Guinea

Guinea A country in West Africa which came under French influence in 1880. Founded as the colony of Rivières in 1882, it became the colony of French Guinea in 1893. It joined the French Union in 1946, but later rejected membership of the French Community, becoming the first French African colony to gain independence on 2 October 1958. Owing to its rejection of French influence, it made up for the sudden withdrawal of French assistance by seeking help from Communist countries. In return, its exports went almost exclusively to the USSR, which caused a shortage of hard currency and foreign investment. In order to secure his near-total grip on power, President Touré organized purges at regular intervals, in which those who voiced dissent were dispossessed or imprisoned.

The one-party state collapsed a week after Touré's death in 1984, when a military coup brought General Lansana Conté to power. He gradually introduced market-oriented reforms, such as the privatization of state companies, a reform of the banking system, and agrarian reform. The austerity measures which he introduced led to considerable popular resentment, despite the decline of the inflation rate and the creation of an economic growth rate of 6 per cent. Following an abortive coup against him in 1985 by his erstwhile colleague, Diarra Traorré, the development towards democratic institutions was temporarily suspended. Eventually, Conté introduced a new Constitution in 1991, and allowed the foundation of political parties. In the first free elections since independence on 11 June 1995, his Parti de l'Unité et du Progrès (Party of Unity and Progress) gained the majority of seats in parliament. He was accused of massive electoral fraud in 1995 and in the 1998 elections, when he was re-elected. Shortly after these elections, he ordered the imprisonment of the opposition leader, Alpha Condé, who had to be released two years later owing to French pressure. The country's economy was bolstered by its reserves in gold and diamonds and by its coffee crops. However, much of the profits enriched a tiny economic and political elite, while the economic conditions for the masses were made more difficult by the presence of over 500,000 refugees from Sierra Leone and Liberia.