Guinea's 246 thousand square kilometers divide into five zones: mangrove swamps on the coast; a coastal plain beyond them; the Fouta Djallon Massif further east, rising above 1,500 meters; savannah plains in the center--at the bend of the country--and south of it; and the forested Guinea Highlands in the south, which top out above 1,700 meters.
Flowing west off the Fouta Djallon are a headwater of Guinea(2)-Bissau's Corubal; the Cogon, the Konkouré and--on the south border--the Kolente(3). The north side of the massif is part of the Sénégal River system's drainage, most notably the Bafing. The east side of the massif and the north side of the Guinea Highlands are with the Niger Basin, including the source of the river proper, and its tributaries, Tinkisso, Niantan, Milo and Sankarani. Rivers from the south side of the highlands head toward the Liberian coast.
No one first language accounts for a majority; more than half speak a language in the Central-Southwestern Mande group. However, the most important single language comes from outside this group: Fulfulde, locally called Pular(4), a former ruling language centered in Fouta Djallon. The second most important language is Mandekan(5), spoken by about three in ten. The only other language accounting for as many as one in 20 is Susu, spoken by more than one in ten, mostly along the coast. French is the language of government.
About 17 in 20 are Sunni Moslem, less than one in ten are Christian--Roman Catholic and Protestant--and about one in 20 follow indiginous religions. The Kissi's exemplifies the older ways. They believe in ancestral spirits as mediators, use stones as symbols for spirits, wear charms, believe in the ability of others to use supernatural means to influence the course of material events and hold coming of age rituals' within the forest.
Only one city tops one million: the capital, Conakry; it is double that threshhold. The Grande Mosque, built with Saudi money in 1984, is the city's most impressive monument. Discouraged from visits by tourists is the city's former death camp: Boiro, the most notorious relic of a former dictator's reign of terror.
The Mande languages, which include Mandekan and Susu, have been spoken in the area for at least 2,000 years. Mandekan was the language of the Empire of Mali, which dominated the Niger basin. Fulfule originated further away; they invaded in the 19th century, bringing Islam to the Massif and beyond. French was introduced by conquest later in the same century, along with Christianity.
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(1) Guinée officially.
(2) Guiné officially.
(3) Called the Great Scarcies in Sierra Leone.
(4) A small number speak a dialect called Pulaar. Some people call the language after the ethnonym, Fulani. It is spoken by almost four in ten in Guinea.
(5) The dialect groups, sometimes considered as separate languages, are Eastern Mandekan, Jahanka, Manding and Southern Manding. The group is sometimes called Manding or Mandingo.