Guinea

Guinea, the name of a large section of the west coast of Africa, which first came into general use in the 15th century. Although the name is used with a different extension by different writers, it is pretty generally agreed that the stretch of coast-lands so designated extends from the mouth of the Senegal, in about 14° N. lat., to Cape Negro, in 16° S. lat. By conventional usage it is further divided into two parts, Upper and Lower Guinea, the dividing line being taken variously as the equator, the Gaboon, the Ogoway. The states and political territories comprised within this long stretch of coast-line, commencing from the north, are as follows: the French colony of Senegal, the English settlements on the Gambia, the Portuguese territory of Bissão or Bissajos, the coastal fringe before Futa-Jallon, Sierra Leone (British), the free negro republic of Liberia, the Ivory and Gold Coasts (shared between France and Britain), the Slave Coast (belonging to Germany, Britain, and France), the Niger delta (falling within the British sphere of commercial interest), and the Cameroons (German) in Upper Guinea; and in Lower Guinea, the Spanish settlements on Corisco Bay, the French colony of the Gaboon, the Congo Free State, and the Portuguese territories of Ambriz, Angola, and Benguela. The coast-line is throughout tolerably uniform, and everywhere flat, with numerous shallow lagoons separated from the ocean by narrow spits of sand, lying parallel to the coast. Proceeding inland, the country rises to the central plateau of the continent by a series of broad terrace-like steps, down which the longer rivers are generally precipitated in cataracts and rapids. The Genoese claim to have reached the coasts of Guinea in 1291. They were regularly visited by merchants from Rouen and Dieppe from 1364, but were not colonised until the Portuguese, under Henry the Navigator, sent out colonies hither (1481). The vast indentation of the Atlantic lying between Upper and Lower Guinea is called the Gulf of Guinea. Of late it is usual to restrict the name of Guinea to Upper Guinea, in which there are three ethnological groups: (1) Tshi-speaking tribes, the most barbarous, including the Ashantees; (2) Ehwe-speaking, including the Dahomeyans; (3) Yoruba-speaking, including the Egbas and other relatively civilised peoples. French influence has been greatly developed in Guinea of late, both on the coast and in the Hinterland. French Guinea, without Futa Jallon, the Ivory Coast, or Dahomey, includes Grand Bassam, Assinie, Grand Lahou, and Jackeville on the Gold Coast; and Porto Novo, Grand Popo, Kotonou, and Agoué on the Bight of Benin. See separate articles on GOLD COAST, &c.