Guinea

The country that voted no to France and had everything ripped out of it in reply. De Gaulle's 1958 referendum offered French African territories membership of a French Community or immediate independence with no further assistance; Guinea alone voted no, with Sekou Toure declaring that his people preferred poverty in freedom to riches in slavery. France withdrew within weeks, taking administrators, files, equipment and, by numerous accounts, tearing out telephone wiring and destroying medicines on the way out. Guinea turned to the Soviet bloc. Toure's rule became one of the most repressive in Africa, with the Camp Boiro detention centre and waves of purges against imagined plots; perhaps a million people fled. He died in 1984 and the army took over within a week. The country holds a very large share of the world's bauxite along with iron ore, gold and diamonds, and remains poor. The Ebola epidemic of 2014 began in its southeast. Fouta Djallon, its highland region, is the source of the Niger, Senegal and Gambia rivers. Conakry is the capital, on a peninsula. A coup removed the president again in 2021. The country has about fourteen million people. Its name is shared with three other countries and a currency. Mount Nimba's reserve straddles three borders and is a World Heritage site. French is official, with Fula, Maninka and Susu widely spoken. Simandou holds one of the largest untapped iron ore deposits in the world, and its development has been delayed by disputes for over two decades. Conakry lies on Tombo island, linked to the mainland by a causeway.

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