a bloodless coup. Conté assumed the role of president, with Traoré serving as prime minister, until December.

Conté denounced the previous regime's record on human rights, releasing 250 political prisoners and encouraging approximately 200 thousand more to return from exile. He made explicit the turn away from socialism. In 1992, Conté announced a return to civilian rule, with a presidential poll in 1993, followed by elections to parliament in 1995 (in which his party—the Party of Unity and Progress—won 71 of 114 seats). In September 2001, the opposition leader Alpha Condé was imprisoned for endangering state security and pardoned 8 months later. Subsequently, he spent time in exile in France.

In 2001, Conté organized and won a referendum to lengthen the presidential term, and in 2003, began his third term after elections were boycotted by the opposition. In January 2005, Conté survived a suspected assassination attempt while making a public appearance in Conakry. His opponents claimed that he was a "tired dictator",^[34] whose departure was inevitable, whereas his supporters believed that he was winning a battle with dissidents. According to Foreign Policy, Guinea was in danger of becoming a failed state.^[35]

In 2000, Guinea suffered as rebels crossed the borders from Liberia and Sierra Leone. Some thought that the country was headed towards a civil war.^[36] Conté blamed neighbouring leaders for coveting Guinea's natural resources, and these claims were denied.^[37] In 2003, Guinea agreed to plans with her neighbours to tackle the insurgents. The 2007 Guinean general strike resulted in the appointment of a new prime minister.^[38]

Political violence and Ebola outbreak

Conté remained in power until his death on 23 December 2008.^[39] Several hours after his death, Moussa Dadis Camara seized control in a coup, declaring himself head of a military junta.^[40] Protests against the coup became violent, and 157 people were killed when, on 28 September 2009, the junta ordered its soldiers to attack people gathered to protest Camara's attempt to become president.^[41] The soldiers went on a rampage of rape, mutilation, and murder, which caused some foreign governments to withdraw their support for the new regime.^[42]

On 3 December 2009, an aide shot Camara during a dispute over the rampage in September. Camara went to Morocco for medical care.^[42][43] Vice-president (and defense minister) Sékouba Konaté flew from Lebanon to run the country.^[44] After meeting in Ouagadougou on 13 and 14 January 2010, Camara, Konaté and Blaise Compaoré, President of Burkina Faso, produced a formal statement of 12 principles promising a return of Guinea to civilian rule within six months.^[45] The presidential election of 27 June^[46][47] brought allegations of fraud, and a second election was held on 7 November.^[48] Voter turnout was "high", and the elections went "relatively smoothly".^[49]Alpha Condé, leader of the opposition party Rally of the Guinean People (RGP), won the election, promising to reform the security sector and review mining contracts.^[50]

In February 2013, political violence erupted after street protests over the transparency of the upcoming May elections. The protests were fueled by the opposition coalition's decision to step down from the elections in protest of the lack of transparency in the preparations for elections.^[51] Nine people were killed during the protests, and around 220 were injured. Some deaths and injuries were caused by security forces using live ammunition on protesters.^[52][53] The violence led to ethnic clashes between the Malinke and Fula, who supported and opposed President Condé, respectively.^[54] On 26 March 2013, the opposition party backed out of negotiations with the government over the election, saying that the government had not respected them, and had broken all agreements.^[55]

On 25 March 2014, the World Health Organization stated that Guinea's Ministry of Health had reported an outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Guinea. This initial outbreak had 86 cases, including 59 deaths. By 28 May, there were 281 cases, with 186 deaths.^[56] It is believed that the first case was Emile Ouamouno, a two-year-old boy in the village of Meliandou. He fell ill on 2 December 2013 and died on 6 December.^[57] On 18 September 2014, eight members of an Ebola education health care team were murdered by villagers in the town of Womey.^[58] As of 1 November 2015, there had been 3,810 cases and 2,536 deaths in Guinea.^[59]

Mass civil unrest and violent protests broke out against the rule of Alpha Conde on 14 October 2019, against constitutional changes. More than 800 were killed in clashes.^[60] After the 2020 Guinean presidential election, Alpha Condé's election to a third term was challenged by the opposition, who accused him of fraud. Condé claimed a constitutional referendum from March 2020 allowed him to run despite the 2-term limit.^[61]

