Conakry

History

Conakry was originally settled on the small Tombo Island and later spread to the neighboring Kaloum Peninsula, a 36 km stretch of land 0.2 to wide. The city was essentially founded after Britain ceded the island to France in 1887. In 1885, the two island villages of Conakry and Boubinet had fewer than 500 inhabitants. Conakry became the capital of French Guinea in 1904, and prospered as an export port, particularly after a railway (now closed) to Kankan opened up the interior of the country for the large-scale export of groundnut.

In the decades after Guinea gained independence in 1958, the population of Conakry boomed, from 50,000 inhabitants in 1958 to 600,000 in 1980 to more than 2 million today. The city's small land area and relative isolation from the mainland, while an advantage to its colonial founders, has created an infrastructural burden since independence.

In 1970, conflict between Portuguese forces and the belligerent PAIGC independence campaigners in neighbouring Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau) spilled into the Republic of Guinea when a group of 350 Portuguese troops and Guinean loyalists landed near the capital Conakry, attacked the city and freed 26 Portuguese prisoners of war held by the PAIGC before retreating, having failed to overthrow the government or kill the PAIGC leadership.

Camp Boiro, a feared concentration camp during the rule of Sekou Toure, was located in Conakry.

According to human rights groups, 157 people died during the 2009 Guinea protest when the military junta opened fire against tens of thousands of protesters in the city on 28 September 2009.

Geography

Originally situated on Tombo Island, one of the Îles de Los, it has since spread up the neighboring Kaloum Peninsula.

Climate

According to Köppen climate classification, Conakry features a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen climate classification: Am). Conakry features a wet season and a dry season. Like most of West Africa, Conakry's dry season is dominated by the harmattan wind between December and April. As a result, almost no rain falls in the city during these months.

Compared to most of West Africa, Conakry's wet season sees an extraordinary amount of rainfall, averaging more than 1,100 mm in both July and August. As a result, Conakry's average annual rainfall totals nearly 3,800 mm. However, the dry season is still dry, with January and February only receiving 1 mm of rainfall on average. Sunshine is lower in the wet season than the dry season, with August receiving the least sunshine and March receiving the most.

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Population

| 1958 | 78,388 | 1983 | 710,372 | 1996 | 1,092,631 | 2014 | 1,660,973

Government and administration

Conakry is a special city with a single region and prefecture government. The local government of the city was decentralized in 1991 between five municipal communes headed by a mayor. From the tip in the southwest, these are:

• Kaloum – the city centre
• Dixinn – including the University of Conakry and many embassies
• Ratoma – known for its nightlife
• Matam
• Matoto – home to Conakry International Airport.

The five urban communes make up the Conakry Region, one of the eight Regions of Guinea, which is headed by a governor. At the second-tier prefecture level, the city is designated as the Conakry Special Zone, though the prefecture and regional government are one and the same. At an estimated two million inhabitants, it is far and away the largest city in Guinea, making up almost a quarter of the nation's population and making it more than four times bigger than its nearest rival, Kankan.

Economy

Conakry is Guinea's largest city and its administrative, communications, and economic centre. The city's economy revolves largely around the port, which has modern facilities for handling and storing cargo, through which alumina and bananas are shipped. Manufactures include food products and cement, metal manufactures, and fuel products.

Markets

• Marché Madina
• Marché du Niger

Infrastructure crisis

Periodic power and water cuts have been a daily burden for Conakry's residents since early 2002. Government and power company officials blame the drought of February 2001 for a failure of the hydro-electric supply to the capital, and a failure of aging machinery for the continuation of the crisis. Critics of the government cite mismanagement, corruption and the withdrawal of the power agency's French partner at the beginning of 2002. , much of the city has no traffic lighting in the overnight hours.

Popular anger at shortages in Conakry was entwined with anti-government protests, strikes, and violence against the rule of President Lansana Conté and the successive prime ministers Cellou Dalein Diallo and Eugène Camara appointed to fill the post after the resignation of Prime Minister François Lonseny Fall in April 2004. Violence reached a peak in January–February 2007 in a general strike, which saw over one hundred deaths when the Army confronted protesters.For the relations between the 2007 crisis and infrastructure in Conakry, see:

• Q&A: Guinea emergency , BBC World Service. 13 February 2007.
• Youths Chase Staff From State Electricity Offices, Protesting Power Cuts , 25 October 2007 (UN Integrated Regional Information Networks/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX).
• IRIN In-Depth, Guinea: Living on the edge . UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, January 2005.
• GUINEA: Power cuts stop for football , 26 January 2006 (IRIN)
• Guinea protests over power-cuts , Alhassan Sillah: BBC, Conakry, 31 January 2003
• Conflict history: Guinea . International Crisis Group, updated 11 May 2007.

