Guinea, commonly known as La Guinee, to differentiate her from her sister countries Guinea Bissau and Equatorial Guinea, gained independence from France in october 1958.
Guinea has had shared histories with Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal, and Gambia, in the Mali and Songhai empires, and in the French West Africa Federation. Immediately prior to independence, La Guine’e had been part of the community of French colonies called French West Africa along with Mali, Senegal, and Mauritania. By 1956, these former French colonies had limited internal self-government tethered to France for economic, military, and diplomatic policies. When the tide of independence swept across west Africa, French President de Gaulle in 1958 issued the infamous ”OUI ou NON” ultimatum. OUI(yes) you are for maintaining the status quo of French custodianship of your international affairs, or NON(no) you oppose such a paternalistic arrangement. Unlike other nations, this ultimatum yielded an emphatic NON from Guinea. As precursor to her “NON” decision, Sekou Toure, who was deputy-mayor of Conakry, delivered a speech to the French President which is akin to the Declaration of Independence of the 13 colonies of America, of which Georgia was the 13th state. See the text of this speech in English on our Profiles in Democracy page later. The emphatic “NON” from Sekou Toure and Guinea would innure the wrath of France and de Gaulle ordered all French nationals to leave Guinea with all technical files and survey and logistic documents. Even the phone cords were ripped off the walls. Guineans were astonished, disappointed and grew ever-suspicious of the French. Sekou Toure became the first President of Guinea at independence and France and Guinea severred all ties. Guinea followed the path of Socialist Democracy and allied herself with the Soviet Bloc. The crimes of France against Guinea was to endear Sekou Toure to the African diaspora and may have accelerated the quest for the total decolonisation of Africa save for Southern African nations. On march 26th, 1984, Sekou Toure died and his Prime Minister Lansana Beavogui was designated chief of government. A week later, on April 3rd, current president Lasana Conte’ staged a bloodless coup. To garner public support for the military government, Conte’ had a more liberal dispensation and he freed former political prisoners and invited exiled Guineans back to La-Guinea. However, after two unsuccessful attempted coups in 1985 and 1996, his resolve hardened and Conte adopted Sekou Toure’s autocratic disposition. Conte’ has now served three consecutive terms as president of Guinea.
Guinea’s honourable history was again marred by insurgency from the SierraLeone-Liberia war of 2000 when Guinea was host to multitudes of refugees from the two warring countries.
Bordered by Guinea Bissau (~200mi) in the northwest, Senegal (~180mi), Mali (~450mi) in the north and east, Ivory Coast (~250mi) in the east, Liberia (~200mi) in the south, SierraLeone (~320mi) also in the south, and the Atlantic Ocean (~250mi) in the west,
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much of northern Guinea hosts the expansive and legendary Fouta Djallon Mountain ranges which stretches from Southern Mali through central Guinea and into northern SierraLeone and northern Liberia. Indeed the Fouta Djallon highlands hosts the headwaters of West Africa’s riparian system to include The Niger, Senegal, Gambia, Bafing, Koulountou, Geba, Bakoye, Mongo, and Konkoure’ rivers and their prime tributaries. The capital of La Guinea is Conakry.
La Guinee’s most significant pre-occupations are warding off alleged and incessant destabilisation schemes by France, sporadic insurgencies from her neighbours SierraLeone and Liberia, and the fiduciary responsibility as West Africa’s Riverkeeper. Relations with France have smoothed over the last few years but La Guinea contends with how to maintain a free nation based on democratic principles with suspicions of French subversive activity lingering.
