Guinea

Full name of country: Republic of Guinea

Region: Africa

Official language: French

Population: 13,986,179 (2024 est.)

Nationality: Guinean(s) (noun), Guinean (adjective)

Land area: 245,717 sq km (94,872 sq miles)

Water area: 140 sq km (54 sq miles)

Capital: Conakry

National anthem: "Liberte" (Liberty), by Unknown/Fodeba Keita

National holiday: Independence Day, October 2 (1958)

Population growth: 2.74% (2024 est.)

Time zone: UTC +0

Flag: The flag of Guinea features three vertical bands of color: one red, one yellow, and one green. The red represents sacrifice, while yellow represents the sun, and green the earth. Red, yellow, and green are also the colors of the pan-African movement and used commonly in national flags throughout Africa.

Motto: "Travail, Justice, Solidarité" (Work, Justice, Solidarity)

Independence: October 2, 1958 (from France)

Government type: republic

Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal

Legal system: civil law system based on the French model

Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a country in northwest Africa along the Atlantic Ocean. In the decades after French officials abruptly withdrew from Guinea in 1958, the country struggled to achieve economic growth and political compromise. Smuggling, banditry, and refugee movement plague Guinea's borders with Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Côte D'Ivoire, all countries that have faced their own civil unrest and development issues.

Unlike its neighbors, Guinea had very little change in government administration in the years after gaining its independence. However, brutal repression during the 1960s and 1970s and charges of vote rigging by the government since the 1980s suggest that this had more to do with corruption than with effective leadership. In 2010 Guinea held its first free and competitive presidential election, followed by its first free legislative elections in 2013. However, issues of corruption, human rights abuse, and ethnic conflict remained prevalent. In 2021 a military coup overthrew the government and installed a new regime, which promised to eventually return the country to civilian rule.

Note: unless otherwise indicated, statistical data in this article is sourced from the CIA World Factbook, as cited in the bibliography.

People and Culture

Population: Guinea's population is made up of a variety of African ethnic groups, including the Fulani (also called Fula or Peuhl), who make up about 33.4 percent of the population and live in the mountainous Fouta Djallon region. The Malinke (also called Mandinka or Mandingo) are mostly in the northern part of the country and account for about 29.4 percent of the population. The Susu (also called Soso or Soussou) make up about 21.2 percent of the population and live predominantly in the south, around the capital (2018 estimates).

Guinea has also hosted significant numbers of refugees from violence and instability in neighboring countries. At its peak, the refugee population in Guinea numbered in the hundreds of thousands; starting in the early 2000s, many were repatriated or resettled elsewhere.

In addition to the official language of French, native languages such as Maninka (or Malinke), Fula, and Susu are also commonly spoken.

Throughout the 2010s about 85 percent of Guinea's population was Muslim and about 8 percent was Christian, while about 7 percent practiced traditional African faiths. A small percentage of the population follow no religion.

The Republic of Guinea was ranked 181 (out of 193 countries) on the United Nations' 2022 Human Development Index, making it one of the "least livable" countries in the world. This is reflected in the country's disease and mortality rates. According to 2024 estimates, the infant mortality rate averaged 47 deaths for every 1,000 live births, and average life expectancy at birth was 66.6 years for women and 62.7 years for men. In 2020, an estimated 1.4 percent of Guineans were living with HIV/AIDS.

Native People: Guinea is located at a traditional crossroads where a series of African tribes and empires, and later European merchants, adventurers, and colonizers, have all left their mark. Today, Guinea's largest ethnic tribes are the Fulani, the Malinke, and the Susu.

Most of Guinea's native population survives on traditional methods of farming, herding, and craftsmanship. The Susu and those who live in the lowlands grow rice, pineapples, palm kernels, and other fruits and vegetables that thrive in that fertile region. In the mountainous Foutah Djallon, the Fulani herd livestock in the cool, hilly prairies. In Upper Guinea, the Malinke farm hot, savannah grasslands and are famous for the skill of their craftspeople. Smaller tribes like the Kissi, Guerze, Toma (or Loma), and Mano subsist with traditional hunting skills in the dense forests of southeastern Guinea.

