Guinea is a nation in West Africa, formerly known as French Guinea. Roughly a crooked finger pointing downward, the country could be said to begin at the Atlantic ocean, travel inland and then south. Guinea's land borders Guinea-Bissau and Senegal to the north, Mali on the north and north-east. The inland tip of that south-pointing finger borders the Côte d'Ivoire on the south-east, Liberia on the south, and Sierra Leone to the west of the finger's southern reach.

Guinea's territory encompasses the water source for the Niger, Senegal, and Gambia rivers, with a coastline facing the Atlantic Ocean. The name Guinea (geographically assigned to most of Africa's west coast, south of the Sahara desert and north of the Gulf of Guinea) originates from Berber and roughly translates into 'land of the blacks'. Guinea also translates to "woman/wife" in Susu, one of the most spoken languages in the country. It is sometimes called Guinea-Conakry per its capital to differentiate it from the neighboring Guinea-Bissau (whose capital is Bissau).