Autor/Autorin
„Our books in the colonial schools taught us about de Gaulle’s wars, the lives of Joan of Arc and Napoleon, the list of French departments and the poems of Lamartine and the theatre of Molière, as if Africa had never had a history, a past, a geographical existence or a cultural life. Our students were only recognised in terms of their capacity for total cultural assimilation.“ (1)
This is what Ahmed Sékou Touré (1922-1884), who was involved in the early African struggle for independence and became the first president of Guinea in 1958 at the age of 36, said about his school days.
With this quote, I would like to question the Eurocentric historiography and try to look at their country and its history from the perspective of the people of Guinea. The aim is to express views that differ from common prejudices and stereotypes about the African continent. Elsewhere in this article, the ambivalent personality of the politician Sékou Touré and the shameful role of France in Guinea’s colonial history are discussed.
The Republic of Guinea (with a population of just under 12.5 million in 2017) stretches from the Atlantic coast in an arc far into the African hinterland. Guinea borders Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Mali to the north, Côte d’Ivoire to the east and Liberia and Sierra Leone to the south. To distinguish the state from the other Guneas, it is also known as Guinea-Conakry. The name „Guinea“ goes back to the Berber word „aguinaou“, which means „black“ and originally referred to all the inhabitants of the West African coast from Senegal to Gabon.
The country is divided into four natural zones: Lower Guinea on the coast with the capital and prefecture of Conakry, Middle Guinea or Fouta-Djalon in the north-east (prefecture of Labé), Upper Guinea in the east (prefecture of Kankan) and Forest Guinea (prefecture of Nzérékoré) in the south. The largest ethnic group in terms of numbers are the Fulbe (also known as Fula or Peul) with around 40 per cent, the Malinké make up around 30 per cent of the population and the Sussu have a share of around 20 per cent. In addition, a large number of smaller ethnic groups make up around 10 per cent.
In the 9th to 13th centuries, parts of present-day Guinea belonged to the Ghana Empire. This was followed by membership of the Mali Empire in the 12th/13th century. Between 1450 and 1460, Portuguese sailors reached the coast of Guinea and established the first trading centres. This was followed by French settlements operating from Senegal. The interior of the country was only accessible later, and so political and economic development continued there without the presence of Europeans until the last third of the 19th century. Sunni Islam has been the predominant religion since around 1050. In the 13th century, Fulib tribes migrated to Central Guinea (Fouta-Djalon) and established an important Islamic state there. Guinea’s Islamic culture and tradition developed in the city of Labé.
In the middle of the 15th century, the Portuguese began to sail the coasts of West Africa in search of gold. Today’s Ghana (Gold Coast) was the centre of the gold, ivory and slave trade at the time. An estimated half a million people were also trafficked in Guinea in the 17th and 18th centuries. Many European nations were involved in the transatlantic slave trade from Western Europe to the American states between the 16th and 19th centuries. On the coast of Guinea, it was mainly France that secured a monopoly on the slave trade with the „Compagnie francaise des Indes“. The era of the slave trade as a preliminary phase of colonialism lasted until the 19th century.
From around 1850, colonisation attempts reached what is now Guinea, and it was primarily the French who pushed ahead with expansion into the interior of the country. They encountered fierce military resistance, particularly in Central Guinea, which was sometimes successful. Almamy Samory Touré, who built an empire based on Islam that stretched from Fouta Djallon in the north to the Ashanti Empire in the south-west and encompassed parts of present-day Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea and Mali, deserves special mention here. Between 1880 and 1893, however, there were protracted and bitter battles over the hinterland of Guinea, which the French wanted to colonise. The wars were waged by France with great cruelty and violence against the population. Massacres, arbitrary executions, rape, deportations and forced labour were the means used to suppress the population. All of Guinea’s ethnic groups without exception took part in the resistance against the French, but in the end the French succeeded in gaining control of the whole of Guinea, and from 1892/93 Guinea officially became part of French West Africa. Samory Touré is still regarded today as a symbolic figure of African nationalism and later Pan-Africanism due to his tenacious resistance against the French colonial power. He died in exile in Gabon in 1900.
