The bastards actually did it! Like their evil mentor Lansana Conté, they fired on their own people with barbarous cowardice! January 2007 was not enough for them – they had to do it again, and spill innocent blood. The peaceful people of Guinea once again martyred and dehumanised.
Since 1958, the people of Guinea have suffered oppression. It neither ended with the death of Sekou Touré nor Lansana Conté. The system lives on, with its torture chambers, its gallows, the brutality of the 'the supreme leader', the avarice of 'Général Fory Coco', the archaism of 'Pivi-les-gris-gris' and the proud ignorance of 'Captain Dadis'! It remains the same, only the faces change… After Sekou Touré, Lansana Conté and Dadis Camara.
'... the womb from which the vile beast emerged is still fertile', said Brecht, writing about Nazi Germany. O Lord, master of the universe and all creation, what next after Dadis Camara? Shall we know nothing but misery and the whip? Would you cast your divine light upon us, and illuminate our paths and our spirits? Of all the leaders you create on earth, must we always suffer the most foolish, arrogant, blind and destructive? Poor Guinea, so far from God and yet so close to Dadis Camara, to Sekou Touré, to Lansana Conté and his ilk! Each time we take off, we seem to plunge back to the ground, every new era seems worse than the last. The Algerian comedian Fellag surely speaks of Guinea when he says, '… at the bottom of the abyss, they do not climb out, they dig deeper.' Guinea and tyranny are like Sisyphus and his boulder, only that Sisyphus seems more fortunate that Guinea!
For Guinea, the moments of greatest promise always seemed to end in interminable nightmares and regret.
1958
- In the beginning: the radiant smile of Sekou Touré, a shining symbol of liberation from the shackles of slavery … the black man is finally free from the colonial bonds of colonialism, free from the curse of the white man.
- In the brutal end: misery, exile, Russian snowploughs, the speeches, the public hangings, Camp Boiro, the Peul plot, Coco Lala, green mango porridge, Labe Tamba shoes…
1984
- In the beginning: the end of the dictatorship, the dream of freedom, justice, reconciliation, brotherhood, the return of exiles, social and economic restitution. Lansana Conté and Diarra Traoré were going to undo the catastrophic legacy of Sekou Touré.
- In the end: 'Wo Fatara', the assassination of Diarra Traoré, misery, corruption, the murders of January 2007, the narco-state.
2008
– In the beginning: end of the Conté regime, economic progress, democracy, and transparency
- In the end: Dadis Camara and his accursed National Council for Democracy and Development (CNDD), laxity, cruelty, corruption, megalomania and juvenile delinquency.
In some ways, misfortune can be helpful. The events of 28 September gave us a clear view of this evil person. We now know Dadis Camara’s true nature. When he came to power, he had the reassuring silhouette of Amadou Toumani Touré, and the messianic tone of Thomas Sankara. The cruel salvo of 28 September tore off the mask and there was no disguising the man. He was neither a new Amadou Toumani Touré, nor a new Sankara. He is Pol Pot, if not worse! Now we know Charles Taylor. Camara is not a saviour, just a gang member from another faction, here to collect his portion of blood and his share of the cake.
What about the alleged war against drug trafficking, the audits? All a ploy! It’s the old story of a wolf crying wolf to create a diversion. Accusing others of a crime that you are committing yourself is an old trick that was commonly used in Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Sekou Touré’s PDG (Parti Démocratique de Guinée) and others. Unfortunately, this trick still works in countries such as ours that have been dehumanised by the trauma of tyranny and secrecy. Monday 28 September marks a major turning point for us as a nation. Things will never be the same.
From this moment on, for all of us, the CNDD (Conseil National pour la Démocratie et le Développement) has neither the competence nor the legitimacy to legislate, to make decrees, investigate or judge anyone in Guinea. These men are illegal from head to toe. The Guinean people did not elect them, and neither does the international community recognise them. They do not deserve to be in power! Guineans must refuse to submit to their control. Rather, the people must audit them! What have they done with public money? It is time to set up a commission of inquiry, to identify and prosecute those responsible for the killings. The international community must cease all contact or dialogue with this criminal junta in Conakry until this inquiry is concluded.
Most importantly we must not make the same mistake made by the unions in 2007, which continued dialogue with Conté, in spite of the tragedy of 27 January. One on side we have the people of Guinea, united as never before. And on the other side, we have the CNDD assassins. In the between the two flows the blood of our martyrs. To those who defend Dadis and his criminal clique, I remind you of the Soussou proverb: 'The snake you feed will be the one that bites you'. They owe nothing to those who helped them come to power. The horrors of the infamous Camp Boiro teach a lesson that, tragically, nobody wants to learn.
Brethren, let us forget our quarrels and misunderstandings of the past – let us move forward as one before the bodies of our fallen. Let us dedicate ourselves fully to building a free and democratic Guinea – prosperous and united, as has always been our dream.
BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS
* Tierno Monenembo is a Guinean writer and the recipient of the 2008 Prix Renaudot.
