Every September we celebrate the lives of some of Africa’s great leaders who were either born or assassinated during that month, Ruben Um Nyobe, Agostinho Neto, Amilcar Cabral, Kwame Nkrumah, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Steve Biko. I found this quote in Steve Biko’s book I Write What I Like p.32, by Sekou Touré, the Guinean leader who said NO to the France of General De Gaulle (Guinea: the country who dared say ‘NO’ to France). This quote by Sekou Touré is so on point, as it matches the revolutionary spirit that should be found in each African who fights to free his land. Each one of us is needed for the revolution, but we cannot just be bystanders, but need to add our hands to the fight. African leaders need to fashion the revolution with the people, if they want to free their lands.
“To take part in the African revolution, it is not enough to write a revolutionary song; you must fashion the revolution with the people. And if you fashion it with the people, the songs will come by themselves and of themselves.
In order to achieve real action you must yourself be a living part of Africa and of her thought; you must be an element of that popular energy which is entirely called forth for the freeing, the progress and the happiness of Africa. There is no place outside that fight for the artist or for the intellectual who is not himself concerned with, and completely at one with the people in the great battle of Africa and of suffering humanity.”
The Guinea of Sekou Toure was the first country to say ‘NO’ to the General de Gaulle. Sekou Touré, proud descendent of one of the great African leaders who fought colonialism, Samori Touré, said, on 25 August1958, Sekou Touré said: “Il n’ya pas de dignité sans liberté. Nous préférons la liberté dans la pauvreté à la richesse dans l’esclavage.” [There is no dignity without freedom. We prefer freedom in poverty to wealth in slavery].
After Sekou Toure said ‘No‘, De Gaulle did not take it lightly and reacted harshly to crush the new Guinean state, and ensure that no other African countries followed the Guinean example. The Washington Post back then, observed how brutal the French were in tearing down all what they thought was their contributions to Guinea: “In reaction, and as a warning to other French-speaking territories, the French pulled out of Guinea over a two-month period, taking everything they could with them. They unscrewed light bulbs, removed plans for sewage pipelines in Conakry, the capital, and even burned medicines rather than leave them for the Guineans.” Imagine that, they unscrewed light bulbs! It is said that they even poured cement on water pipes!… the French reacted like a really angry boyfriend who had been thrown out.
Guinea-Conakry
Maurice Robert, head of the African cell for the Service de documentation extérieure et de contre-espionnage (SDECE), France‘s external intelligence agency from 6 November 1944 to 2 April 1982 said in an interview, « Nous devions déstabiliser Sékou Touré, le rendre vulnérable, impopulaire et faciliter la prise du pouvoir par l’opposition. Une opération de cette envergure comporte plusieurs phases : le recueil et l’analyse des renseignements, l’élaboration d’un plan d’action à partir de ces renseignements, l’étude et la mise en place des moyens logistiques, l’adoption de mesures pour la réalisation du plan. Avec l’aide d’exilés guinéens réfugiés au Sénégal, nous avons aussi organisé des maquis d’opposition dans leFouta-Djalon. L’encadrement était assuré par des experts français en opérations clandestines. Nous avons armé et entraîné ces opposants guinéens pour qu’ils développent un climat d’insécurité en Guinée et, si possible, qu’ils renversent Sékou Touré. Parmi ces actions de déstabilisation, je peux citer l’opération Persil, par exemple, qui a consisté à introduire dans le pays une grande quantité de faux billets de banque guinéens dans le but de déséquilibrer l’économie. » [“We had to destabilize Sékou Touré, make him vulnerable, unpopular and facilitate the seizure of power by the opposition. An operation of this scale involves several phases: the collection and analysis of information, the development of an action plan based on this information, the study and implementation of logistical means, the adoption of measures to implement the plan. With the help of Guinean exiles who had taken refuge in Senegal, we also organized opposition groups in Fouta-Djallon. Supervision was provided by French experts in clandestine operations. We have armed and trained these Guinean opponents so that they develop a climate of insecurity in Guinea and, if possible, overthrow Sékou Touré. Among these destabilizing actions, I can cite Operation Persil, for example, which consisted of introducing a large quantity of counterfeit Guinean banknotes into the country with the aim of unbalancing the economy.”]
