Fierce Patriot

Sekou Toure: 1922-1984

When Guinea was preparing for independence from France in 1958, President Charles de Gaulle proposed that it join in a Franco-African community that was to maintain political and economic ties to France. The leaders of all twelve other former French colonies in Africa decided to participate, but not intense, eloquent Ahmed Sekou Toure. Said he to De Gaulle: "We prefer poverty in liberty to riches in slavery."

That single act, Toure would often say over the next quarter-century, was the proudest moment of his life. It also represented a high point for both Guinea and Toure, a son of a poor farmer who became the West African nation's first and only ruler. When Toure died last week at 62 in a Cleveland hospital, to which he had been rushed for treatment of a worsening heart condition, he left behind a record of thoroughgoing repression, oppression and tyranny that began to abate only a few years ago. Lamented France's Le Monde: "If ever there was a revolution that went astray in Africa, it was the one that Sekou Toure promised to his people 26 years ago."

Toure grandly styled himself the Supreme Father of the Revolution. To Guineans, he was the "Big Elephant," known for his broad shoulders and great stamina. Often his elephantine power was used to crush those he thought opposed him. In the 1970s, he ordered thousands of people arrested. By 1976, according to Amnesty International, at least 2,900 citizens had "disappeared." Many were sent to detention camps, where some prisoners were locked in cells that were too small to allow them to stand up or lie down and were put on the infamous "black diet," completely deprived of food or water. Of Guinea's nearly 6 million inhabitants, 2 million now live in exile in the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and other neighboring countries.

Economically, Guinea fared little better under Toure. Despite its vast resources of bauxite (used to make aluminum), diamonds and iron, Guinea remains a desperately poor nation. Annual per capita income is $290, life expectancy is less than 40 years, and the infant mortality rate is tragically high. In the rundown capital of Conakry, there has been little new construction in 25 years. Businesses must provide their own services, even such basic ones as electricity and water. Malnourished children play listlessly in the streets.

Toure showed an affinity for independence at an early age. One of seven children, he was expelled from school at 15 for leading a protest against colonialism. After taking a job at Conakry's post office, he found that his charm and speaking talent made him a natural leader in the developing labor movement. Endowed with limitless energy, he was a brilliant orator who could--and often did--hold audiences captive for hours.

His early successes led to his involvement in West African politics as well as to various local governmental posts. He became mayor of Conakry in 1955, and was elected to a seat in the National Assembly in Paris one year later.

In the struggles preceding independence, Toure allied himself with the movement for African nationalism. He was instrumental in abolishing Guinea's tribal chieftaincies, which he considered corrupt, and in establishing more than 4,000 elected village councils. When the nation's first election was held in 1958, he was swept into office. "revolutionary socialism" to industrialize the economy, and he turned to the Soviet Union for assistance. But Guinea remained beset by chronic underproduction, inflation and black-marketeering. In the mid-'70s, Toure made a bow toward the West.

He resumed diplomatic relations with France and even took a money-raising trip to Wall Street in 1982, proclaiming his nation's "fabulous economic potential." At the same time, for obvious reasons, he also relaxed his repressive policies and attributed reports of human rights abuses to "smear campaigns."

Toure was making plans for the 20th anniversary meeting of the Organization of African Unity, to be held in Conakry next month, when he was flown to the Cleveland Clinic Hospital last week. He died on the operating table after undergoing 5 1/2 hours of surgery for a heart condition. Reactions to his death understandably differed. Zimbabwe Prime Minister Robert Mugabe called Toure a "true patriot" and a "loss to the entire African continent." Elsewhere, in the nearby Ivory Coast, Guinea's jubilant exiles downed champagne.