Portal:Guinea

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Flag of Guinea
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Guinea /ˈɡɪni/, officially Republic of Guinea French: République de Guinée, is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea (Guinée française), it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbor Guinea-Bissau. Conakry is the capital, the seat of the national government, and the largest city.

Guinea has almost 246,000 square kilometres (94,981 sq mi). It forms a crescent by curving from its western border on the Atlantic Ocean toward the east and the south. Guinea shares its northern border with Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, and Mali. Guinea shares its southern border with Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Côte d'Ivoire. The Niger River arises in Guinea and runs eastward.

Guinea is home to twenty-four ethnic groups. The most prominent groups are the Fula, Mandinka, and Susu.

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MALI empire map.PNG

The Mali Empire was a West African empire of the Mandinka from c. 1230 to c. 1600. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita and became renowned for the wealth of its rulers, especially Mansa Musa I. The Mali Empire had many profound cultural influences on West Africa, allowing the spread of its language, laws and customs along the Niger River. The Mali empire extended over a large area and consisted of numerous vassal kingdoms and provinces.

The Mali Empire grew out of an area referred to by its contemporary inhabitants as Manden. Manden, named for its inhabitants the Mandinka (initially Manden’ka with “ka” meaning people of), comprised most of present-day northern Guinea and southern Mali. The empire was originally established as a federation of Mandinka tribes called the Manden Kurufa (literally Manden Federation), but it later became an empire ruling millions of people from nearly every ethnic group in West Africa. (Read more...)

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Shoulder mask nimba, representing a fertility spirit. Sculpture of the Baga people. Wood, 19th century, Guinea.

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Louis Lansana Beavogui (28 December 1923 – 19 August 1984) was a Guinean politician. He was Prime Minister from 1972 to 1984 and was briefly interim President in 1984.

Beavogui, a member of the Toma ethnic group, was born in Macenta, located in southern Guinea, and he was trained in the Senegalese city of Dakar to become a medic. He was elected as Mayor of Kissidougou when he was 31 years old, and he was elected to the National Assembly of France in January 1956 as one of three deputies representing French Guinea. Under President Ahmed Sékou Touré, Beavogui was appointed to the government as Minister of Economic Affairs and Planning when Guinea gained its independence in 1958, and he was appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1961. After the Guinean government allowed Kwame Nkrumah, the ousted President of Ghana, to live in exile in Guinea, the authorities in Ghana detained Beavogui at the airport in Accra while he was on his way to Ethiopia for a conference of the Organization of African Unity in October 1966. He remained Foreign Minister until May 1969, when he was moved back to his position as Minister of Economic Affairs.

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