Guinea

Eastern Guinea, around the upper Niger and towns such as Kankan, Kouroussa and Beyla, is part of the Manding heartland of the Malinké (Mandingo) and related Mande-speaking peoples. It was in this region that, according to the tradition recorded in the Epic of Sundiata, Sundiata Keita united the Malinké chiefdoms and founded the Mali Empire after defeating the Sosso around 1235, taking the title mansa and establishing his capital at Niani on the upper Niger.

The wider territory of present-day Guinea fell within the orbit of the successive empires of the western Sudan. The Ghana (Wagadou) Empire, built by the Soninke and grown rich on the trans-Saharan gold-and-salt trade, gave way from the thirteenth century to Mali, which under Mansa Musa in the early fourteenth century became famous abroad for its gold. From the later fifteenth century the Songhai Empire, centred downriver at Gao and consolidated under Askia Muhammad after 1493, dominated much of the Niger valley until its defeat by a Moroccan army in 1591.

These states drew their wealth from long-distance commerce — gold moving north, salt and goods moving south — and from the spread of Islam along the trade routes, carried by Dyula (Juula) merchants. The goldfields and the Mande towns of the upper Niger linked the Guinea highlands to a vast commercial and cultural world that stretched across the Sahara, long before any European presence on the coast.

Turning points

1. c. 1235Formation

   Foundation of the Mali Empire on the upper Niger

   Sundiata Keita unites the Malinké chiefdoms of the Manding heartland and founds the Mali Empire, with its capital at Niani on the upper Niger.

   [1] [3] [5]

2. 1324Economy & Trade

   Mansa Musa's pilgrimage makes Mali's gold legendary

   Under Mansa Musa, the Mali Empire — embracing the Mande lands of the upper Niger — reaches its height and becomes renowned abroad for the wealth of its rulers.

   ↗See the data

   [3] [1]

3. 1493Politics & Power

   Songhai ascendancy in the western Sudan

   Askia Muhammad seizes power and expands the Songhai Empire, which dominates much of the Niger valley and the western Sudan into the sixteenth century.

   [5] [4]

4. 1591War & Rupture

   Fall of Songhai to a Moroccan army

   A Moroccan expeditionary force defeats the Songhai at Tondibi, ending the era of the great Sahelian empires that had embraced the Guinea region.

   ↗See the data

   [5] [4]

In the early eighteenth century the Fulani (Fula, or Peul) pastoralists of the Futa Jallon highlands of central Guinea, joined by Muslim traders, rose against the region's non-Muslim chiefdoms. From around 1725 they waged a jihad that established the Imamate of Futa Jallon, one of the earliest of the Fula Islamic states of West Africa and a model for later movements across the Sahel.

The new state was led by an almami (imam) and governed by Islamic law. Karamokho Alfa was recognised as its first leader and Commander of the Faithful; on his death he was succeeded by Ibrahima Sori, a military commander who consolidated the imamate's power through the later eighteenth century. Authority was shared among the leading Fulani families and centred on the religious assembly at Fugumba, with the capital at Timbo.

Futa Jallon became a notable centre of Islamic learning and a hub of regional trade, and its example influenced subsequent jihads elsewhere in West Africa. The imamate retained a measure of autonomy into the late nineteenth century before being drawn under French control as European expansion reached the interior.

Turning points

1. c. 1725Religion

   Fulani jihad founds the Imamate of Futa Jallon

   Fulani pastoralists and Muslim traders rise against the non-Muslim chiefdoms of the Futa Jallon highlands, founding an Islamic theocratic state governed by sharia.

   [6] [7] [1]

2. c. 1751Politics & Power

   Ibrahima Sori succeeds Karamokho Alfa

   On the death of the first leader Karamokho Alfa, the military commander Ibrahima Sori takes power and consolidates the imamate as a regional force.

   [6] [7]

3. 1896Colonisation

   French annexation of Futa Jallon

   After decades of nominal autonomy, the imamate is brought under French colonial control as European expansion absorbs the Guinea interior.