On 5 September 2021, after hours of gunfire near the presidential palace, Lieutenant Colonel Mamady Doumbouya seized control of state television and declared that President Alpha Conde's government had been dissolved and the nation's borders closed.^[62] By the evening, the putschists had declared control of all of Conakry and the country's armed forces. According to Guinée Matin, by 6 September, the military fully controlled the state administration and started to replace the civil administration with its military counterpart.^[63][64] The United Nations, European Union, African Union, ECOWAS (which suspended Guinea's membership), and La Francophonie denounced the coup, and called for President Condé's unconditional release. Similar responses came from some neighboring and Western countries (including the United States),^[65][66][67] and from China (which relies on Guinea for half of its aluminum ore, facilitated by its connections to President Condé).^[67] Despite these, on 1 October 2021, Mamady Doumbouya was sworn in as interim president.^[68]

On 11 May 2023, at least seven people were shot dead in anti-government demonstrations in cities across Guinea. The anti-government movement became involved in peaceful protests and called on rulers to end military rule in Guinea and transition the country to democracy.^[69]

On 18 December 2023, an explosion occurred at the country's main oil depot in Conakry, killing 24 people and causing extensive fuel shortages in the country in the following weeks. Existing civil and economic unrest in the country temporarily worsened as a result, with several confrontations between protestors and police in Conakry, increased fuel and travel costs, and general price inflation throughout the country.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Guinea

Guinea shares a border with Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Ivory Coast to the east, Sierra Leone to the southwest and Liberia to the south. The nation forms a crescent as it curves from its southeast region to the north and west, to its northwest border with Guinea-Bissau and southwestern coast on the Atlantic Ocean. The sources of the Niger River, the Gambia River, and the Senegal River are all found in the Guinea Highlands.^[70][71][72] At 245,857 km² (94,926 sq mi), Guinea is roughly the size of the United Kingdom. There are 320 km (200 mi) of coastline and a total land border of 3,400 km (2,100 mi). It lies mostly between latitudes 7° and 13°N, and longitudes 7° and 15°W, with a smaller area that is west of 15°.

Guinea is divided into 4 regions: Maritime Guinea, also known as Lower Guinea or the Basse-Coté lowlands, populated mainly by the Susu ethnic group; the cooler, more mountainous Fouta Djallon that run roughly north–south through the middle of the country, populated by Fulas; the Sahelian Haute-Guinea to the northeast, populated by Malinké; and the forested jungle regions in the southeast, with several ethnic groups. Guinea's mountains are the source for the Niger, the Gambia, and Senegal Rivers, and rivers flowing to the sea on the west side of the range in Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast. The highest point in Guinea is Mount Nimba at 1,752 m (5,748 ft). While the Guinean and Ivorian sides of the Nimba Massif are a UNESCOStrict Nature Reserve, the portion of the so-called Guinean Backbone continues into Liberia, where it has been mined for decades; the damage is evident in the Nzérékoré Region at 7°32′17″N8°29′50″W / 7.53806°N 8.49722°W / 7.53806; -8.49722.

Guinea is home to 5 ecoregions: Guinean montane forests, Western Guinean lowland forests, Guinean forest-savanna mosaic, West Sudanian savanna, and Guinean mangroves.^[73]

Wildlife

Main article: Wildlife of Guinea

The southern part of Guinea lies within the Guinean Forests of West AfricaBiodiversity hotspot, while the north-east is characterized by dry savanna woodlands. Declining populations of some animals are restricted to uninhabited distant parts of parks and reserves.

Species found in Guinea include the following:

Regions and prefectures

Main article: Administrative divisions of Guinea

The Republic of Guinea covers 245,857 square kilometres (94,926 sq mi) of West Africa, about 10 degrees north of the equator. It is divided into 4 natural regions:

• Maritime Guinea (La Guinée Maritime) covers 18% of the country.
• Middle Guinea (La Moyenne-Guinée) covers 20% of the country.
• Upper Guinea (La Haute-Guinée) covers 38% of the country.
• Forested Guinea (Guinée forestière) covers 23% of the country, and is both forested and mountainous.

Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions which are subdivided into 33 prefectures. The capital Conakry with a population of 1,675,069 ranks as a special zone.

Politics