Ahmed Sékou Touré was the first president of the Republic of Guinea, from the country’s independence from France in 1958 until his death on March 26, 1984.
Born on January 9, 1922, in Faranah and deceased on March 26, 1984, in Cleveland, Ahmed Sékou Touré was a member of the aristocracy of the Mandinka ethnic group. His maternal grandmother, Bagbè Ramata Touré-Fadiga, was one of the daughters of Samory Touré, the great resistance leader against French colonialism in West Africa.
AHMED SÉKOU TOURÉ, the founding father of Guinea
Despite his remarkable intelligence, Sékou Touré’s social rise was blocked by the racist criteria of the colonial civil service, preventing him from accessing the positions of responsibility he aspired to. He therefore remained a simple postal supervisor and invested himself in trade unionism, becoming one of the leaders of the young Guinean generation.
In 1945, he became secretary-general of the postal workers’ union. He participated in the founding of the Democratic Party of Guinea (PDG), the local branch of the African Democratic Rally (which fought for the decolonization of the continent), under whose banner he was elected mayor of Conakry in 1956.
The advent of the French Fifth Republic in 1958 changed the destiny of its African colonies. Indeed, the new French constitution proposed by General De Gaulle envisioned a French Community to which its African colonies would be politically and economically attached, with a semblance of autonomy, particularly in the management of their own affairs. The colonies, however, had the choice between accepting this project and full independence through a referendum held on September 28, 1958.
On August 25, De Gaulle arrived in Conakry. That same day, Saifoulaye Diallo and Ahmed Sékou Touré, through two speeches, declared the independence of the Guinean people. De Gaulle stated that Guinea was free to decide its future on referendum day but that it would have to face the consequences.
Thus, following the referendum of September 28, during which the people of Guinea voted NO by more than 98%, Guinea gained its independence on October 2, 1958, with Sékou Touré at the head of the country.
Guinea was the only French African colony to vote for immediate independence rather than continue an association with France, while the rest of French-speaking Africa chose independence two years later, in 1960.
From the moment he rose to power, Sékou Touré faced sabotage from France, which vetoed Guinea’s admission to the United Nations before finally recognizing the country in 1959. Faced with hostility from its former colonial ruler, Guinea turned toward Soviet countries and the Ghana of Kwame Nkrumah. In 1960, Sékou Touré created the Union of West African States alongside Modibo Keita and Kwame Nkrumah.
During his rule, Ahmed Sékou Touré fought tirelessly against the occupation of African territories. Guinea hosted the South African ANC in its struggle against apartheid, and Nelson Mandela himself stayed in Guinea in the early 1960s.
Sékou Touré offered Guinean passports to the children of Patrice Lumumba, to Black South Africans in exile such as Miriam Makeba, supported the PAIGC of Amílcar Cabral, headquartered in Conakry, and committed the Guinean army to the Algerian war of independence.
His main allies in the region were the presidents of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, and Mali, Modibo Keita. After Nkrumah was overthrown by a coup in 1966, Touré offered him refuge in Guinea and named him co-president. As a leader of the Pan-African movement, he continually attacked former colonial powers and befriended African American activists such as Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael of the Black Panther Party, to whom he granted asylum and who later adopted the name Kwame Ture.
The beginning of his presidency was marked by a Marxist policy, including the nationalization of foreign companies and a heavily planned economy.
However, Ahmed Sékou Touré faced internal resistance marked by numerous plots often supported by Western countries. From 1965 to 1975, all relations with France were severed. Frictions between the two countries were frequent. Attempts to overthrow him were orchestrated by the African cell of the Élysée Palace led by Jacques Foccart, such as Operation Persil (the flooding of the country with counterfeit banknotes that ruined the Guinean economy), or Operation Mar Verde / Green Sea (training political opponents).
On November 22, 1970, Guinea was attacked by Portugal and the National Liberation Front of Guinea (FLNG). Following the failure of this coup attempt, he created a people’s tribunal in 1971 to judge those involved. The regime became increasingly radicalized and, under pressure, Sékou Touré remained in Guinea for nearly ten years without leaving the country.
Throughout its dispute with France, Guinea maintained good relations with several socialist countries. Touré gained the support of many anti-colonialist and Pan-African groups and leaders.
Touré, together with Nkrumah, contributed to the creation of the All African People’s Revolutionary Party and helped PAIGC guerrillas in their struggle against Portuguese colonialism in Portuguese Guinea.
Relations with the United States fluctuated during Sékou Touré’s rule and deteriorated after Kennedy’s death, when a Guinean delegation was imprisoned in Ghana following the overthrow of Nkrumah. Touré condemned Washington, believing that the CIA was plotting against his regime.
Once Guinea’s rapprochement with France began in the late 1970s, his Marxist supporters started opposing his government’s growing tendency toward liberalization. In 1978, he officially abandoned Marxism and restored trade relations with the West.
Elections were held in 1980 to elect representatives to the National Assembly. Touré was elected unopposed to a fourth seven-year term as president on May 9, 1982.
A new constitution was also adopted. The following summer, Touré traveled to the United States as part of a reversal of his economic policy, seeking Western investment to develop Guinea’s immense mineral resources. In 1983, he announced a degree of economic liberalization, including allowing private merchants to market products.
Ahmed Sékou Touré died in Cleveland, United States, on March 26, 1984, while preparing an OAU conference (Organization of African Unity, now the African Union) in Conakry that same year, and while overseeing the reconstruction of the city of Conakry to host the organization (the OAU villas still exist today in downtown Conakry).
[https://www.nofi.media/2018/02/femmes-independance-de-la-guinee/43647](https://www.nofi.media/2018/02/femmes-independance-de-la-guinee/43647)
