Remembering Ahmed Sekou Touré as Guinea Turns 50
by Norman Otis Richmond
"Only a fool would attempt to denigrate the role that
Toure played in the struggle for World African Liberation."
I have a confession: I am addicted to Radio Netherlands. It is not even a 50/
50 love; it is more of a love / hate thing. I love their International flavor.
There is where I can hear about what is happening from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.
However, their coverage of African affairs on many occasions makes me want to
puke.
The West African nation of Guinea turned 50 on October 2.
A recent feature on Radio Netherlands, Bridges with Africa, "Guinea at 50:
Going through a massive mid-life crisis" made my blood run cold. It was a
one-side attack on Guinea's first president, Ahmed Sekou Touré (b. Guinea,
January 9, 1922; d. 26 March 1984).
As a youth Touré, along with Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah, the Congo's Patrice Lumumba
and Algeria's Ahmed Ben Bella were some of the leaders that I and many of my
generation identified with.
While only a fool would attempt to defend the current regime of President
Lansana Conte, only a bigger fool would attempt to denigrate the role that
Toure played in the struggle for World African Liberation. Lansana has been the
head of state of Guinea since the death of Toure in 1984. He took power in a
military coup shortly after Toure's death. A professional military man, he
actually fought against the heroic Algerian people on the side of the French,
during their war of liberation against colonialism.
However, he did fight against the French for the independence of Guinea after
his involvement in Algeria. Today, Guinea is one of the poorest countries on
earth.
"Toure proclaimed, ‘We
prefer dignity in poverty to affluence in slavery.'"
Touré helped lead Guinea to independence from French colonial rule in 1958. In
Cameroun, an armed uprising began in 1955 when the UPC (Union des Populations
de Cameroun) was declared illegal. UPC had demanded the withdrawal of French
troops, an end to Cameroun's status as a United Nations mandate, and a
revolutionary land reform with the slogan, "the land to those who till
it." Without protest the UN allowed the French troops to violently crush
the revolt. Western history books seldom write about the revolt in the Cameroun.
A trade unionist, Touré was able to help lead his nation to independence by
proclaiming, "We prefer dignity in poverty to affluence in slavery."
After secondary schooling, he worked as a clerk and trade union organizer,
becoming a founder of the Rassemblement Democratique Africain in 1946. His
political base in Guinea depended in part on unionized urban workers, in part
on rural opposition to the system of administrative chieftaincy imposed by the
French. This enabled him to lead the local section of the RDA, the Parti
Democratique de Guinée (PDG), and to emerge along with the leaders of the UPC
as one of the most radical of the nationalist leaders in French West Africa.
African people will remember Touré as a great Pan Africanist who attempted to
unite Africa and Africans world-wide. It was Touré, along with Nkrumah and
Mali's Modibo Keita, who attempted to form a United States of Africa in the
1960s. Nkrumah asked the Congo's Patrice Lumumba to join this alliance before
his assassination on January 17, 1961.
Guinea was one of the first African nations to open its doors to Overseas
Africans. Six years after Guinea's independence, a delegation from the Student
Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) visited Guinea on the invitation of
Touré. The politically astute Harry Belafonte made the
arrangements. Belafonte is a direct political descendant of the "tallest
tree in our forest," the great Paul Robeson.
Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) has said that Fannie Lou Hamer, the
Mississippi-born freedom fighter who made the statement, "I'm sick and
tired of being sick and tired," was one of the people who benefited from
Touré and Belafonte's gesture. Hamer loved the experience and conveyed it
to Ture:
"Oh, Stokely, the president came to visit. Oh, he was so handsome, all in
his white robes, and he was so kind." Despite the language gap, she had
spoken with everyone she'd met. "Oh Stokely, those people be jes' like us.
The way they fix they hair, some of them. How they stand, how they walk, even
the way they carry they babies."
"It was Touré, along with
Nkrumah and Mali's Modibo Keita, who attempted to form a United States of
Africa in the 1960s."
It was Touré who gave a base to the liberation forces in another West African
nation, so-called Portuguese Guinea. The movement there was lead by one of the
world's foremost theoreticians, Amilcar Cabral
(September 13, 1924-January 20, 1973). Cabral was the leader of the PAIGC (The
African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde and Guinea).The former French
colony of Guinea, became known as Guinea-Conakry and the Portuguese colony came
to be known as Guinea-Bissau.
The Portuguese invaded Guinea November 1970 with the intent to assassinate
Toure and Cabral. The Portuguese colonialist made a sensational attempt to
invade Guinea-Conakry. They were knocked out in early Mike Tyson fashion.
The PAIGC started the armed struggle against Portuguese colonialism in 1963.
But in the following years the Portuguese suffered defeat after defeat. Toure's
government supported the PAIGC completely.
Mai Palmberg, the editor of the book, The Struggle for
Africa discussed the aborted invasion. Said Palmberg, "The invasion proved
to be a total fiasco, because PAIGC and Guinea's defense forces were able to
respond quickly and drive the enemy out. It was later revealed that West
Germany and France had supported the Portuguese invasion, and that their
representatives in Conakry had assisted the invasion forces."
"Toure was on the right side of history."
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