Guinée forestière
Guinée forestière | |
---|---|
Tropical savannah climate |
Guinée forestière (Forested Guinea) is a forested mountainous region in southeastern Guinea, extending into northeastern Sierra Leone. It is one of four natural regions into which Guinea is divided and covers 23% of the country. It includes all of the Nzérékoré administrative region, and shares a border with Sierra Leone and Liberia. Its rocky topology contains several mountain ranges and has an average elevation of 460m. Forested Guinea contains important areas of biological diversity such as the UNESCO World Heritage site Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve and biosphere reserve Ziama Massif.[1][2] The Guéckédou prefectures also recorded the initial case of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Meliandou, a rural village.[3] The virus subsequently spread to urban areas and neighbouring countries Sierra Leone and Liberia.
History
Forested Guinea was established around 1000AD by native peoples with the advent of agriculture and stationary settlements.[4] Indigenous linguistic groups began to arrive later from neighbouring areas; their tribes were established from the 15th century onwards.
Religious history
In the 1850s, Samori Ture founded the Wassoulou empire, including Forested Guinea. Ture was a military leader who seized control of the Guinea Highlands, and ultimately expanded his empire to reach Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire and Mali.[5] The expansion of his empire led to the forced religious conversion of indigenous peoples in Forested Guinea through the establishment of mosques and destruction of local religious symbols.[4] The extent of his religious conversion was widespread, having decreed that all people in the kingdom would have to become Muslims.[5]
Christianity has had a lesser historical influence on Forested Guinea. The missionary group White Fathers first attempted to convert indigenous people in the 1920s, which had varying degrees of success with local populations.[4] It remained unpopular after WWII due to conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism, as well as the competition with the spread of Islam.
Colonisation and independence
In the 1880s, the French colonisation of Africa had reached the Forest Region, part of Samori Ture's territory; this led to a treaty of friendship, in which Ture gave up his Guinean territory. Local people resisted French colonisation until 1911.[6] The French colonists altered the societal foundations through the introduction of the western educational system and French culture. This included establishing village schools which offered to teach basic maths and literacy in the French language.[4] These changes were in tandem with structural political alterations such as the suppression of village elders' judicial power, and the creation of separate courts for indigenous people and Europeans. The creation of the French Union in 1946 removed colonial status of Guinea and combined France and its other overseas components into a single union. Forested Guinea was represented by its indigenous party, the Union Forestière.
After
Refugee crisis
Forested Guinea's immigration was heavily impacted by the neighbouring First Liberian Civil War in 1989. The common border between the two regions caused the refugee crisis in which a total of 500,000 refugees fleeing from civil unrest had crossed into Forested Guinea by the year 2000.[7] This initial phase was characterised by four major waves until 1992, followed by a series of minor waves. The main groups fleeing civil unrest were mostly rural ethnic groups, such as the Kpelle, Loma and Kissi with some inflow from urban cities in Liberia.[8]
These inflows led to the establishment of refugee camps along the border between Liberia and Forested Guinea in the 1990s. Most of the refugees were directed towards the Forest Region due to the
Demographics
Forested Guinea has a total population of 2.1 million (2011). The demographics of Forested Guinea are split between people living in urban and rural areas with one-fifth of the population living in urban areas. The two most populated urban areas are Guéckédou with 290,000 and Nzérékoré, with 195,000 inhabitants as of the 2014 census.[citation needed] Forested Guinea has the highest population density of the four regions of Guinea, with 55 people per kilometre squared in 2009. However, it is much lower than the capital city of Guinea, Conakry, with over 3440 people per kilometre squared.[9] Approximately 67% of Forested Guinea lives below the poverty line, among the highest rates of the Guinean regions. This correlates with a tendency to live in rural areas, which contain 65% of cases, possess low levels of education and have livelihoods in agriculture.[10]
Guinée forestière is known for its diverse ethnic population, including the Toma and Kissi groups, and also shelters a large number of refugees from the Sierra Leone Civil War, the Liberian Civil Wars and the Ivorian Civil Wars. Nzérékoré is the largest city. Both former President Moussa Dadis Camara and former Prime Minister Jean-Marie Doré are from the Guinée forestière. The linguistic areas of Forested Guinea contain the main groups of the Kpelle, Loma and Kisi.[citation needed]
Linguistic groups
The Kpelle migrated from West Sudan in the 16th century. Their social structure is arranged under paramount chiefs, who settle disputes and mediate between the Guinean government and their people.[11] The Kpelle region overlaps with the bordering country of Liberia and has 100,000 native speakers in Forested Guinea itself. This is a result of the Kpelle seeking refuge in Forested Guinea from First Liberian Civil War.