Flag of Guinea
Thus, the strategies to destabilize Guinea were, among others, 1) Make Sekou Toure weak and impopular by financing and arming his opponents; 2) using exiled Guineans in neighboring Senegal, training them militarily to create zones of insecurities in the country to eventually topple off Sekou Toure’s government; 3) economically weaken the country by using fake currency.
There are numerous examples of how these strategies were used in recent years: in Cote d’Ivoire during the presidency of Laurent Gbagbo with the armed rebellion financed from external forces, terrorist forces’ attacks in the AES countries, and much more…
A few years ago, after the horrors of the electoral crisis in Cote d’Ivoire and the bombing of its presidential palace with the capture of President Laurent Gbagbo and First Lady Simone Gbagbo, I watched a video interview of the Franco-Cameroonian journalist Charles Onana who was talking about his book “Côte d’Ivoire : le coup d’État, Duboiris, 2011 (with a preface by Thabo Mbeki).” At the end of the interview, Onana stated, “… Quand vous avez un pays riche qui est convoité par des multinationales, par des groupes mafieux, par des états, etc, vous devez décupler votre intelligence pour défendre votre pays. … En face vous avez des équipes de think-tanks qui sont là pour penser comment destabiliser le pays, donc les Africains ne peuvent pas faire l’économie d’un travail acharné, d’un travail surhumain pour s’en sortir … Pendant que la crise se calme ou s’apaise, les autres continuent de travailler pour vous destabiliser, ils refléchissent à d’autres stratégies, mais il faut que [les Africains] apprennent à refléchir à differentes stratégies de manière à ce que le Président de la République ne se retrouve pas toujours seul à penser à tout, seul à reflechir à tout, …” [When you are a rich country that is coveted by multinationals, by mafia groups, by states, etc, you must increase your intelligence tenfold to defend your country. … On the other side, you have think-tank teams that are thinking ways to destabilize the country, so Africans cannot avoid hard work, superhuman work to be free … When the crisis calms down or subsides, others continue to work to destabilize you, they think other strategies, but Africans too need to think different strategies so that the President of the Republic does not always find himself thinking not the only one think all by himself, …]
The New Scramble for Africa (Source: Source: Dr Jack & Curtis for City Press, National Institute African Studies (NIAS))
With the New Scramble for Africa, African countries should have think-tanks, the enemy has think-tanks strategizing over decades, how come we, Africans, do not? Even in times of peace, we should be strategizing… as we heard the French general, it is clear that they are already planning the defeat of Africa, and the return of Africans into their fold in 10 years… how come? When Sekou Toure said NO to the General De Gaulle and Guinea gained independence, not only were the French busy destabilizing his regime politically, militarily, arming his local opponents, but they even flooded his economy with fake currency to destroy his own free Guinean Franc (as he had said NO to the slave currency that is FCFA); the attacks were non stop for several decades, and honestly, are still going on. Thus, Africans, we need to gain our independence, and for our independence to be complete, we need to have strategies for the immediate day-to-day events, but also long-term, over 20-50 or even 100 years. It took China 100 years to get back Hong-Kong and Macau from Great Britain and Portugal… that happened because of a clear vision and strategy of defense against the enemy and reclaiming of lands.
Robert Mugabe Avenue, next to the Parliament, in Windhoek, Namibia
Namibia’s Founding President Sam Nujoma has described the late Zimbabwean President Robert Gabriel Mugabe as one of the continent’s most iconic leaders who fought for the liberation of his countryand that of Africa at large. “He will be remembered as one who stood firm when others wavered. He was an iconic Pan-Africanist,” Nujoma said.
Zimababwe’s President Robert Mugabe chants Zanu PF slogans with supporters gathered at the Harare International Conference Centre in Harare, Wednesday May 3, 2000. Mugabe launched the Zanu PF’s election manifesto which bears the slogan “Land is the Economy and the Economy is Land”. (AP Photo/Christine Nesbitt)
Robert Mugabe’s contribution to the freedom of Namibia, and all of Southern Africa and Central Africa is so immense that there are streets named after him throughout the region; for instance, an avenue bears his name in downtown Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. He worked tirelessly for the liberation of most of Southern Africa, including his very own country of Zimbabwe. Many countries such as Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa (with the fall of the Apartheid regime), Angola, owe their freedom to his unwavering support. Even in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, (DRC), his support, sending troops there, helped avert total chaos. Joseph Kabila, former president of the DRC said, “We will forever remember the worthy son of Africa, who came to our rescue when our country was victim of a foreign aggressor. The continent has lost one of its pan-African leaders, a hero of independence.”