* Translated from the French by Josh Ogada.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.
You are so right. I am 58 years old and was born and raised in Guinea (in Mamou and N'Zerekore). I therefore feel a strong connection to its wellbeing. I'm sad to say conditions are worse there now than they were 50 years ago. I'm distressed that Guinea can never stand up and walk. The empty-suited strongman model of rulership won't allow it.
Misrule and poor governance are the systemic problems. Guinea has had only three leaders since independence - all of which were and are of the intransigent, obdurate, and incompetent sort. It's not a followership issue; it's a leadership issue. Camara is simply Toure Jr. and Conte Jr., with an implacable streak mixed in, not the fresh change we so needed. He doesn't know that he doesn't know. One could not even confidently buy a used car from him.
Guinea needs and deserves better. It does not want for resources or wonderful people; it wants for qualified, skilled leadership which possesses and models integrity, service, selflessness, otherliness,and personal sacrifice.
I'm living now in the West, but I have never felt that Guinea has to be like America or Europe or any other place - it just has to be like Guinea. But I mean the Guinea it could be, not the Guinea it is now. May its answer come soon.
Dr. Steven Ost, Humanitarian and Author
Whether it is Sekou Touré, Lansana Conté or Dadis Camara in power, it seems to me that Guinea remains and, indeed, Africa as a whole remains a battle field! A cursory look at current events on the African continent leads one to scream like Graham Greene did many years ago in his book titled It’s a battlefield (1962). The title of his work brings to mind the telltale history of Africa. Ours seems to be a tale of violence and bloodshed. One only needs to take a walk down memory lane: the genocide in Rwanda and Darfur, the bloodbath in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the Saga in Côte d’Ivoire, and the recent ethnic cleansing that came in the wake of rigged elections in Kenya to name but a few. Many factors account for this impasse, the most patent of which are artificial boundaries created between African peoples by colonial masters. As Kambudzi (op cit, 8) posits:
The irony with Africa is that its political boundaries derived from externally negotiated settlements, not to say brute European military force, rather than any ethno-linguistic arrangement.
The trail of economic destruction and human suffering left on the African continent by civil wars is without precedence. Why civil wars continue to be routine on our continent remains a moot point. One reason may be that political oppression, racial subordination and economic exploitation have condemned Africans to a common misfortune. Another reason for the recurrence of civil strife in Africa is that aspirants to political power have often held different views as regards new socio-politico-economic dispensations in their respective countries. Sometimes a civil war erupts as a result of the demise of a dictatorial political order under a tyrannical president. The case of the Somali civil war which erupted in the aftermath of the fall of the dictator, Siad Barre, is still fresh in our minds. The civil war that engulfed Liberia following the demise of Machiavellian Samuel Doe is another case in point. We cannot forget the civil war in Ethiopia that ended after the fall of Mengistu Haile Mariam.
In the main, it makes sense to conclude that the absence of a firm constitutional blueprint in the majority of African states has contributed immensely to the prevalence of civil wars on the continent. A firm constitutional blueprint would serve a two-fold purpose. Firstly, it would guarantee fair power-sharing and equitable participation in the political life of nations. Secondly, a good blueprint would ensure that there is organized political succession, including the formulation of laws that stipulate the terms of office for presidents, members of parliament and ministers. Nigeria embodies the political difficulties that Africa has experienced due to the absence of a constitutional framework. Despite the proliferation of constituent federal units in Nigeria, the conception of a firm constitutional and political order is still problematic. In consequence, the military has monopolized power in Nigeria since independence from Great Britain more than forty years ago. In the words of Kambudzi (op cit, 11),”Nigeria oscillates today between political chaos and military autocracy!” He describes Nigeria as a prototype of neo-colonial states characterized by the following ills:
• Foreign domination;
• Foreign ownership of big business;
• External military reinforcement;
• External financial control;
• Local intelligence services involving outside secret agents and mercenaries;
• Network of corruption; and
• Insignificant indigenous involvement in politics or business.
It has to be noted that the constitutional issue in Africa means more than simply drawing up a constitution. Africa’s constitutions must be upheld in the day-to-day governance of nations. At present, there is too much toying around with national constitutions in Africa. There must be a way of holding African leaders accountable for any breaches of the constitution. The recent political fiascos in Togo and Cameroon are incontrovertible evidence that when the supreme law of the land is subjected to the whims and caprices of dishonest, self-seeking politicians, the end product is chaos and civil strife. Social stability and economic development are not chance occurrences. They are the result of sound decision-making.
By and large, the truth about Africa is that we are peace-lovers. Africans want a better place to live in. Sadly enough, when one looks at the history of Africa keenly, one observes three levels of oppression that stand out like sore fingers: blacks oppressing blacks, Arabs oppressing Blacks and whites (neo-colonizers) oppressing both Blacks and Arabs. We cannot allow this inhumane status quo to go on forever. The onus is on us all to devise ways and means to reverse the current trend.
DR. PETER WUTEH VAKUNTA