Education: Notable progress has been made in school participation rates in Guinea. In 1990, approximately 28 percent of primary school–aged children were enrolled in schools; by 2019, about 92 percent were enrolled. However, about one-third of enrolled students fail to complete primary school, and the average school life expectancy is nine years. The literacy rate among Guineans aged fifteen and older was estimated at 45.3 percent in 2021.

Guinea has three public universities: Université Gamal Abdel Nasser de Conakry (Gamal Abdel Nasser University of Conakry), established in 1962; Université Julius Nyerere de Kankan (Julius Nyerere University of Kankan), established in 1968 after previously being a secondary school and then an école normale supérieure; and Université Général Lansana Conté de Sonfonia-Conakry (General Lansana Conté University of Sonfonia-Conakry), established in 2005. A number of other higher institutions, both public and private, are also available.

Health Care: Guinea has one of the least effective systems of health care in the world. Most Guineans have little or no access to health care, and the care that is available is generally poor, due to insufficient equipment, supplies, and staffing.

Since the 1980s, Guinea's government has been partnering with foreign governments and nongovernmental aid organizations to improve immunization rates, access to safe drinking water, emergency services, prenatal care, and disease prevention. While services have improved in some villages and towns—in 2020, 99.5 percent of the urban population and 76.9 percent of the rural population had access to improved drinking water—poverty and the prevalence of communicable diseases and air- and waterborne viruses are proving to be overwhelming obstacles to improving the quality of life in Guinea. A 2014 outbreak of Ebola virus disease in the country's south was especially devastating.

Food: In most areas of Guinea, rice is the dietary staple. It is served covered in a spicy sauce, along with vegetables or fruit, or less frequently, with meat or fish. Travelers also find peanuts and cakes for sale by street vendors in larger towns, and a full range of western fare in the capital city, Conakry. Poverty and an influx of refugees from Guinea's war-torn borders make for frequent food shortages in the country.

Arts & Entertainment: Street celebrations, including music and dancing, are frequently held in Conakry. Traditional music remains vibrant throughout the country, although African musicians have also been blending traditional rhythm, instruments, and themes with international musical styles. Inherited from the former Mande Empire of West Africa, Guinea's traditional music begins with a jeli (or griot), similar to the European minstrel. The jeli learns the art of traditional music-making and storytelling from childhood. Traditional instruments include the kora, an African harp, and the balafon, a type of xylophone.

Different regions of the country are known for different sorts of crafts and artwork. Guinea has an old and internationally renowned reputation in the textile industry for its hand-dyed fabrics. The Foutah Djallon region is one of only a few in the world where natural indigo dyes from indigenous plants are still used to produce the vivid colors and patterns on hand-dyed textiles.

Holidays: Most of Guinea's inhabitants celebrate Muslim holidays, although Christian Guineans mark Easter, Christmas, and Assumption Day. The most important holiday in Guinea is Tabaski (or Eid-al-Adha), a feast to celebrate God's intercession to save Abraham's son from sacrifice. Also significant is Ramadan, the ninth month in the Muslim lunar calendar in which Muslims worldwide deepen their faith by fasting between sunrise and sunset. Ramadan ends with the feast of Eid-al-Fitr. Muslims also celebrate Maouloud (Mohammed's birthday).

Other public holidays include New Year's Day (January 1), Labor Day (May 1), International Women Day (March 8), and Independence Day (October 2).

Environment and Geography

Topography: Guinea is bordered on the north by Guinea-Bissau and Senegal, on the northeast by Mali, on the east by Côte d'Ivoire, and on the south by Liberia and Sierra Leone. The western side of the country includes 320 kilometers (about 200 miles) of coastline along the North Atlantic.

Guinea's coastal area, known as Lower Guinea, is an alluvial coastal plain, flat and wet, with large areas of fertile swampland. Middle Guinea, also known as the Foutah Djallon, is comprised of 77,700 square kilometers (30,000 square miles) of mountainous terrain and grasslands. This area, in the nation's interior, has an average altitude of 910 meters (about 3,000 feet).