   ↗See the data

   [6] [9]

Figures of the era

Samori Touré (born around 1830 near the upper Niger) was a Muslim leader and military commander who, from the 1860s, built a powerful state in the savannas of what is now Upper Guinea and the surrounding region. In 1878 he proclaimed himself faama (ruler) of the Wassoulou Empire, and in 1881 he secured control of the important Dyula trading town of Kankan. In 1884 he proclaimed Islam the state religion and took the title of almami.

From the 1880s Samori's empire collided with advancing French forces. He fought, negotiated and signed treaties — including agreements at Kenieba Koura in 1886 and Bissandougou in 1887 — while equipping his army with modern firearms and maintaining workshops to repair and produce them. As the French pressed inland, capturing Kankan in 1891, he shifted his empire eastward, conducting a fighting retreat across a vast area.

Samori's resistance lasted nearly two decades, longer than almost any other African opponent of French expansion. It ended on 29 September 1898 when he was captured by French forces at Guélémou. Condemned to exile, he was deported to Gabon, where he died of pneumonia in 1900. He is remembered across West Africa as a major figure of anti-colonial resistance.

Turning points

1. 1878Formation

   Samori proclaims the Wassoulou Empire

   Samori Touré declares himself faama of the Wassoulou Empire, the state he has built in the savannas of present-day Upper Guinea and beyond.

   [8] [1]

2. 1881War & Rupture

   Capture of Kankan

   Samori takes control of the major Dyula trading centre of Kankan on the upper Milo, a hub of the kola-nut trade.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [8]

3. July 1884Religion

   Islam proclaimed state religion; Samori takes the title almami

   Samori formally adopts Islam as the religion of his empire and assumes the title of almami, fusing political and religious authority.

   [8]

4. 1886–1887Politics & Power

   Treaties with France

   Samori signs agreements with France, including the Treaty of Bissandougou in 1887, as he manoeuvres between negotiation and war against colonial expansion.

   [8]

5. 29 September 1898War & Rupture

   Capture of Samori Touré

   After nearly two decades of resistance and a long fighting retreat eastward, Samori is captured by French forces at Guélémou and later exiled to Gabon, where he dies in 1900.

   ↗See the data

   [8] [1]

Figures of the era

France established its hold on the Guinea coast and interior through the later nineteenth century. The coastal protectorate of Rivières du Sud, organised from 1882, was reconstituted and the territory was established as the colony of French Guinea by 1891–1894, with Conakry — founded by the French in 1884 — as its capital. From 1895 the colony was incorporated into the federation of French West Africa (Afrique-Occidentale Française), administered from Dakar.

Colonial rule rested on the cultivation of cash crops, forced labour and taxation, and on the suppression of the indigenous states — the Imamate of Futa Jallon and the remnants of Samori's empire — that had resisted conquest. Guinea's mineral wealth, above all its vast bauxite deposits, would become significant only later, but the foundations of an export economy were laid in the colonial decades.

After the Second World War, French West Africa saw the rise of African political movements. In Guinea the trade unionist Ahmed Sékou Touré built the Parti Démocratique de Guinée (PDG) into a powerful nationalist force, positioning Guinea at the forefront of the demand for self-determination as the French empire moved toward decolonisation.

Turning points

1. 1884Colonisation

   Founding of Conakry

   The French establish Conakry on the Atlantic coast; it becomes the capital of the colony of French Guinea.

   ↗See the data

   [9] [2]

2. 1891–1894Colonisation

   Colony of French Guinea established

   The coastal territory of Rivières du Sud is reorganised into the colony of French Guinea, its borders extended over the conquered interior.

   ↗See the data

   [9]

3. 1895Colonisation

   Incorporation into French West Africa

   French Guinea becomes a constituent colony of the federation of French West Africa, administered from Dakar.

   ↗See the data

   [9]

4. c. 1947Politics & Power

   Rise of the Parti Démocratique de Guinée

   Postwar political mobilisation gives rise to the PDG, which under Ahmed Sékou Touré becomes the leading nationalist party in the colony.