With the Congo Conference (or West Africa Conference) in Berlin from November 1884 to February 1885, Africa south of the Sahara was practically divided up. European governments had arbitrarily drawn borders without taking into account the people living there and their cultures. Until independence in 1958, Guinea belonged to French West Africa (Afrique-Occidentale francaise, AOF). Even in the early years of colonial rule, France asserted its colonial superpower interests and pursuit of profit. In particular, mineral resources (gold, silver, diamonds) were plundered, agricultural goods exploited and human labour exploited through extreme forced labour. New trade routes (for example the construction of a railway line from the port city of Conakry to Kankan in the interior of the country) were opened up for trade according to colonial needs. The colonial administration enacted draconian measures to enforce behaviour that conformed to administrative requirements. The culture of the Guinean peoples was destroyed or severely impaired by the bans on speaking their own language and living their traditional culture.
During the two world wars, thousands of Guinean soldiers served in the French armies to fight for a cause that was not theirs. The auxiliary troops and labourers from the „Third World“ were paid, fed, housed and treated worse than their „comrades“ from the „First World“. Strikes and revolts against this unequal treatment were crushed with brutal violence. In his film CAMP DE THIAROYEDAS (1988), the Senegalese writer and war veteran Ousmane Sembène depicts the Thiaroye massacre in December 1944 by French colonial soldiers. Corrupt colonial officials refused to pay the promised compensation to the forcibly recruited West African soldiers and kept them in a camp under poor living conditions. When they revolted against this, French soldiers who had been called in shot at the rebels and killed up to 300 people.
After the end of the Second World War, Guinea was allowed to have two representatives in the French National Assembly from 1946. At the same time, political and trade union organisations formed. There were strikes for higher wages, social benefits and better working conditions. The trade unionist Sékou Touré, a grandson of Samory Touré and a member of the Malinke ethnic group, made a name for himself with increasingly political statements and calls for Guinean independence. He was involved in the founding of the left-wing „Parti Démocratique de Guinée“ (PDG) in 1947, as well as the independence movement „Rassemblement Démocratique Africain“ (RDA), which operated throughout French West Africa, a year earlier. Touré became chairman of the PDG in 1952, mayor of Conakry in 1955 and a member of the French National Assembly in Guinea in 1956. He attracted attention in France and in many African countries because of his commitment to his people and decolonisation. In 1957, French Guinea was granted internal autonomy and Sekou Touré’s PDG won 56 out of 60 seats in these territorial elections, effectively giving Guinea „semi-autonomy“. A year later, Guinea was the only one of the French colonies in West Africa to reject joining the „Communauté Francaise“ in a popular referendum. The exit from the French confederation was accompanied by the announcement to the then French President De Gaulle: „Nous préférons la liberté dans la pauvreté à la richesse dans l’esclavage.“ („We prefer poverty in freedom to wealth in slavery“). (2)
On 2 October 1958, the independent Republic of Guinea was proclaimed, with Sékou Touré as its first president.
France’s reaction to Guinea’s independence was drastic. French officials and experts were recalled at short notice, loans were blocked, industrial plants and other technical facilities were dismantled or sabotaged, documents were destroyed and economic relations were cancelled. The break with France and the political situation in the „Cold War“ resulted in isolation from the West. Touré subsequently sought to align himself with the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc countries. He coined an African socialism and took a clear anti-imperialist stance. Together with Mali and Ghana, Guinea founded the „Union of African States“ in July 1961. One year later, the country was one of the founding members of the OAU (Organization for African Unity), whose goal was the decolonisation of Africa and the elimination of white minority governments. He had a close friendship with Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972), the President of Ghana, and took him into exile after he was overthrown by the Ghanaian military in 1966. Sékou Touré’s leadership style became increasingly authoritarian and the ruling PDG party developed into a unified party. In 1961, Touré also assumed the office of president and was thus able to further expand his position of power. Between 1966 and 1978, Sékou Touré’s rule was characterised by violence and repression. In particular, members of the Fulbe (Fulla, Peul) ethnic group and (alleged) members of the opposition were discriminated against, persecuted and imprisoned. Opposition members and political prisoners were interned, tortured and murdered without trial in the Camp Boiro prison in the centre of Conakry. Threatened by these drastic „cleansing measures“, more than two million people left Guinea and fled mainly to neighbouring countries.
