Guinea
Guinea is located on the west coast of Africa, bordering the Atlantic Ocean. It has turbulent neighbors: Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Guinea occupies 245,857 square kilometers (94,900 square miles), slightly smaller than the U.S. state of Oregon. Its population was estimated to be 9,246,462 in July 2004, and its per capita income at $2,100 in 2003, about the same as Ghana, Nicaragua, and Pakistan.
Guinea is ethnically diverse. The Peuhl people constitute 40 percent of its population; the Malinke, 30 percent; the Soussou, 20 percent; and smaller ethnic groups, 10 percent. Religiously, Guinea's is not diverse: 85 percent of its population is Muslim, with Christians accounting for 8 percent and followers of indigenous beliefs, 7 percent. With a life expectancy of less than 49 years and an adult literacy rate estimated at between 36 and 41 percent (and a literacy rate for women of 22 percent), the United Nations Human Development Report 2004 ranked Guinea 160 out of 177 nations for whom it calculated its Human Development Index.
(MAP BY MARYLAND CARTOGRAPHICS/THE GALE GROUP)In ancient times, the territory that became Guinea was a part of the great West African empires of Ghana, Songhai, and Mali. It became a French colony in the nineteenth century and remained one until 1958, when its citizens voted to end its association with France, the first of France's numerous African colonies to do so. It began its existence as an independent republic under the authoritarian leadership of its pro-independence leader, Sekou Touré (1922–1984), a strong nationalist and Pan-African proponent. Touré's rule was tumultuous.
When Touré died in 1984, the army staged a military coup that installed Lansana Conté (b. 1934) as chief executive. Conté ruled from his position at the head of the military junta until December 1993, when he was elected president as a civilian. He was nearly ousted in 1996 in a military revolt, but loyal forces finally helped him overcome the threat. After surviving this challenge, he was reelected in 1998 in "an election that was marred by violence and civil unrest, widespread irregularities, and the arrest and detention of major opposition candidates during vote counting" (U.S. Department of State 2003). Conté was elected to a third 5-year term in 2003 with more than 95 percent of the vote.
Guinea is officially a constitutional republic with a very strong president who is popularly elected. The 114 members of its unicameral National Assembly are elected for 5-year terms. Elections for president and for the National Assembly have not generally been regarded as free or fair. President Conté and his political party, the Party for Unity and Progress, have dominated the elections on the basis of appeals to the Sousou ethnic group.
The U.S. Department of State's 2003 country report on the human right situation in Guinea noted that the judiciary, which includes courts of first instance, two Courts of Appeal, and the Supreme Court, has not demonstrated the independence that Guinea's constitution guarantees it. Instead, "judicial authorities routinely deferred to executive authorities in politically sensitive cases … [and] influential members of the Government often were … above the law" (U.S. Department of State 2003).
In sum, the state of citizen rights in Guinea is nearly as poor as the economy. Freedom House rated it in 2003 as "Not Free."
Presidential Systems.
Bibliography
Amnesty International. "Guinea." Amnesty International Report 2004. New York: Amnesty International, 2004. <http://web.amnesty.org/report20 04/gin-summary-eng>.
Freedom House. "Guinea." Freedom in the World 2003: The Annual Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties. New York: Freedom House, 2004. <http://www.freedomhouse.org/res earch/freeworld/2003/countryratings/Gui nea.htm>.
"Guinea." In CIA World Factbook. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 2005. <http://www.cia.gov/cia/publicat ions/factbook/geos/gv.html>.
Turner, Barry. "Guinea." SYBworld: The Essential Global Reference. <http://www.sybworld.com> .
United Nations Development Programme. Human Development Report 2004. New York: United Nations Development Programme, 2004. <http://hdr.undp.org/reports/glo bal/2004/pdf/hdr04_HDI.pdf>.
U.S. Department of State. "Guinea." Country Reports on Human Rights Practices—2003. Washington DC: Department of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 2003. <http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/ hrrpt/2003/27731.htm>.
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