Thanx Buharry for sharing. I had this report laying in my library for 5 months now and I never could bring myself to read it for its length. However, with my newfound audio transcription (inspired by you) I was able to read this copy quickly. It brings a pre-independence perspective to Seku Toure' and perhaps some of what shaped his early leadership. But for his latter extremes, he was inspirational. The report is chock full of actionable information I might add. Thanx again for sharing. I got a question for you: Can you only send us reams of information or can you share shorter but equally virulent notes with us? You're too good men.
 
Haruna.  > Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2008 01:15:55 +0100> From: [log in to unmask]> Subject: fwd: Top Down or Bottom Up? Nationalist Mobilization Reconsidered, with Special Reference to Guinea (French West Africa)> To: [log in to unmask]> > Top Down or Bottom Up? Nationalist Mobilization Reconsidered, with > Special Reference to Guinea (French West Africa)> ELIZABETH SCHMIDT> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------> In September 1958, the people of Guinea voted for immediate > independence from France, overwhelmingly rejecting a constitution that > would have granted the territory junior partnership in a French-> dominated community. Throughout the vast French empire, Guinea, with a > population of only 2.5 million people, was the only territory to vote > "No" to the proposition offered by Prime Minister Charles de Gaulle.1 > The referendum's outcome was a major victory for the Guinean branch of > the Rassemblement Démocratique Africain (RDA), a political party with > affiliates in the fourteen territories of French West Africa, French > Equatorial Africa, and the United Nations trusts of Togo and Cameroon. > While every other RDA branch had fallen into line behind de Gaulle, the > Guinean RDA, under the leadership of a charismatic young trade unionist > named Sékou Touré, had spearheaded the drive for complete and immediate > independence. 1 > The decision to oppose the constitution was made two weeks before > the ref- erendum, at a territorial conference attended by some 680 > party militants from RDA subsections, neighborhood committees, and > village committees from across Guinea.2 Although Sékou Touré > articulated the party's position, he did not determine it. The final > decision was made by the delegates attending the conference, who voted > solidly against de Gaulle's proposition. Sékou Touré's endorsement of > the "No" vote was, in fact, the result of massive pressure from the > grassroots.3 2 > While the RDA position was elaborated and its victory lauded in > La Liberté, the party newspaper read by Western-educated elites,4 > nonliterate women celebrated their triumph in songs they had created > for the occasion. Guinean scholar Idiatou Camara recorded one such song > during interviews conducted in 1976?1977: > > > > Guinea says "No"> De Gaulle says "Yes"> One must vote "No"> Comrade Sékou Touré, one must choose the "No"> Yes, one must choose the "No," Sékou Touré> In any case, we have voted "No."5 3 > One month before the referendum, Prime Minister de Gaulle had > traveled to Guinea in a futile attempt to sway the vote. At the > airport, he was welcomed by Sékou Touré, president of Guinea's recently > established local government, who was attired in the flowing white > uniform of the RDA. Hundreds of party militants, dressed in handmade > uniforms of cheap white percale, lined the road for fifteen kilometers, > from the airport to the city center. As the motorcade approached, they > cried, "Syli! Syli!" ["Elephant! Elephant!"]?the symbol of the RDA, and > by extension of Sékou Touré personally. Partisans waved homemade > posters emblazoned with elephants and plastered them on buildings > throughout the capital. As the women danced, accompanied by traditional > tam-tams, balafons, and coras, the crowd sang, "The elephant has > entered the city!"6 In his memoirs, de Gaulle recalled: "from the > airport to the center of the town the crowd [was] evenly distributed in > well-drilled battalions along both sides of the road ... The women were > lined up in front in their hundreds, each group wearing dresses of the > same cut and color, and all, as the procession passed by, jumping, > dancing and singing to order."7 Later that day, Sékou Touré officially > received the French prime minister and addressed the Territorial > Assembly, providing colonial authorities with an advance copy of his > roneotyped speech.8 4 > This confluence of popular and elite nationalism was > characteristic of the Guinean RDA, a broad-based ethnic, class, and > gender alliance that incorporated Muslims, Christians, and > practitioners of indigenous religions. The movement embraced Guinean > speakers of Maninka, Susu, Pulaar, Kissi, Kpelle, and Loma, as well as > those who spoke languages indigenous to other French African > territories. As the RDA struggled to build an independent nation from > this heterogeneous base, its message, conveyed by both masses and > elites, was simultaneously anticolonial and nationalist. 5 > > > Although Guinea was alone in its embrace of independence in 1958, > it was not unique. In the post?World War II era, nationalist movements > burgeoned across the African and Asian continents, resisting > imperialism of diverse origins. Other African territories followed > Guinea's lead, and by 1960, most French "possessions" had regained > their sovereignty. The Guinean RDA was thus one among scores of African > and Asian movements that waged successful struggles for national > independence in the postwar period. So, why study the Guinean > nationalist movement, and why study it now? Decades after the fact, the > Guinean case warrants scholarly consideration for the important lessons > it can teach us about anticolonial nationalism in the non-Western world?> lessons with enduring relevance. What we learn from the Guinean case > will help to push nationalist historiography in new directions. 