Guinea is rich in natural resources – the country probably has the largest reserves of bauxite (aluminium ore) in the world. There are also diamonds, iron ore, gold and uranium. Agriculture finds good natural conditions due to the different landscape and climate zones. However, after Guinea broke away from France and was sanctioned by the latter with an economic boycott, the state and economy lagged behind in their development or were characterised by state mismanagement. Even today, Guinea is one of the poorest and industrially least developed countries in the world. From 1977 onwards, there were protests, particularly by market women, against poverty, rising prices for basic foodstuffs and the nationalisation of the market. The women’s march, which cost some of them their lives, ushered in a gradual liberalisation of the economy. The state’s monopoly on trade, which was the cause of a complete collapse in the supply of basic foodstuffs to the population, was abolished, first for domestic and then for foreign trade. A gradual rapprochement with the capitalist countries of the West began and relations with France were re-established. However, before any recognisable changes could be made, Sékou Touré died of a heart attack in March 1984. The ambivalent Touré period has hardly been dealt with by the Guineans: On the one hand, the anti-colonialist who shamed France, and on the other, a cruel dictator against members of the opposition and the Fulla ethnic group. The consequences of the discrimination and ethnicisation of political violence can still be felt today, and the ethnically constructed conflicts that arose back then are still reasons for flight and migration today.
One week after the death of President Touré, General Lansana Conté overthrew the interim president in a coup on 3 April 1984. Lansana Conté belonged to the Sussu people and was a member of Touré’s unity party PDG. The reorganisation of the country, the development of the economy and the development of more democratic structures made only slow progress. Lansana Conté responded to the demand for more democracy with a concept that envisaged democratisation with a five-year transition period. However, he sought the support of the French from the outset and French companies took control of important sectors of the economy, as they had done in colonial times. At the same time, the small upper class became richer and richer through favouritism and corruption, while the majority of the population became poorer and poorer as prices rose and incomes remained the same. Guinea slipped to first place among the most corrupt countries in Africa and third place worldwide on the Transparency List .
In December 1990, a referendum was finally held and the people voted in favour of a new constitution, which provided for a civilian government and a multi-party system. The new constitution came into force at the end of 1991 and political parties were founded, which were only authorised by the head of state after increased domestic political pressure. The most relevant groups were Lansana Conté’s „Parti de l’Unité et du Progrès“ (PUP) and the „Rassemblement du Peuple Guinéen“ (RPG) under the leadership of Alpha Condé.
It was not until December 1993 that the first free presidential elections were held in Guinea. Head of state and government Lansana Conté was confirmed in office with over fifty per cent of the votes cast. The opposition (challenger Alpha Condé and the RPG) accused the government of electoral fraud. The parliamentary elections also had to be postponed several times due to failed coup attempts against Conté and serious unrest and did not take place until June 1995. The ruling „Parti de l’unité et du progrès“ (PUP) of head of state Lansana Conté was able to win the majority of seats in parliament. In 1998, Lansana Conté was again confirmed in office in the presidential elections, and once again the opposition spoke of massive electoral fraud. When leading opposition politicians were arrested a year later, serious unrest broke out across the country.