   [1] [10]

In the referendum of 28 September 1958, Guineans voted overwhelmingly to reject membership of the French Community proposed in Charles de Gaulle's new constitution — the only French African territory to do so. Campaigning for a 'No', Sékou Touré declared that Guinea preferred poverty in liberty to riches in slavery. France responded by abruptly cutting off aid and withdrawing its officials, equipment and investment, and on 2 October 1958 Guinea proclaimed itself a sovereign republic, with Sékou Touré as president.

Left without French support, Touré turned to the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc and built a one-party socialist state under the PDG, the only legal party. His rule grew increasingly repressive: real and alleged opponents were imprisoned, tortured and killed, and the Camp Boiro detention centre in Conakry became the most notorious site of the repression, where thousands died. The Fulani community in particular was targeted on the basis of fabricated conspiracy allegations, and waves of Guineans fled into exile.

Touré governed Guinea until his death on 26 March 1984 while undergoing medical treatment abroad. His long rule had given Guinea an assertive independence and a leading place in the politics of African decolonisation, but at the cost of political terror, economic isolation and one of the era's most repressive states.

Turning points

1. 28 September 1958Independence

   Guinea votes 'Non'

   In the constitutional referendum, Guinea overwhelmingly rejects de Gaulle's French Community — the only French African colony to do so.

   ↗See the data

   [10] [9] [1]

2. 2 October 1958Independence

   Independence proclaimed

   Days after France abruptly withdraws its aid and personnel, Guinea proclaims itself a sovereign republic with Ahmed Sékou Touré as president.

   ↗See the data

   [10] [1]

3. 1960–1984Politics & Power

   Camp Boiro and the one-party state

   Under a one-party socialist regime, the Camp Boiro detention centre becomes the centre of a repression in which thousands of detainees are executed or die from torture and starvation.

   [11] [12]

4. 26 March 1984Politics & Power

   Death of Sékou Touré

   President Sékou Touré dies while receiving medical treatment abroad, ending more than a quarter-century of one-party rule.

   [13] [1]

Figures of the era

Days after Sékou Touré's death, Colonel Lansana Conté seized power in a bloodless coup on 3 April 1984, freed political prisoners and dismantled the most overt machinery of the old regime. Conté ruled for nearly a quarter-century, easing the socialist economy but presiding over corruption and authoritarianism. When he died in December 2008, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara led a military junta to power.

On 28 September 2009, security forces opened fire on opposition supporters gathered in a stadium in Conakry; at least 157 people were killed and many women were raped, in a massacre for which Camara and others were later prosecuted. After Camara was wounded and went into exile, a transition led to Guinea's first competitive presidential election, won in 2010 by the veteran opposition figure Alpha Condé. Condé was re-elected in 2015 and, after a controversial constitutional change, again in 2020.

On 5 September 2021 special-forces commander Mamady Doumbouya overthrew Condé and suspended the constitution, installing himself as transitional leader. Throughout these upheavals Guinea has remained a resource giant: it holds some of the world's largest bauxite reserves and is among the leading global exporters of the ore, while the Simandou range contains one of the world's largest untapped deposits of high-grade iron ore — wealth whose benefits have so far reached few Guineans.

Turning points

1. 3 April 1984Politics & Power

   Lansana Conté seizes power

   A bloodless military coup led by Colonel Lansana Conté takes control after Sékou Touré's death; political prisoners at Camp Boiro are released.

   [13] [1]

2. December 2008Politics & Power

   Camara's coup after Conté's death

   On the death of long-ruling President Lansana Conté, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara leads a military junta to power.

   [1] [15]

3. 28 September 2009Catastrophe

   Conakry stadium massacre

   Security forces fire on a peaceful opposition rally in a Conakry stadium, killing at least 157 people and committing widespread sexual violence.

   ↗See the data

   [14] [15]

4. 2010Politics & Power

   Alpha Condé elected; return to civilian rule

   Veteran opposition leader Alpha Condé wins Guinea's first competitive presidential election, beginning a civilian government; he is re-elected in 2015 and 2020.

   [16] [1]

5. 5 September 2021Politics & Power

   Doumbouya's coup ousts Condé

   Special-forces commander Mamady Doumbouya overthrows President Alpha Condé, dissolves the constitution and installs himself as transitional leader.

   [17] [18]

Figures of the era