Don’t agree with everything you read online, in the Western newspapers. When an African leader stands for his people and is fighting for their freedom, the western press calls him a dictator, a heretic: Laurent Gbagbo, Muammar Kadhafi, Kwame Nkrumah at the end of his life, Sekou Touré, Patrice Lumumba, … When he serves western interests in pillaging his country, he is a democrat and a friend: Paul Biya, Omar Bongo, Alassane Ouattara, Mobutu Sese Seko, and countless others. Pay attention and you will see… and since the media are controlled by the west, we get a different version, very far from reality.
Map of Windhoek’s city center on the plate of the National Museum of Namibia, showing the Robert Mugabe Ave and the Fidel Castro St., as well as the Sam Nujoma Ave.
Everybody is stricken by some amnesia and forgets that the economic problems of Zimbabwe stemmed from economic sanctions imposed on them by Western powers such as the UK, US, and Europe. Before Mugabe fought for land restoration, he was knighted by the Queen of England, when he asked for the land of his forefathers to be returned to their rightful owners, he became a dictator. Go figure!
No wonder, Julius Malema of the EFF said “We must not allow our enemies to tell us how to remember [Robert Mugabe]; we know our heroes.”
I had to share with you this Feb. 16, 1959 Time Magazine gem of an article on President Sekou Toure of Guinea, the first country to say ‘NO’ to France. As you will see, even the so-called ‘dictators’ of the world have graced the cover of Time Magazine when they were still ‘deemed’ good. Some of the article is a bit a mockery of Africans for wanting independence from their colonial masters, as it is referred to as ‘haste’ in the article (could you really have faulted Africans for wanting freedom?). Enjoy! The full article can be found at: WebGuinee.net. Below are a few words.
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Finally, Sékou Touré, 37 President of the new Republic of Guinea, a trim figure in a European busine suit, rose and raised his arm. “Vive l’indépendance!” he shouted, and three times the crowd roared back, “Vive l’indépendance!” “Vive l’Afrique!”he shrieked in a voice close to frenzy. Once again, the cry was three times repeated. There was no reason for Touré to do more. The crowd had seen and heard him, and that was enough.
Guinea-Conakry
Broad-shouldered and handsome. Sékou Touré is as dynamic a platform performer as any in all Black Africa. He is the idol of his 2,500.000 people, and the shadow he casts over Africa stretches far beyond the borders of his Oregon-sized country. As the head of the only French territory to vote against De Gaulle‘s constitution and thus to choose complete independence, he has been suddenly catapulted into the forefront of the African scene. ….
Part dedicated idealist and part ruthless organizer-perhaps the best in Black Africa-Guinea’s Touré should have problems enough just coping with the disruption that inevitably came with independence. But he, too, has dreams as wide as a continent. “All Africa,” says he, “is my problem.”
Samori Toure holding the Coran
In a sense, he was born in the right place and with the right ancestry to favor a big role. Though Africa was, until the Europeans came, the continent that could not write, it had known its times of glory. Guinea was once part of the powerful Mali Empire that stretched from the French Sudan, on the upper reaches of the Niger, to just short of West Africa’s Atlantic Coast. When its 14th century ruler, the Mansa (Sultan) Musa, made his pilgrimage to Mecca, he traveled with a caravan of 60,000 men, and among his camels were 80 that each bore 300 lbs. of gold. … he turned the fabled city of Timbuktu into a trading center and a refuge for scholars. … But the legend lived on of the warrior Samory, whom Sékou Touré claims as his grandfather.
Sekou Toure, one of Samori Toure’s grandson
When De Gaulle stopped off at Conakry on his swift tour of Africa before the referendum, Touré thundered in his presence: “We prefer poverty in liberty to riches in slavery.” Angrily, De Gaulle canceled a diner in time he was to have had with Touré, and the split was final. A few weeks later, 95% of the people of Guinea voted no to the De Gaulle constitution.