In Upper Guinea, the interior mountains soften into a plain that sits at an average altitude of 305 meters (1,000 feet). Here, the land is covered in savanna grasses, with occasional rocky outcroppings. In spite of the gentler terrain, Upper Guinea boasts the country's highest point at Mont Nimba, which reaches an altitude of 1,752 meters (5,748 feet).

Guinea's most inaccessible region, the highlands, is densely forested with tropical growth. Here, the Niger River and its tributary, the Milo, begin their journey across the interior to the Atlantic Ocean. The geology of the Guinea highlands is notable for the region's proliferation of granites, schist (metamorphic rock), and quartz.

Natural Resources: According to government estimates, Guinea has natural reserves totaling more than 40 billion metric tons of bauxite, as well as billions of tons of high-grade iron ore, diamonds, and gold deposits. It also contains deposits of other metals, uranium, gemstones, and stones like limestone, marble, and granite. Its major waterways and coastline also provide hydropower capabilities and plentiful fish. The fertile soil and climate conditions are a lure to large-scale agricultural industries.

Plants & Animals: Guinea's tropical rainforests, elevated grasslands, and alluvial coastal plains provide a rich array of habitats for plant and animal life. Unfortunately, the region's extreme poverty has driven local populations deep into these natural habitats, often destroying species in the process. Guinea therefore has a long list of endangered species.

Some of Guinea's most notable species include large animals like the waterbuck, giraffe, hippopotamus, crocodiles, antelope, elephant, and African lions. Smaller creatures include the Liberian mongoose, fruit bats, several species of monkeys, and Johnston's genet. Guinea's Atlantic coastal waters are also home to several species of dolphin and African manatee.

Climate: Guinea's tropical climate varies slightly by region. Most of the country experiences two rainy seasons: one between April and June, and the second lasting from September to November. The northern region, however, is subject to violent squalls in March and April. These dissipate into sporadic rain showers, which grow stronger toward the peak of this region's rainy season in September.

Annual rainfall in the country varies from 76 to 203 centimeters (30 to 80 inches) on average. The capital city of Conakry on the Atlantic coast may receive as much as 429 centimeters (14 feet) or rain per year, with significantly less falling in the Middle Guinea interior.

Temperatures throughout most of the country are highest in March and coolest in August. However, the overall temperature variations are fairly slight, ranging from about 21 to 32 degrees Celsius (70 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit).

From December until March, a dry desert wind (or harmattan) blows across the northeast of Guinea, creating hot days and cold nights in that region and filling the air with a fine, gray sand.

Economy

Despite Guinea's vast mineral wealth, the country's economy remains underdeveloped. In 2023 the gross domestic product (GDP, purchasing power parity) was estimated at US$56.892 billion, or $3,900 per capita.

Industry: Guinea's most prosperous industry is the mining and processing of bauxite, although other minerals, as well as gold and diamonds, are also mined. Much of this work is run by international conglomerates, which often employ expatriates in higher-paid positions. The fishing industry is small but capable of growth.

Agriculture: A majority Guinea's labor force was employed in agriculture into the 2020s, and much of that was at a subsistence level. Livestock herding is predominant in Middle Guinea, but rice, coffee, pineapples, mangoes, palm kernels, cocoa, cassava, bananas, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and timber harvests are significant throughout the rest of the country. Cashews, coffee, tree fruits, peppers, and eggplants are exported.

Tourism: Travel and tourism provide only a small share of GDP and employment. Despite Guinea's natural beauty, the country has only a small tourism industry due to its prevalent security concerns. Chronic food shortages and pervasive disease, as well as inadequate facilities and roadways have prevented the growth of tourism.

Government

Guinea acquired its independence from the French government in 1958. The area has had a long history of conquest. Part of the massive Mande Empire in the thirteenth century, the Fulani herders swept into the area in the fifteenth century, just as European merchants arrived. During the centuries that followed, the slave trade established itself in the country. Several different Guinea Coast states emerged, while the Dutch and Portuguese struggled for control of the region. The Foutah Djallon fell under the control of the Fulani after the Holy Islamic War of 1725, which prompted the spread of Islam throughout the region.