The Loma tribe began in the 15th century, as a result of the breakdown of the
The Kissi people migrated from the highland region, Fouta Djallon, in the 17th century. The Kissi people also inhabit an area that encompasses Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone; however they are mainly concentrated in the Guéckédou region. Their villages usually do not contain more than 150 people and are organised under a senior member of each village. They are mainly farmers that produce rice, coffee and kola;[13] rice cultivation began in the 18th century and constitutes an important part of their culture.[4]
Wildlife and environment
Forested Guinea possesses unique wildlife and geological diversity. It is characterized by undulating lowlands, which are frequently disrupted by suddenly rising high mountain ranges and eroded plateaux of the Guinea Highlands. In general, the lowland areas are covered by forest-savanna mosaics and lowland forests; but all ridges and plateaux are covered by montane forests above 600 meters. Forested Guinea also contains over half of West Africa's rivers such as the Niger River, Saint Paul River, and Lofa River; other limnological features include tributaries and basins. The Forest Region drains over 1/3 of Guinea's water, as it forms the drainage divide between the Niger River basin and western rivers. These rivers contain animal species such as pygmy hippopotamuses and manatees.[4] Remarkable sky islands are the Mount Nimba (1720 meters), Simandou Massif (1658 meters), Ziama Massif (1387 meters), Mount Tétini (1257 meters), Kourandou Massif (1236 meters), and Mount Béro (1210 meters). All of them belong to the south-eastern part of the Guinea Highlands, and remained poorly discovered by science. The most prominent protected areas in Forested Guinea are the Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve, the Ziama Massif, and the Diécké Classified Forest.
Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve
The
Ziama Massif
The
Diécké Classified Rainforest
The
This area is split into evergreen and deciduous forests and contains plant species unique to the area. Its forest composition is mainly lowland mature rainforest, with swamps in some regions. It has heavy rainfall with this region receiving 1900-3000mm of rainfall each year, making it one of the wettest parts of West Africa.[1] Human activity has also disturbed the ecological region due to previous slash-and-burn farming, logging and mining activities. Despite the Diécké Classified Forest being used for logging, swamp-forest regions have hindered commercial exploitation due to its difficulty of access.[18]
2014 Ebola outbreak
The origin of the 2014 Ebola outbreak has been traced back to Forested Guinea: it was the first country in Western Africa to record an Ebola virus outbreak. The initial case of the outbreak was attributed to a 2-year-old boy located in Meliandou, Guéckédou Prefecture with the Zaire strain of Ebola who died 6 December 2013.[3] This subsequently spread to neighbouring countries Liberia and Sierra Leone due to the village's proximity to their borders and the free flow of people between the three countries.[19] Ebola also spread to Conakry from Guéckédou, the first urban area in Guinea to be affected, with the first case recorded on 17 March 2014.
The Ebola Crisis affected 3811 people in total in Guinea. Guinea was declared "Ebola-free" in its entirety in December 2015; however, on 17 March 2016, Nzérékoré recorded two additional cases of Ebola.[20]
Impact on healthcare system
The Forest Region was one of the regions most severely affected by the Ebola crisis,[21] and the weakened healthcare system had incidental effects such as reducing treatment attendance, increased used sub-standard drugs and distrust towards the healthcare system. The Ebola crisis was said to have "brought a number of additional burdens"[21] to the healthcare system in Forested Guinea. There was a noted decrease in attendance to outpatient clinics and reduction in hospital revenue which weakened the financial stability of healthcare institutions. The impact was also witnessed in the decline of non-ebola-related treatment programs for diseases such as malaria and AIDS, which raised the threat of other health problems.
Social resistance to healthcare
Researchers observed social resistance to
Other cultural aspects such as belief in sorcery contributed further to the resistance. Behaviour such as seclusion and anti-social conduct sparked suspicion. Both foreign and community members could be viewed as sorcerers, and due to the negative connotations were ostracised. This negative perception towards those sorcery consequently sparked anger at Ebola treatment centres, which advocated anti-social behaviour to prevent the spread of Ebola.[22]
Gallery
-
N'Zérékoré city
-
Chimpanzees (Mount Nimba)
-
Mount Nimba
-
Ziama Massif
See also
References
- ^ a b c "Western Africa: Coastal areas of Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, and Sierra Leone | Ecoregions | WWF". World Wildlife Fund. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
- ^ "Mount Nimba Strict Reserve (extension)". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
- ^ PMID 24795448.
- ^ a b c d e f g Nelson, Harold D.; Dobert, Margarita; McLaughin, James; Marvin, Barbara; Whitaker, Donald P. (1975). Area Handbook for Guinea. Washington D.C.: American University. pp. 19–35.
- ^ OCLC 706025122.
- ISSN 1468-2621.
- ^ JSTOR 218097.
- ^ ISSN 0951-6328.
- ^ "Population Statistics of Guinea, 2009 - Guinea Data Portal". guinea.opendataforafrica.org. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
- )
- ^ "Kpelle | people". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
- ^ "A Brief History of the Loma People". ResearchGate. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
- ^ "Kisi | people". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
- ^ "Mount Nimba Strict Reserve (extension)". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
- ^ "Guinea Highlands | plateau, Africa". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
- ^ "UNESCO - MAB Biosphere Reserves Directory". www.unesco.org. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
- ISBN 978-4-431-53920-9, retrieved 18 November 2020
- ^ a b "BirdLife Data Zone". datazone.birdlife.org. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
- ^ "WHO | Ground zero in Guinea: the Ebola outbreak smoulders – undetected – for more than 3 months". WHO. Archived from the original on 25 September 2014. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
- ^ Conakry, Agence France-Presse in (18 March 2016). "Two Ebola deaths and three suspected cases in Guinea 'flare-up'". the Guardian. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
- ^ PMID 26372393.
- ^ S2CID 147612333.
External links
Guinee Forestiere travel guide from Wikivoyage