From September 2000, border conflicts with the neighbouring civil war countries of Sierra Leone and Liberia became more frequent due to attacks by guerrilla organisations. The conflicts in these three countries were intricately intertwined and fuelled by corrupt politicians and several dozen warring factions. Regular mercenaries and rebel troops, hordes of looters and tribal militias, many fighters still teenagers, children disinhibited by drugs, were involved in a war in which the exploitation of Sierra Leone’s diamond deposits played a major role. 125,000 Liberians and 330,000 people from Sierra Leone fled to Guinea, which itself had a population of only 7.5 million. Lansana Conté’s autocratic system exploited this conflict situation to counter the democratic endeavours in his country.
Conté’s PUP won a clear majority in the parliamentary elections held two years late at the end of June 2002 (they were postponed several times by President Conté). The leader of the opposition party „Rassemblement du Peuple Guinéen“ (RPG), Alpha Condé, was excluded from the elections due to accusations of conspiracy; the opposition therefore spoke of electoral fraud. President Lansana Conté was re-elected for a further term of office in the 2003 presidential elections with 95.6 per cent of the vote. Most of the opposition parties boycotted this election.
In January/February 2007, a general strike took place in which trade unions, opposition groups, pupils and students took part, demanding the resignation of the autocratic and now seriously ill president. The government ruled by force and there were many deaths and arrests. Nevertheless, there were further strikes and protests against the regime. Despite all this, Lansana Conté remained Guinea’s president until his death in December 2008.
After the death of Lansana Conté, the head of the military junta, Moussa Dadis Camara, seized power. Dadis Camara comes from the forest region of Guinea and was trained as a paratrooper in Germany between 1996 and 2005, including at the Bundeswehr Officers‘ School in Dresden and the Supply School in Bremen. Camara was one of the main leaders of the Christmas 2008 coup. As Camara regularly spoke German during the planning and execution of the coup in order to maintain secrecy and had potential opponents such as Contè’s son Ousmane, the head of the navy and high-ranking police officers arrested with supposedly „German thoroughness“, the coup was also known as „le putsch allemand“ („the German coup“). He did not fulfil his promise to hold democratic presidential elections and thus bring about a process of change in Guinea in 2009. From mid-2009, opposition groups protested against the military regime. A large protest rally was called for 28 September 2009 in the stadium of the capital Conakry, in which around 50,000 people took part peacefully. However, the military stormed the stadium, a massacre took place and many of the demonstrators were executed and seriously injured by the security forces. Numerous women were publicly raped by the military.
Following this bloodbath, numerous people were arbitrarily arrested and detained. The security forces who had committed human rights violations continued to enjoy impunity. Human rights defenders and journalists were subjected to threats and intimidation. In its 2010 annual report, Amnesty International came to the conclusion that it was justified to classify the crimes committed on 28 September and immediately afterwards as crimes against humanity. The commission also found that there were sufficient grounds to hold individuals criminally responsible for the crimes. Moussa Dadis Camara has still not been brought before an (international) court and punished for his crimes. Following a gunshot wound in December 2009, he went into exile in various African countries, including Morocco, Burkina Faso and Mali.
Dadis Camara’s deputy Sékouba Konaré took office in 2010 and formed a transitional government.
The first free presidential election in Guinea’s history took place in 2010. After the first round, a run-off election was held between Cellou Dalein Diallo (Fulbe) and Alpha Condé (Malinké). Alpha Condé was in opposition to all three previous heads of state, having lived in France for almost forty years of his life. Alpha Condé emerged victorious from the run-off election, with Diallo’s supporters refusing to accept the result. The election campaign was conducted by Alpha Condé in particular with ethnic arguments – Fulbe against Malinké. In the run-up to the parliamentary elections in September 2013, there were repeated violent clashes, particularly between the Malinké and the Fulbe, with the Fulbe in particular being killed and injured. Alpha Condé’s RPG won the most seats in the parliamentary elections, while the opposition led by Cellou Dalein Diallo demanded the cancellation of the election, as in 2010, claiming massive manipulation.
