Guinea is a nation in West Africa, formerly known as French Guinea. Guinea's territory has a curved shape, with its base at the Atlantic ocean, inland to the east, and turning south. The base borders Guinea-Bissau and Senegal to the north, and Mali to the north and north-east; the inland part borders Côte d'Ivoire to the south-east, Liberia to the south, and Sierra Leone to the west of the southern tip. The name Guinea is used for the region of most of Africa's west coast south of the Sahara desert and north of the Gulf of Guinea. It originates from Berber and means roughly 'land of the blacks'. Guinea means "woman or wife" in Susu, one of the most spoken languages in the country.