Transportation

Conakry is serviced by Conakry International Airport which has flights to several cities in West Africa and Europe.

Architecture

• Presidential Palace
• Palais du Peuple

Hospitals

• Donka Hospital
• Ignace Deen Hospital
• Clinique Ambroise Paré
• Clinique Pasteur

Culture

• Sandervalia National Museum
• National Library of Guinea and National Archives of Guinea
• Camp Boiro
• Monument du 22 Novembre 1970

Places of worship

Islamic mosques in the city include the Grand Mosque of Conakry. There are also Christian churches and temples, including the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Conakry's Cathédrale Sainte-Marie, the Église Protestante Évangélique de Guinée (Alliance World Fellowship), and the Assemblies of God.

Universities and education

• Collège Gbessia Centre
• Collège-Lycée Sainte-Marie
• Gamal Abdel Nasser University (Institut Polytechnique de Conakry)
• Institut Géographique National (Guinea)
• Université Kofi Annan
• Lycée français Albert Camus

Parks and gardens

• Jardin 2 Octobre
• Conakry Botanical Garden

Notable people

• Hadji Barry, professional footballer
• Mamadi Diakite, NBA basketball player for the New York Knicks
• Maciré Sylla, singer, dancer, author and composer
• M'Mahawa Sylla is a Guinean army officer.
• Mamadou Diallo, footballer
• Mohamed Yattara, footballer

References

• Dave, Nomi (2019) The Revolution's Echoes: Music, Politics & Pleasure in Guinea. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
• Thomas O'Toole, Janice E. Baker. (2005) Historical Dictionary of Guinea. Scarecrow Press.
• Philipps, Joschka (2013) Ambivalent Rage: Youth Gangs and Urban Protest in Conakry, Guinea. Harmattan Guinée.
• Cohen, Adrienne ( 2019) "Performing Excess: Urban Ceremony and the Semiotics of Precarity in Guinea-Conakry." Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute. 89 (4): 718–738.
• Odile Goerg. "Chieftainships between Past and Present: From City to Suburb and Back in Colonial Conakry, 1890s–1950s". Africa Today, Summer 2006, Vol. 52, No. 4, Pages 2–27
• Conakry the Capital: history of the city at site of expat artist.
• , reprinted at guineeconakry.info (no date)
• Kids in Guinea Study Under Airport Lamps, RUKMINI CALLIMACHI The Associated Press, Thursday, 19 July 2007.
• Archdiocese of Conakry: history and structure (at catholic-hierarchy.org)
• Guinea's Telecommunication Infrastructure, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), 1999 figures.

Notes

References

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5. Cybriwsky, Roman Adrian. (2013). "Capital Cities around the World: An Encyclopedia of Geography, History, and Culture". ABC-CLIO.
6. Gomez, Alsény René. (2010). "La Guinée peut-elle être changée?". Editions L'Harmattan.
7. (29 September 2009). "Guinea massacre toll put at 157". BBC News.
8. "Conakry Climate Normals 1961–1990". [[National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration]].
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13. Davidson, Basil. (1989). "The fortunate isles: a study in African transformation". Africa World Press.
14. (2007). "GUINEA Dying for Change Brutality and Repression by Guinean Security Forces in Response to a Nationwide Strike". Human Rights Watch.
15. Rev Fr Gynecol Obstet, Diallo MS, Diallo TS, Diallo FB, Diallo Y, Camara AY, Onivogui G, Keita N, Diawo SA. (1995) Mar;90(3):138-41., ''[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7784781 Anemia and pregnancy. Epidemiologic, clinical and prognostic study at the university clinic of the Ignace Deen Hospital, Conakry (Guinee)] {{Webarchive. link. (18 August 2018 '', Clinique universitaire de Gynécologie-Obstétrique, Hôpital Ignace Deen, Conakry Guinée.)
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28. Patrick Manning. Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa, 1880–1995, Cambridge (1998)
29. For the urban infrastructure and its history, see [http://www.worldbank.org/urban/forum2002/docs/diallo-pres.pdf. M. Dian DIALLO. Street Addressing And Basic Services in Conakry, Guinea] {{Webarchive. link. (6 September 2021 . Presented at the Urban Forum/ [[World Bank]] – Washington, D.C. – 2–4 April 2002.)
30. (7 December 1970). "Cloudy Days in Conakry".
31. "Guineeconakry.info – Conakry (la capitale)".
32. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6166264.stm Conakry's dark streets turning orange. James Copnall, BBC News] {{Webarchive. link. (14 April 2012 , Guinea . 23 November 2006.)