Guinea

Conakry — the capital of Guinea (population 13 million, one of the world’s largest bauxite producers, independent from France since 1958 — the only colony to vote against de Gaulle’s Franco-African Community, leading France to withdraw all aid and technicians overnight in retaliation) — on the Kaloum Peninsula, with the National Museum (the finest collection of Guinean masks and ritual objects in the country), the Conakry Grand Mosque and the Sandervalia market.

💡 Guinea’s vote against de Gaulle (28 September 1958 referendum — all French African colonies voted on whether to join de Gaulle’s proposed Franco-African Community; every colony voted yes except Guinea, led by Sékou Touré who declared “We prefer poverty in freedom to riches in slavery” — France’s response was to withdraw all French technicians, remove all equipment, tear up French-drafted plans and terminate all aid within days, destroying administrative infrastructure that took a decade to rebuild).

The Fouta Djallon (a highland massif covering central Guinea at 900–1,500m — the source of the Niger, Senegal and Gambia Rivers, covering 81,000km², home to the Fula pastoral people and their extraordinary transhumant cattle culture — with the Kinkon Falls (the most dramatic waterfall in the highlands, on the Kokoulo River, accessible by 4WD from Dalaba), the Chutes de la Mariou and the ancient Fula trading towns of Labe and Dalaba).

💡 The Fouta Djallon is the source of three of West Africa’s major rivers — the Senegal, the Gambia and the upper Bafing and Bani tributaries of the Niger. The highland massif acts as the primary rainfall catchment for the entire Senegambia region; changes in the Fouta Djallon’s forest cover (which has been significantly reduced by charcoal production) directly affect downstream water availability in Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Mali.

Labé (the capital of the Fouta Djallon — the largest market town in the Guinean highlands, with the finest leather goods and cattle market in Guinea, the traditional Fula architecture of thatched clay compounds, the Fula embroidered robes and the kola nut trade that connected the highlands to the Atlantic coast for 500 years) and the nearby waterfalls and gorges of the central massif.

💡 The Fula people of the Fouta Djallon (one of the most widely dispersed ethnic groups in West Africa, present in every country from Senegal to Central African Republic — the Fouta Djallon Fula are the ancestral homeland group, with a pastoral and trading tradition stretching back to the 8th century, the founders of several West African states including the Sokoto Caliphate in northern Nigeria) maintain the most complete cattle-herding cultural complex in West Africa.

Bossou (a village in the Forest Guinea region near the border with Liberia, the site of a long-term primate research programme studying the most intensively studied group of wild chimpanzees in Africa — the Bossou chimpanzees have been studied continuously since 1976, exhibiting the widest range of tool-use behaviours documented in any wild chimpanzee population, including the use of stone hammers and anvils to crack oil palm nuts — the most important site in the world for chimpanzee cultural evolution research).

💡 The Bossou chimpanzees (a group of approximately 12–15 individuals, the most studied wild chimpanzee community in West Africa — observed continuously for 50+ years by the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University — have demonstrated 39 different tool-use behaviours, the most complex tool culture documented in any non-human animal outside of captive settings. Their stone nut-cracking tradition (using specific hammer and anvil stones passed from mother to offspring) is the most compelling evidence of cultural transmission in wild primates.

Mount Nimba (the highest mountain in Guinea at 1,752m — a UNESCO World Heritage Site shared between Guinea, Ivory Coast and Liberia, with the most exceptional biodiversity concentration in West Africa: 2,000+ plant species, 120+ mammal species, the rare viviparous toad (Nimba toad, Nimbaphrynoides occidentalis — the only viviparous frog in Africa, giving birth to live young without a tadpole stage — and the Mount Nimba iron ore deposits that threaten the UNESCO site with mining concessions).

💡 Mount Nimba UNESCO World Heritage Site (listed 1981 — immediately added to the “In Danger” list in 1992 when iron ore mining concessions were granted inside the protected area, the site has been on both lists simultaneously for 30+ years, the longest continuous dual-listed status of any UNESCO property — the tension between the extraordinary biodiversity and the world’s highest-grade iron ore deposits (68% iron content, some of the richest in the world) has not been resolved.

Conakry’s music scene (Guinea is the birthplace of Afrobeat and West African highlife — the instruments and musical forms of the Mandé griots gave birth to most of West African popular music; the kora (a 21-string harp-lute played by Mandé griots), the balafon (a wooden xylophone) and the djembe drum are all Guinean instruments that now appear in global music — with live music at Conakry’s bars and the National Ballet of Guinea, the finest traditional dance company in Africa).

💡 The National Ballet of Guinea (founded 1958 by Sékou Touré as a vehicle for national cultural identity after independence — performing the traditional dances and music of the 24 ethnic groups of Guinea — is considered the finest traditional performing arts company in Africa, having toured globally since the 1960s. The djembe drum traditions of Guinea, exported worldwide by Guinean drummers, have become the foundation of the global world music djembe phenomenon.

A final morning in Conakry (the Marche Madina — the largest market in West Africa by some estimates, covering 4km² with 10,000+ stalls — and the Conakry waterfront with views of the Atlantic Islands of Los — five uninhabited islands accessible by pirogue, with white sand beaches and the finest snorkelling in Guinea) before flying from Conakry (CKY).

💡 Guinea contains approximately one-third of the world’s proven bauxite reserves (approximately 7.4 billion tonnes — the world’s largest single bauxite deposit — making Guinea the most important source of aluminium raw material in the world. The bauxite is mined primarily by Rio Tinto, Alcoa and Chinese state companies; the revenue from bauxite exports has grown significantly since 2010 but reaches very few ordinary Guineans.