Guinea did not fall under French control until the coastal region was claimed as a protectorate in 1849. A century of resistance to French rule followed, including the heroic efforts of Guinea's national hero, Samori Touré, and frequent rebellions in Foutah Djallon.

In 1956, a poor Malinke man named Ahmed Sékou Touré (a descendent of Samori) formed a federation of African trade unions to throw off French rule. In 1958, French president Charles de Gaulle finally offered France's West African colonies a choice of complete independence or semiautonomous status within a French-African community of states. Touré, on behalf of Guinea, was the only leader to choose total independence, and the French administration hit back by suddenly pulling out Guinea's government administration, records, and even phone lines. The country was plunged into overwhelming poverty while the new leadership attempted to reorganize agriculture and industries under a communist state-run model.

Touré ruled Guinea as a brutally repressive military dictator until 1977, when the market women in Conakry revolted over a government effort to seize all agricultural produce for state-run markets. Touré backed down after the rioting spread to other towns and three governors were assassinated.

Touré died in 1984 of heart failure. Soon after his death, then–lieutenant colonel Lansana Conté led a military coup and took over the position of president. While Conté's government reversed many of Touré's authoritarian policies and officially opened up the political process to multiple parties, holding Guinea's first multiparty presidential election in 1993, it also drew criticism for voting irregularities and lack of transparency. Conté was reelected every five years until his death in 2008; international observers have suggested that he maintained power for so long through vote rigging. Following Conté's death, another military coup took place, and Guinea remained under military control until 2010, when a new constitution was passed and the country held its first free and fair elections since independence. Alpha Condé, who had run against Conté in 1993, stood again for president in 2010 and was elected after two rounds of voting.

After 2010, Guinea was organized into seven administrative regions (Boké, Faranah, Kankan, Kindia, Labé, Mamou, and Nzérékoré) and one governorate (Conakry). The country's legal system was set up as a civil-law system, based on the French model. The highest courts in Guinea are the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court. Under the 2010 constitution the president served as the head of state and appointed the prime minister, who acted as the head of government. Guinea's legislative branch, the National Assembly, did not meet between 2008 and 2013. In September 2013, the first free elections were held to fill the National Assembly's 114 seats.

President Alpha Condé was reelected to a second term in 2015. In 2020 he oversaw a change to the constitution extending presidential term limits, and later that year he successfully won a third term. However, in September 2021 a military coup led by Lt. Col. Mamady Doumbouya overthrew Condé's government and suspended the constitution. Doumbouya installed himself as interim president and a transitional legislative assembly was created in 2022 to oversee a move back to civilian rule.

Interesting Facts

• The city of Kankan was once the capital of the Mande (or Mali) Empire, which ruled much of West Africa from 880 to 1500 CE.
• Guinea is sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from the neighboring Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea.
• Conakry is one of the world's wettest capital cities, receiving an average of around 170 inches 430 centimeters of rain per year.

Bibliography

Camara, Mohamed Saliou. Political History of Guinea since World War Two. Lang, 2014.

"Guinea." The World Bank, 2024, data.worldbank.org/country/guinea. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.

"Guinea." The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, 16 Jan. 2025, www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/guinea/. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.

"Guinea." World Health Organization, 2022, www.who.int/countries/gin/en/. Accessed 27 Jun. 2022.

"Guinea Country Profile." BBC News, 14 Apr. 2023, www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13442051. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.

“Guinea (GIN) Exports, Imports, and Trade Partners.” OEC, Observatory of Economic Complexity, 2020, oec.world/en/profile/country/gin. Accessed 27 Jun. 2022.‌

Human Development Insights, United Nations Development Programme, 13 Mar. 2024, hdr.undp.org/data-center/country-insights#/ranks. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.

“Resources.” Républic de Guinée, Republic of Guinea Ministry of Mines and Geology, 2016, mines.gov.gn/en/resources/bauxite. Accessed 27 Jun. 2022.