Rivers that organise West Africa rise in Guinea's highlands: the Niger, the Senegal and the Gambia. On the coast, on the Kaloum peninsula, Conakry stands and governs in French. Both belong to the same country. Together they show a state that gives away water and refused political community with France.
15,099,727 people live on 245,857 square kilometres. The neighbours are Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire and Mali. French is the official language. The central bank issues the Guinean franc. The highlands are the Fouta Djallon, the coast is Lower Guinea, the country toward the Niger is Upper Guinea, the southeast is Forested Guinea. The capital does not see the sources. It sees the Atlantic.
Guinea at a glance
Capital
Conakry
Area
245,857 km²
Population
15.1 million
Official language(s)
French
Currency
Guinean franc
Continent
Africa
Distinctive fact
Source of the Niger, the Senegal and the Gambia
Where three great rivers begin
The Senegal and the Gambia rise in the Fouta Djallon. The Niger comes out of the Guinea highlands that adjoin that massif and runs northeast into Mali. The state does not hold any of these rivers as far as the mouth. The Senegal and the Gambia reach the Atlantic in other countries. The Niger, after its long bend, meets the sea far to the east. Guinea is the beginning, not the delta.
That is why the highlands are called a water tower. The image describes a position. Rain that falls on these heights enters rivers that cross other states before they reach the sea. Conakry sits on the Kaloum peninsula, facing the ocean, separated from the Fouta by lowland. The political capital and the country's hydrographic centre are two places. Draw only one of them and you draw half of Guinea.
The no to the French Community
On 28 September 1958 the territories voted on whether to remain in the French Community. Guinea was the only one to vote no. Independence followed on 2 October 1958. Sékou Touré stood for that decision. France pulled out personnel and commitments. The break was political and immediate. French remained the official language. The state left a community and kept the tool of administration.
The country's own franc makes the break readable. Senegal, Mali, Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea-Bissau use the West African CFA franc. Liberia and Sierra Leone have other currencies. Guinea issues the Guinean franc through its own central bank. French ties the administration to the old metropole. The franc separates the state from the franc zone next door. Seeing both at once is the political geography of Conakry.
Guinea left the community and kept the language. The franc shows what was begun anew.
— TerraTally · Countries desk
Conakry is the coast
Conakry sits on the Kaloum peninsula, with the Loos Islands off the roadstead. The port is the country's door to the Atlantic. In the northwest, around Boké, lies bauxite that leaves by this coast. Ore and capital share the lowland. The rivers that put the country into an atlas begin up on the heights. A portrait of the port without the Fouta Djallon is incomplete. A portrait of the mountains without Conakry leaves out the state.
French is the language of the law. Alongside it, people speak Pular, Maninka and Susu, among other languages, according to the region. The constitution singles out one official language and does not map every mother tongue. That fits a state which stood against the French Community and kept French as the language of office. The rivers cross the borders. The official language remains the law of Conakry.
Guinea is the start of great rivers and the state that voted no on 28 September 1958. Conakry governs from the peninsula. The Fouta Djallon gives up the water. The map goes wrong as soon as either is missing.