Guinea is still a long way from peaceful coexistence between the different population groups in a democratic system. The Fulbe have been ousted from positions of responsibility in administration and government. In October 2015, Alpha Condé once again emerged victorious from the presidential elections – with 58 per cent of the vote. The opposition led by Cellou Dalein Diallo again discovered electoral manipulation and irregularities due to missing ballot papers and a lack of registration. His appeal to the Constitutional Court was unsuccessful and the election result was recognised on 1 November 2015.
Amnesty International stated in its 2018 annual report: „Despite its wealth of natural resources, such as bauxite, more than half of the population lives below the poverty line. Extreme poverty curtails the social and economic human rights of the population. In addition, the right to freedom of assembly and the right to freedom of expression are severely restricted.“ (3)
There are repeated protests against the poor standard of living and ethnic tensions, with the military and supporters of the ruling party taking arbitrary action against protesters, particularly members of the Fulbe. Young people in Guinea in particular live in constant economic hardship and without prospects of a happy and secure life. Ethnic conflicts are constructed in order to prevent democratisation processes in Guinea and to explain grievances such as youth unemployment and a lack of medical and social care.
The poverty of their parents forces children and young people to earn money with odd jobs. Girls sell cigarettes, oranges and other goods in the dense street traffic, boys of primary school age supply ironmongers with scrap parts. Young men solicit customers for taxis at crossroads, rarely earning more than a few cents an hour. Many of them spend the day in gangs, some of them criminal, with no productive activity to speak of. The girls often stay at home to help their families; many prostitute themselves. Family solidarity in the parental homes is shaken by polygamy and violence. At the same time, there is growing outrage at the corrupt state – while the older generations at the top are shamelessly enriching themselves, the young people are going away empty-handed. Many people, especially young people, have left their home country in frustration and are taking on arduous journeys in the hope of a better life in Europe, which they know through the internet and other media. The dangerous journeys take them through the desert via Morocco, Algeria and Libya with Europe as their destination.
„…this cunning old continent that attracts the youth of the poor countries of Africa and Asia like the nectar of bees. In our African eyes, this place is a paradise. Even if life there were just a little bit better than the miserable life in our country, it would be enough to give each of us the strength to leave our patch of earth.“ (4)
Many people from Guinea have arrived in Germany in particular in recent years. They live in camps and camps with unsecured residence status and with the fear of deportation to a country where they are politically persecuted. The refugees from Guinea are traumatised by the neo-colonial conditions in their country and the dangerous journeys they have to make to cross the European border regime. They experience rejection and everyday racism in the German asylum system.
It is important to publicise the real political situation in Guinea and give people a voice to report on their experiences as witnesses of flight and forced migration. And the people from Guinea will say, for example, that the economic and political agreements between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Guinea benefit a small minority, while the vast majority of the population remains poor and is becoming even poorer. The „Stone Age politicians“ and their families are enriching themselves, politicians who have held on to power for years through corruption and oppression. Human rights violations (arbitrary arrests, unfair trials, prison conditions) are still a problem in Guinea, even though the government of the Federal Republic of Germany considers Guinea to be relatively safe. In June 2017, German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged new development aid plans at the Alpha Condé conference „G20 Africa Partnership – Investing in a Shared Future“. The „Compact with Africa“ initiative aims to improve the framework conditions for German private investment, and the question arises as to whether this will really create ways out of poverty for the civilian population and make it possible to combat the causes of flight. Germany is also in talks with Guinea about readmission agreements so that refugees can be deported to their country of origin more easily. And support for military armament in African countries and at the EU’s external borders promotes even more compartmentalisation. These bulwarks only lead to a shift in escape routes. Refugees choose more arduous and dangerous routes. Smugglers are increasingly taking advantage of people’s plight. As long as nothing really changes in the hopeless situation in many African countries – and this clearly includes Guinea – young people there will seek to migrate to Europe as a solution. The majority of young people in particular are confronted with socio-economic conditions that are too difficult for them to become economically independent adults at some point.
