A surfeit of guineas
To the traveller and geography student alike it can be perplexing that a single name can be applied to multiple countries. On the one hand, North and South Korea have an easy to understand border. The adjacent South American countries of Guyana, French Guiana and Suriname (formerly Dutch Guiana) also make geographical sense. Even the two Congos seem appropriately positioned. But how do four countries, only two of which are adjacent, come to be named Guinea?
Guinea is the name given to the coastal areas of western Africa between the tropic of cancer and the equator. The word "guinea" is derived from a Berber word meaning "black man".
The area which was to become the country of Guinea was detached from Senegal in 1890. It became French Guinea in 1895, and with a referendum in 1958 became the independent country of Guinea.
In the 19th century the Portuguese had a base at Bissau, a city to the north of the aforementioned French area of Guinea. Including the surrounding area of influence this was known as Portuguese Guinea, until independence was declared in 1973 and its name changed to Guinea-Bissau.
Far to the south of the aforementioned guineas, just north of the equator, the Spanish had in some form been holding land since the 18th century. In the early twentieth century their local territories were united as Spanish Guinea. This became Equitorial Guinea in 1963 after some autonomy was given, and then it became fully independent in 1968.
The south Asian island of New Guinea was named in 1545 by Spaniard Ynigo Ortis de Retez, apparently due to the resemblance between the islands' inhabitants and those found on the African Guinea coast. The eastern half of the island was annexed by Indonesia in 1969. The western half, the country of Papua New Guinea, became independent from Australia in 1975.
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