Guinea

A market in Guinea. *Photo from Wikipedia October 2 is Independence Day, which celebrates the independence of Guinea from France in 1958. The slave trade came to the coastal region of Guinea with European traders in the 16th century. Guinea’s colonial period began with French military penetration into the area in the mid-19th century. France negotiated Guinea’s present boundaries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the British for Sierra Leone, the Portuguese for their Guinea colony (now Guinea-Bissau), and Liberia. Under the French, the country formed the Territory of Guinea within French West Africa. In 1958, the