Although many young people – supported by their families – make the dangerous journey to Europe, there are more and more young people who want to stay despite the problematic conditions. It is probably also reports from friends and in the media about the difficult routes to Europe, about the miserable and unsafe life in lengthy asylum procedures, especially in Germany, that motivate young people to get politically involved in their countries of origin and fight for change. A united political protest culture has also developed in Conakry, which reacts to the grievances with sharp criticism and confidently intervenes in the public discourse. National television, which for a long time only broadcast programmes loyal to the regime, now shows videos of young rappers publicly criticising the political elite for corruption and their ethnostrategic election campaign. Many Guineans now believe that young people will not accept corruption like that under Conté in the future. The well-known musician Takina Zion from Guinea has initiated the Wankhei 2020 movement with other musicians to prevent a third term in office for Alpha Condé. Using reggae, rap and hip hop, young people are encouraged to reflect on their history and the ideas of pan-Africanism and to think back to the politicians who stood up for African independence: Thomas Sankara (1949-1987), Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961), Julius Nyerere (1922-1999), Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)… And in doing so, they want to develop concrete hope for a different Africa with governments free of corruption and authoritarianism. This is also an opportunity to create joint cross-border solidarity between those who have left and those who want to stay. The transnational network Afrique Europe Interact therefore pursues two objectives in its short presentation: „On the one hand, we support refugees and migrants in their struggles for freedom of movement and equal rights – whether in the countries of the Maghreb, on the Mediterranean or within Fortress Europe. On the other hand, we are involved in social struggles for just or self-determined development. After all, the right to global freedom of movement and establishment is only one side of the coin. No less important is the right to stay, i.e. the opportunity to lead a life at home or in the country of origin under safe, dignified and self-determined conditions.“ (5)
In these times of globalisation, it is generally important that progressive forces work across national borders for social justice, for political, economic and social human rights, for democracy and resource-conserving production and consumption worldwide. The world is on the move, and freedom of movement and migration are human rights, which is why the demand „For the right to come, go and stay in solidary democratic social structures without any form of exclusion“ naturally applies to people in all countries of the world and, at the end of this article, especially to people from Guinea!
(1) Ahmed Sékou Touré (n.d.), quoted from: van Dijk, Lutz. (2005). The History of Africa. Federal Agency for Civic Education: Bonn 2005, p. 115.
(2) Sékou Touré 1958, quoted from https:// panafricain.tv „Apprendre“, November 2015 (last accessed on 4 September 2018).
(3) Quoted from „ Länderinfo Guinea / Amnesty International / Regionalverbund Westafrika “ May 2018 (last accessed on 4 September 2018).
(4) Rodrigue Péguy Takou Ndie, Die Suchenden , Unrast: Münster 2018, p. 36.
(5) Quoted from afrique-europe-interact „ Short presentation of our network “ (last accessed on 4 September 2018).
The most important sources for me were the conversations with refugee migrants from Guinea, with whom my report was discussed several times. They shared their views on their country of origin and its history. Short and longer documents / statements from the Internet complemented the authentic voices from Guinea. In particular, I would like to thank M. Bangoura, who always had criticism and new comments.
AfricAvenir International e.V., 50 Years of African Independence. A (self-) critical review. Federal Agency for Civic Education: Bonn 2012.
Dijk, Lutz van, The history of Africa. Federal Agency for Civic Education: Bonn 2005.
Därr, Erika (ed.), West Africa, Volume 2: Coastal Countries. Reise Know-How: Bielefeld 2003.
Mendes, Pedro Rosa and Böwig, Wolf, Scharz. Light, Passages through West Africa. Brandes & Apsel: Frankfurt 2006.
Péguy, Rodrigue Takou Ndie, The Searchers . Unrast: Münster 2018.
Schich, Walter, Handbook Africa, Volume 2: West Africa and the Atlantic Islands. Brandes & Apsel: Frankfurt 200.