User:Coul

Sekou Toure

Sekou Toure origins
Sekou Toure was born in January 9th 1922 in a west African country named Guinea. People do not agree for the real time when he was born, some people think that he was borne in 1918.He was borne in Faranah in the ethnic group of malinke. He is the little-child of the famous Samory Toure. He has a link with him by his mother. Samory was a strong conquering man who faced the occidental colons several times.

His life from his childhood to his early adult life
Since his childhood Sekou had begun a spirit of contradiction. When he was a child he was also thinking in the opposite side of the others and was never happy with the authority of the others.Samory Toure was expelled from school several times. And in his early youth, he was obliged to get a work and to take care of his self. By that way he was employed in the society of the PTT .During is youth and after becoming president, Sekou Toure showed some interests with the communist philosophers. For example he was a big fan of Marx and Lenin. And when he became the president of his country, he followed some of the rules that he had learned about communism. For, example there were a strong secret police.

His political involvements
His first work in a political group was in the PTT. In 1945, he was one of the founder of the syndicate of workers in 1945. Even if he was young his precocity and his skills send him naturally as a leader. He becomes the general secretary of the PTT. That was the first event of his long political career.In 1952, he becomes the leader of the Guinean Democratic Party which was local section of the RDA, a big  African party for the decolonization of the continent. He was a leader of this organization as Houphet Boigny who later became the president of Ivory Coast.He was very charismatique in his country and in the african community all over the continent.And after that he was sent as a deputy of the African countries to France to negotiate for the independence of the continent.He worked hard for the independence of Africa and particularly for his country. And with other african protestators, they succeed a little bit in their goal.

Becoming a president
In his home country, Sekou Toure was a strong president. Some affiliate him as a dictator. His power was strong but Guinea was a well-ruled country. His opponents said that they had a lot of pressure, like camps , being afraid of the secret police. Some had two choices, said nothing or go abroad.From 1965 to 1975 he had ended all his relations with the colon France.Sekou Toure found that the african continent had lost a lot during the colonization, and then he decided that it was time to end this kind of relation. And in 1978, Mr Giscard D’Estaing the president of France at that time, came to visit Guinea as a sign of reconciliation.Contrary with France Guinea had a pretty good relation with the socialist countries.After those problems with France , some African countries had closed their relation with Guinea. But overall, Sekou Toure and Guinea were pretty good respected because they were the one who for the first time said no to the “BIG FRANCE”.

Controversial memories
During his presidency Sekou Toure was very respected and generally when elections happened he hadn't any opponent. Some people think that he was not a democrat and criticizes him because of all the terror that people had to support. The medias were for him and anyone who was supposed to be against the president was put in jail. He was like a king.Some guineans today think that at the time of Sekou Toure there were a stability, even if people were poor everybody were poor. And comparing with today with the economical gap in the population, there is a feeling of discrimination which raised in the society. The camp Boiro was a place of terror were political opponents and people against the president were put in. It was a place of terror and generally, when you were assigned, there were a little percentage for you to go out alive. Some people think that it is one of the consequence of his communist education.At that time Guinea was very poor and economically it was difficult to live there. But the thing that guineans didn't forgive Sekou Toure, is about millions of guineans who are skilled, abroad and so it is considered as some losses for them and for the country.

Conclusion
The image of Sekou Toure is a little bit controversial and mysterious. But we can notice that he was a strong political leader, sometimes too hard for his people and that caused a lot of different thoughts about him after his death. He led his country to the independence, tried to show to his country the way to follow and a little bit succeed to his goal. I had quoted a sentence which I think really resumed his personality. It was a sentence said to the French leaders: ”We prefer poverty in liberty to riches in slavery”.