The events of Camara Laye's memoir The Dark Child take place in the West African country known today as Guinea. Set in the 1930s and 1940s, Laye's book details life in the country when it was still the colony of French Guinea.
The country is located in the Guinea region along the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. The word Guinea comes from Guiné, a 15th-century Portuguese term derived from Guineus, the generic name for Africans living south of the Senegal River. Prior to European colonization, the area now known as Guinea was part of different West African empires and kingdoms. Fulani Muslims migrated to Central Guinea and established an Islamic state from 1727 to 1896.
The Portuguese had been exploring the Guinean coast as early as the mid-1400s, and by the 1600s were competing with French and British slavers and traders for domination in the region. In the mid-1800s, French military invaded the region and consolidated rule over coastal areas. While the French made agreements with Fulani chiefs, Samori Touré, a Guinean leader of Malinke descent, resisted the French advance up the Senegal and Niger Rivers, and he took over areas of Guinea. Touré signed treaties with the colonialists in 1886 and 1890, but these were both renounced. The armies of Touré were defeated in 1898 and Touré was captured, and France took power of Guinea and neighboring areas.
Under the rule of French colonial lieutenant governors, French territories of West Africa were brought under a federation structure. This structure didn't change much until Guineans were given a referendum on independence in 1958. Following the collapse of the French Fourth Republic that had been in place since 1946, Charles de Gaulle allowed colonies to vote on whether they would like to stay a colony with greater autonomy or seek full independence. Guinea was the only colony to vote for full independence, and Sékou Touré became president.
In what some considered a warning to other colonies, the French pulled out of Guinea swiftly and recklessly, destroying infrastructure and goods as they left. In the post-colonial era, Guinea experienced several military coups and citizens have been under authoritarian rule. Its first democratic election took place in 2010, but a military faction overthrew President Condé in 2021 and suspended the country's constitution, dictating that citizens live according to the military junta's rules.
