Toure, A Fiery Nationalist

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31001, 5 March 1966, Page 15

Toure, A Fiery Nationalist

(NZ Press Assn —Copyright; LONDON, March 4. Sekou Toure, President of Guinea, is a fiery African nationalist who defied President Charles tie Gaulle and got away with it, says United Press International. A broad-shouldered, hand- ■ tome labour leader and poll-, tician. Mr Toure, who is now] only 44. led his 100.000 square, mile country to independence from France in 1958 in the tradition of a near-legendary general-emperor from whom he is said to be descended. The ancestor was Samory Toure. the last of the great African emperors. For 161 bloody years he directed primitive African armies I against the French in the dei fence of their jungle homeL lands on the banks of the I Niger river, ft French troops finally cap■hjred him in 1898 and ab■nrbed Guinea into French ■fest Africa. Sit was for Sekou Toure. an ■toned Marxist who is said ■be the great-grandson of African general, to lead to indenendenco after of French rule. Long Linked Kwaine Nkrumah and have Ion? been by their leftist pollDr. Nkrumah’s plan a union of the two

West African Republics under his own leadership. It was to-Dr. Nkrumah that Mr Toure turned in 1958 when Guinea became the only one of the French territories in Africa to choose immediate independence by voting to reject a new French constitution. Mr Toure. using all his considerable skill as an orator, stood beside General de Gaulle at a rally in the Guinean capital of Conakry in

1958. and declaimed in resonant tones against French “colonial injustice.” Shocked. Genera! de Gaulle repeated his promise that if Guinea rejected the constitution it could have its independence, but at the cost of

the cessation of French aid. Guinea supported Mr Toure against General de Gaulle and the newly independent nation received a £lO million grant from Dr. Nkrumah aimed at stabilising its teetering economy. Mr Toure's career is inextricably woven with the history of his country’s movement to independence. Despite his royal ancestry. Mr Toure was raised in humble enough circumstances. He was born to an African couple in a crude house on the banks of the Niger river in 1922. Led Strike Educated first in a Koranic school, he went no further than the primary grades. He was expelled from school at the age of 15 for leading a student food strike, but badgered his former classmates into telling him what they were learning. , He read everything he could and at the age of 19 passed an examination for a clerical job in the French-run Post Office. Mr Toure entered politics at 22. By then he was a husky six-footer who commanded respect for his views and attention for his dynamism. A speaker who held audiences spellbound for hours, Mr Toure became secretarygeneral of the Guinea branch of the French General Confederation of Labour. | He became leader of ■ Guinea’s Democratic Party land was imprisoned by the 1 French for a time for his poli-

tical activities. Between 1948 and 1956 he served in almost every top office in Guinea. He was chief of the Territorial Assembly, Mayor of Conakry, and was elected to the French National Assembly on his third try. Mr Toure was secretarygeneral of Guinea's Democratic Party, the only political party in the country today, when the break with France came. On October 2, 1958, he was proclaimed -President by the Guinean National Assembly. On January 15, 1961, Mr Toure was re-elected to a seven-year term. The only candidate, he received 99.37 per cent of the ballots. First President When he took office as Guinea’s first President after defying President de Gaulle. Mr Toure was only 36, a dedicated nationalist who seemed devoted to building his nation into a modern republic. He once told General de Gaulle publicly: “We prefer poverty in freedom to riches in slavery.” After independence, however, Mr Toure drifted closer to Dr. Nkrumah and became his disciple in a bid for African unity while Guinea headed for bankruptcy. Eventually, he became eclipsed by the Ghanaian.

Strike Threat—More than 7000 Postal Department mail workers and transport drivers may be called out next week on a nation-wide 24-hour stoppage.—Melbourne, March 4.