Conakry

Conakry Kɔnakiri
Conakry, Guinea
Conakry is located in Guinea Conakry Map of Guinea showing the location of Conakry.
Coordinates:
Country	Guinea
Region	Conakry Region
Area
• Total	450 km2 (170 sq mi)
Population (2014 census)
• Total	1,667,864
• Density	3,700/km2 (9,600/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC (UTC±0)
• Summer (DST)	not observed (UTC)

Conakry (Sosso: Kɔnakiri) is the capital and largest city of Guinea. Conakry is a port city on the Atlantic Ocean and serves as the economic, financial and cultural centre of Guinea. Its population was estimated in 2009 at 1,667,864. Originally situated on Tombo Island, one of the Îles de Los, it has since spread up the neighboring Kaloum Peninsula.

The current population of Conakry is difficult to ascertain, although the U.S. Bureau of African Affairs has estimated it at 2 million. Conakry is thought to contain almost a quarter of the population of Guinea.

Etymology

According to a legend, the name of the city comes from the fusion of the name "Cona", a wine producer of the Baga people, and the word "nakiri", which means in Sosso the other bank or side.

History

See also: Timeline of Conakry

File:2013 Conakry Guinea 14418728438.jpg

Central Conakry, 2013.

Conakry was originally settled on the small Tombo Island and later spread to the neighboring Kaloum Peninsula, a 36-kilometer (22 mi) long stretch of land 0.2 to 6 kilometers (660 to 19,690 ft) 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 independence, the population of Conakry boomed, from 50,000 inhabitants in 1958 to 600,000 in 1980, to over two million today. Its 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 PAIGC in neighbouring Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau) spilled into the Republic of Guinea when a group of 350 Portuguese troops and Guinean dissidents landed near 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.

Government and administration

File:Location map Conakry.png

Central Conakry is on Tombo Island, with the growing city spreading up the Kaloum Peninsula.

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

File:Conakry-ville2.JPG

A street scene in Conakry.

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 housing materials.

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 mis-management, corruption and the withdrawal of the power agency's French partner at the beginning of 2002. As of 2007, 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.

Transportation

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

Climate

According to Köppen climate classification, Conakry features a tropical monsoon climate. Conakry features a wet season and a dry season. Like a good portion of West Africa, Conakry's dry season is influenced by the harmattan wind between December and April. As a result, relatively little precipitation falls in the city during these months.

Unlike much of West Africa, Conakry's wet season sees an extraordinary amount of precipitation, averaging more than 1,100 cm both in July and August. As a result, Conakry averages nearly 3,800 mm (149 in.) of precipitation per year, earning the city a tropical monsoon climate classification.

Climate data for Conakry (1961–1990)
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °C (°F)	32.2 (90)	33.1 (91.6)	33.4 (92.1)	33.6 (92.5)	33.2 (91.8)	31.8 (89.2)	30.2 (86.4)	29.9 (85.8)	30.6 (87.1)	30.9 (87.6)	32.0 (89.6)	32.2 (90)	31.9 (89.4)
Daily mean °C (°F)	26.1 (79)	26.5 (79.7)	27.0 (80.6)	27.4 (81.3)	27.5 (81.5)	26.5 (79.7)	25.5 (77.9)	25.2 (77.4)	25.6 (78.1)	26.3 (79.3)	27.0 (80.6)	26.6 (79.9)	26.4 (79.5)
Average low °C (°F)	19.0 (66.2)	20.2 (68.4)	21.2 (70.2)	22.0 (71.6)	20.7 (69.3)	20.2 (68.4)	20.4 (68.7)	20.8 (69.4)	20.7 (69.3)	20.4 (68.7)	21.0 (69.8)	20.1 (68.2)	20.6 (69.1)
Average rainfall mm (inches)	1 (0.04)	1 (0.04)	3 (0.12)	22 (0.87)	137 (5.39)	396 (15.59)	1,130 (44.49)	1,104 (43.46)	617 (24.29)	295 (11.61)	70 (2.76)	8 (0.31)	3,784 (148.98)
Average rainy days (≥ 1.0 mm)	0	0	0	2	9	18	27	27	22	17	6	1	129
Average relative humidity (%)	71	70	68	70	74	81	85	87	85	81	79	73	77
Mean monthly sunshine hours	223	224	251	222	208	153	109	87	135	189	207	214	2,222
Source: NOAA

Notable landmarks

Hospitals

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

Hotels

• Hotel Camayene
• Le Meridien Mariador Palace

Markets

• Marché Madina
• Marché du Niger

Palaces and museums

• Casa de Belle Vue
• Center Culturel Franco Guineen
• Conakry National Museum
• Palais de Nations
• Presidential Palace
• Palais du Peuple

Parks and gardens

• Jardin 2 Octubre
• Conakry Botanical Garden

Places of worship

• Cathedrale Sainte-Marie
• Paroisse Saint Michel
• Conakry Grand Mosque

Universities and education

• College Gbessia Centre
• College-Lycee Sainte-Marie
• Gamal Abdel Nasser University (Institut Polytechnique de Conakry)
• Institut Geographique National (Guinea)
• Guinea National Library and Archives
• Université Kofi Annan

Other

• 8 November Bridge
• Camp Boiro
• Conakry International Airport
• Monument du 22 Novembre 1970
• Stade du 28 Septembre

See also

• 2007 Guinean general strike
• 2009 Guinea protest

References

• Thomas O'Toole, Janice E. Baker. Historical Dictionary of Guinea. Scarecrow Press (2005). ISBN 0-8108-4634-9
• 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.
• HISTOIRE DE CONAKRY, 1463 to present, by Luc MOGENET, 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.

External links

• guineeconakry.info/: Conakry – based news portal
• Le Jour Guinée (French)
• Office National du Tourisme, République du Guinée.

Conakry travel guide from Wikivoyage

• l’Université Kofi Annan de Guinée (UNIKAG)
• Satellite image of Conakry and the Kaloum Peninsula, from the European Space Agency's Envisat: image description at http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEMAV21XDYD_index_1.html.

• Moussa Dadis Camara speaks to Radio France Internationale after Conakry massacre