GUINEA

	CLIMATE
	One of the wettest countries in Africa, Guinea has a hot, tropical climate. Temperatures remain about the same year-round. The rainy season lasts from April to November, with peak rainfall in July and August. The marshy western coastline receives the most rain; the high mountains in the Fouta Djallon district receive the least. In northern regions a hot, dry wind called the harmattan sometimes blows from December to March.

Guinea’s Past

Guinea (GIH-nee) is a fairly new nation; its boundaries were not fixed until it became part of the French colonial empire around 1900 C.E. For centuries before, the many different peoples who lived in Guinea shared a hand in creating several powerful civilizations that flourished in western Africa.

From around 700 C.E. , Malinke (muh-LIHN-keh) and Susu (SOO-soo) peoples moved into the area. They cleared rain forest land and worked as farmers. From 900 to 1100, Guinea was ruled by the empire of Ghana, based in present-day Mauritania and Mali (see MALI). From 1100 to 1450, it became part of the Mali Empire. Then, from around 1450 to 1600, it was ruled by Mali’s successor, Songhai (see MALI). All these empires had boundaries that stretched far wider than present-day Guinea. All were rich from collecting taxes from merchants who traveled across the Sahara between western Africa and the Mediterranean coast, and all built fine towns with colleges and mosques. Much of Ghana’s and Mali’s wealth originated in Guinea’s Bambuk and Buré gold fields.

The original inhabitants of Fouta Djallon (FOO-tah jah-LONE), a mountainous district in western Guinea, were Fulani (foo-LAH-nee) farmers. Around 1200, another group of Fulani began to settle in the Fouta Djallon region. They were cattle herders from the north, who brought the religion of Islam with them, and by 1750 they had established a powerful Muslim kingdom in Fouta Djallon. They waged holy war against their neighbors, selling those they had captured into slavery or keeping them as their own slaves. By about 1800 two of their provinces, Labé and Timbo, had become virtually independent, controlling all the land in northern and northwestern Guinea.

During the nineteenth century the French and British competed over control of Guinea. The French defeated the British but were strongly opposed by armies led by Samori Touré, a Malinke leader, who conquered surrounding states to build a powerful trading empire southeast of Fouta Djallon in the 1860s and 1870s. Samori Touré’s iron foundries manufactured and repaired guns, enabling his armies to provide the strongest opposition the French faced in all of western Africa. Samori Touré was finally captured and deported in 1898. The Kissi (KIH-see) people living in the forests tried to fight, but they had no central organization and, village by village, they surrendered.

In 1895 Guinea became part of French West Africa. French settlers set up rubber plantations, cultivated coffee and bananas for export, and mined bauxite. French people ruled Guinea mainly for their own benefit and did not provide education or welfare services for the local people.

After 1945 a powerful nationalist movement emerged in Guinea, led by Ahmed Sekou Touré, a communist trade-union leader with links to similar movements in other French West African countries. He led strikes to demand higher wages and reform of labor laws.