Letters & Opinions

Report from Guinea

Mariam Yansane

2007-02-21, Issue 292

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/letters/39935

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It is of utmost importance that if you care to understand what is happening in Guinea, you rely on a news source that will give you a fair and balanced report or analysis of the situation on the ground. Most websites I have read over the past days (I will not name any but if you are Guinean you may be familiar with some of them) have what I call a novel like or surreal depiction of what is happening here. Most of the times the sources cannot even be identified. It feels like these are coffee table discussions that are being reported. They probably have their own anecdotal value but they are everything but news reports.

I recommend to you Reuters Conakry for an example and I actually know the qualified journalist who writes for Reuters (he was arrested a few years back for investigating a high profile story so you may weigh in his professional commitment). Simply google Reuters Conakry and you can read some balanced analysis and perspectives.

Please be careful on reports coming out of RFI or BBC or some other donor country's mainstream news agency. I am not sure about why their reporters carry this one dimensional reporting where serious facts are being omitted. Where reports try to present an idealistic revolution or movement from the people when the fact is that yes, there is a cry for change but what kind of change and for who? Guinea has a rich soil, underexploited with infinite potential, and some people outside of Guinea know it better than those inside; especially the peoples of Guinea. So who wants what for whom and by whom? And it seems to me from calls, chatrooms and discussions that the Guinean Diaspora is somewhat misinformed about what is happening here.

My own thoughts are that the current process is a result of the strike and has forced a dialogue between the government, the workers unions, and leaders of civil society in the presence of international institutions. The victims of 22 January and over the past weeks are unmistakably victims of this push for change, with a military regime or repressive state. However when the attacks and looting turned the strike into a war of classes, between the rich and the poor, not just targeting government officials, and also when the strike exacerbated ethnic tensions the threat of a civil war was serious and insecurity was high. Anyone could pull you out of your car just because you were driving a car, burn the car and take everything you had. This is exactly what was happening. They were attacking people in their homes and out in the streets where there were roadblocks. The declared state of emergency was the most appropriate response to restore civil order and give back the state its authority. After all Conte is still an 'elected' official. And since Monday they are back at the negotiations table.

So Guinea, in my analysis, is going through its own process of transition and change. The region is explosive already. We do not want another Liberia, another Sierra Leone or another Cote d'Ivoire. We have lost over 100 victims. That is too many, but that is in no comparison with over 250,000 in Liberia, 1,000,000 in Rwanda or over 4,000,000 if I am correct in the Great Lakes.

My message to all 'young' Guineans in the diaspora or friends of Guinea: this is a good time to form alliances and build your strategic and collective role in the new leadership and the new Guinea. Guinea needs a new mentality, and a new work culture. The change will happen I believe from within and not without. There is a huge need for dynamism, innovation and integrity. It is taking time but I am witnessing a few young people here demanding their rightful place in the new Guinea. The Forum des jeunes de Guinee, the Alliance des cadres et entrepreuneurs de Guinee, and others... That is a more realistic and positive reporting to me than all the news I read on the various websites. There is hope in Guinea.

* Mariam Yansane is on the Community Council of 'Women of Africa' (www.wafrica.org)

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