Academic literature on the topic 'President (1958-1984 : Touré)'

AbstractThis article uses an analysis of discussions of the November 1970 Portuguese attack on Guinea as a window into issues that continue to be raised concerning the country's first post-independence regime (1958–1984). We analyze ongoing debates among Guineans regarding the legacy of the former president, Sékou Touré, and whether or not there is a need for truth-telling and/or justice for abuses committed under his rule. One strand of this discussion focuses on legitimate political tactics and another on the politics of ethnicity in contemporary Guinea. The frequent assertion by Guinean interlocutors that “history is stubborn” points to both the perceived power of truth-telling and the ethno-political stakes with which these debates have become imbued. Debates among Guineans often focus on the uses and abuses of “truth and reconciliation” testimony, which for some Guineans is essential to breaking past cycles of violent state repression and for others is a kind of Pandora's box that could fuel not reconciliation but retribution. We show that Guineans are also engaged in a third order of analysis, of the status of “imported” notions of justice, agency, and culpability in an African setting.

The 1991 films of David Achkar, a French-Guinean filmmaker, and Raoul Peck, a Haitian filmmaker whose family spent many years in the Congo, intersect around Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961), the first Congolese prime minister and victim of a political murder. Both films remain intensely personal if not intimate. Achkar is reminiscent of Beckett in the depiction of “waiting for” an occurrence ever differed. What is haunting about Achkar’s quest is that the filmmaker is in search of his father Marof David Achkar (1930-1971), a choreographer of the Keïta Fodeba “Ballets Africains” (1955-1960) and cultural counsellor to the Guinean embassy in Washington (1960-1964). Marof had replaced Telli Diallo at the United Nations (1964-1968) when he worked against apartheid in South Africa; in 1968 U. Thant (secretary to the United Nations) recommended him to a post of high commissioner to the World Organization in Namibia, a proposal rejected by Sékou Touré (elected as the first President of Guinea, serving from 1958 until his death in 1984) who recalled him to Conakry. Upon his return to Guinea, Marof Achkar was arrested and brought to camp Boiro, where he was tortured, made to sign charges of embezzlement and executed on January 25, 1971. At the time, David Achkar was a child — something of the child remains in the biography of his father. Beyond his father’s political ordeal is the first-hand demonstration of the personal impact the execution had on him; he connects more publicly and didactically with the administration of justice versus political murders in his last film, Kiti, justice en Guinée (1996). Both Achkar and Peck employ collages of family reels, documentaries, and film that may be inspired by Surrealism, a movement mentioned in Death of a Prophet (1991). Peck also moved toward a stronger Marxist message in his 2017 film about the German philosopher, and though he has done several documentaries, he is attached to the current relevance of legacies when he depicts Marx as appealing to today’s youth. In both 1991 films, the sliding distance of political heroes, from public careers to intimate family documents is further complicated by the filmmakers’ decision to intertwine plain autobiography to their biographies. They are working from the premises of affective encounters to create a sense of community. Eventually, Achkar and Peck raise issues about the philosophical nature of identity and the autobiography involved in the encounter with sacrificed or resurrected prophets as interpreted in Allah-Tantou—God’s Will be Done [À la grâce de Dieu] (1991) by David Achkar (1960-1998) and Death of a Prophet, by Raoul Peck (1954-present).

Archival research in West Africa can present many challenges. In one of the poorest regions of the world, governments struggle to maintain funding for the most basic infrastructure; thus archives and their holdings can often reside in a neglected state. Moreover, research materials may be spread over many departments and buildings, creating a labyrinthine network of officialdom, and requisite access requirements. This paper provides a brief overview of the principal archives located in Conakry, capital of Guinea. It includes current contact information and descriptions of holdings, and expands upon earlier articles by Klein (1981), Ford (1987), Conrad (1993), and Sampson (2002).On 2 October 2008 Guinea celebrated 50 years of independence. Earlier that year many new ministries were created, including the Ministère de la Culture, des Arts et Loisirs. For the first time in the nation's history, Guinea had its own dedicated ministry of the arts, thus potentially streamlining academic and archival research. The new Ministry faced many hurdles, however, for the story of Guinea's archives during the last 50 years is a tale of both marvel and neglect.During the nation's First Republic (1958-1984), Guinea's archives became established under the Presidency of Sékou Touré. The Archives Nationale, the Bibliothèque Nationale, and Radiodiffusion Télévision de Guinée were all created during his reign, and Guinea's archival resources were said to be among the best in West Africa. As Touré's grip on power strengthened, the nation's economic malaise grew, and Klein (1981:333) reported that in the early 1980s, when he conducted research in Conakry, he had been warned to expect significant damage to the archival contents.