So many of our revolutionary leaders have written books, poems, and essays. The great Thomas Sankara, our African Che and president of Burkina Faso, wrote about empowering women, people, getting away from debt, and the Burkinabé revolution. Amilcar Cabral not only wrote poems, but also revolutionary essays. Agostinho Neto, the first president of Angola, also wrote poetry, just as Senegal’s first president Leopold Sedar Senghor. So it seems quite natural to find out that Sekou Touré, the grandson of Samori Touré, the only African president to say ‘NO‘ to France and de Gaulle, also wrote poetry. So here, I leave you with a poem by Sekou Touré, on Women of Africa, and their rightful place in the revolution.
Aimé Césaire, le grand écrivain et poète Martiniquais, présente ici son Ôde à la Guinée… ce chant qui s’élève et embrasse la Guinée, ce pays si cher qui était le premier en Afrique francophone à reclamer son indépendance à la France, ce pays-là qui nous a montré à tous Africains, que comme disait si bien Sékou Touré: ‘nous préférons la pauvreté dans la dignité à l’oppulence dans l’esclavage.‘ C’est bien pour cela que Aimé Césaire a chanté pour la Guinée!
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Ôde à la Guinée
Et par le soleil installant sous ma peau une usine de force et d’aigles et par le vent sur ma force de dent de sel compliquant ses passes les mieux sues et par le noir le long de mes muscles en douces insolences de sèves montant et par la femme couchée comme une montagne descellée et sucée par les lianes et par la femme au cadastre mal connu où le jour et la nuit jouent à la mourre des eaux de sources et des métaux rares et par le feu de la femme où je cherche le chemin des fougères et du Fouta-Djallon et par la femme fermée sur la nostalgie s’ouvrant JE TE SALUE Guinée dont les pluies fracassent du haut grumeleux des volcans un sacrifice de vaches pour mille faims et soifs d’enfants dénaturés Guinée de ton cri de ta main de ta patience il nous reste toujours des terres arbitraires et quand tué vers Ophir ils m’auront jamais muet de mes dents de ma peau que l’on fasse un fétiche féroce gardien du mauvais oeil comme m’ébranle me frappe et me dévore ton solstice en chacun de tes pas Guinée muette en moi-même d’une profondeur astrale de méduses.
Aimé Césaire
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Guinea-Conakry
“Ode to Guinea” by Aimé Césaire
And by the sun installing a power and eagle factory under my skin and by the wind elaborating the passes it knows best over my power of tooth of salt and by the black rising along my muscles in sweet sap-like effronteries and by the woman stretched out like a mountain unsealed and sucked by lianas the woman with the little known cadastre where day and night play mora for springhead waters and rare metals and by the fire of the woman in which I look for the path to ferns and to Fouta Jallon and by the closed woman opening on nostalgia
I HAIL YOU
Guinea whose rains from the curdled height of volcanoes shatter a sacrifice of cows for a thousand hungers and thirsts of denatured children Guinea from your cry from your hand from your patience we still have some arbitrary lands and when they have me, killed in Ophir perhaps and silenced for good, out of my teeth out of my skin let the make a fetish a ferocious guardian against the evil eye as your solstice shakes me strikes me and devours me at each one of your steps Guinea silenced in myself with the astral depth of medusas
from The Collected Poetry of Aimé Césaire, translater by Clayton Eshleman and Annette Smith.
Last week was the second turn of elections in Guinea, and it only made sense to talk about Guinea. Well… Guinea is a country in West Africa whose capital is Conakry… it is a country rich in minerals such as bauxite, gold, diamonds, magnesium, etc. It is well-known for his first president Sekou Toure, who was the first to say ‘NO’ to France in 1958. In his own words, he said: “It is better to be poor and free, than to live in opulence and be a slave.” Guinea, thus became the only nation in French Africa to say ‘NO’ to the General de Gaulle and France. It was seen as a treason and an affront… and France never forgave Guinea, destroying files when leaving, withdrawing abruptly, destroying infrastructures, and breaking political and economic ties. I will not say much, but the video below says it all… Sekou Toure and the people of Guinea dared to say ‘NO’, and for that we, from French Africa, are forever thankful!
Sekou Toure
Je lance un appel à tous les Guinéens d’aller sur Wikipedia corriger l’histoire de leur pays. La définition sur Wikipedia est très incomplète! Nul part est-il mentionné le fait que la Guinée était le seul pays en Afrique Francophone à dire ‘NON’ à la France; et à cause de cela, ils ont été persécutés!
African Heritage 