6 > > The study of African and Asian nationalism is not new. In recent > years, however, there have been significant shifts in scholarly > approach. The wave of anticolonial nationalism that swept Africa and > Asia after World War II sparked new interest in what previously had > been considered a uniquely European phenomenon. Many of the first > studies approached nationalism from the perspective of intellectual > history. Exploring the interaction of indigenous and Western ideas, > early scholars of Asian nationalism generally focused on religious and > secular intellectuals and political elites.9 Although the history of > ideas remains a forceful current in the field,10 recent studies have > paid greater attention to popular mobilization and the importance of > peasant and worker movements. While many of these works note that > nationalist leaders focused on local grievances and manipulated > indigenous symbols and traditions to appeal to mass audiences, most > perpetuate the top-down perspective of their predecessors.11 According > to this view, the masses were but recipients of the nationalist > message. They were mobilized by the elites; they were not a mobilizing > force. 7 > > While a number of recent studies make reference to the generation > of mass appeal, only a handful scrutinize the actual mechanisms of > popular mobilization. Gail Minault and Sandria Freitag examine the ways > in which Indian Muslim leaders used religious and cultural symbols and > events to unite a heterogeneous Muslim population, mobilizing the > literate classes through the vernacular press, leaflets, pamphlets, and > poetry, and the nonliterate masses through speeches, slogans, songs, > religious processions, and demonstrations.12 Peter van der Veer has > made similar claims for mobilization among Indian Hindus as well as > Muslims, while James Gelvin has investigated these issues in Syria, and > Nels Johnson and Ted Swedenburg in Palestine.13 Some of the most > insightful work in this area has focused not on anticolonial > nationalism, but on internal cultural resurgence in multiethnic, > postcolonial nation-states. Pamela Price, for instance, argues in her > investigation of Tamil nationalism in India that the Federation for the > Progress of Dravidians "developed a new cosmology, a vision of a new > society and polity, which was deeply immersed in Tamil images and > themes." Its appeal resonated more strongly among the Tamil population > "than the more secular, pan-Indian message of Nehru or the ascetic > image of Gandhi."14 8 > > While the majority of recent studies continue to treat > nationalist mobilization as a one-way street, there are striking > exceptions to this trend. Israel Gershoni points out that most works > that focus on the dissemination of nationalist ideas from elites to > women and "subaltern socioeconomic strata such as the lower middle > classes, the working classes, and various levels of the peasantry" tell > us very little about the receptivity of these groups to nationalist > ideas. We remain ignorant of "the modes in which women, the poor, and > the illiterate?constituting the overwhelming majority of the societies > in question?reacted to the radicalized upper middle stratum's struggle > against the Westernized `ancien régime.'" Gershoni argues that future > studies "must encompass the strains of nationalism from below > percolating upward as a supplement to the research on [educated urban > elite]-driven nationalism trickling downward."15 9 > > The nationalist historiography of Africa, like that of Asia, has > changed dramatically in recent years. Since the early 1950s, scholars > of Africa have investigated nationalist movements and nation-building > endeavors that were both heir to the European revolutionary and liberal > traditions of 1789 and 1848 and the product of indigenous grassroots > movements.16 The earliest studies emphasized the leadership role of > Western-educated elites who organized political movements grounded in > Western concepts of democracy and national self-determination. To be > successful, these movements had to be able to generate mass support, > which they did by mobilizing around preexisting grievances and > promising to resolve them through the attainment of national > independence.17 While acknowledging the critical nature of mass > involvement, pioneers in this field, like their counterparts in Asia, > generally focused on the political leadership.18 10 > > In the late 1960s, as social history gained prominence in the > discipline, scholars of African nationalism began to shift their focus > to "the role of ordinary ... Africans." John Lonsdale, an eminent > member of this group, argued that "scholarly preoccupation with élites > will only partially illumine the mainsprings of nationalism."19 He > claimed that "the pressures of the peasantry at the periphery were at > least as important in breaking down the colonial governments' morale as > the demands of the élite at the centre."20 In the post?World War II > era, increased government intrusion into the lives of ordinary Africans > "resulted in a national revolution coalescing from below, co-ordinated > rather than instigated by the educated élite." According to Lonsdale, > it was the grassroots that "provided much of [the nationalist > movement's] dynamism and direction."21 11 > > It was left for later generations to show how "ordinary Africans" > accomplished this spectacular feat. In her pathbreaking work on > nationalism in colonial Tanzania, Susan Geiger focused on the role of > nonliterate women. She argued that these women did not "learn > nationalism" from the Western-educated male elites who dominated party > politics. Instead, women without formal education brought to the party > "an ethos of nationalism already present as trans-ethnic, trans-tribal > social and cultural identity. This ethos was expressed collectively in > their dance and other organizations, and reflected in their families of > origin as well as in marriages that frequently crossed ethnic > divisions."22 Such women were "a major force in constructing, > embodying, and performing Tanzanian nationalism."23 Thus, Tanzanian > women were a driving force behind a movement in which African and > European ideas interacted to form a new synthesis, one that was > uniquely suited to the African context. Geiger's work on Tanzanian > women inspires similar questions about the role of other grassroots > actors. What part did military veterans, urban workers, and rural > agriculturalists play in shaping nationalist movements from the bottom > up? 12 > > The importance of mass mobilization to the Guinean nationalist > endeavor has been noted by several scholars. However, few have examined > the popular aspects of the movement in detail. Ruth Schachter > Morgenthau, Jean Suret-Canale, Claude Rivière, Victor Du Bois, and L. > Gray Cowan have commented on the popular foundations of the Guinean > RDA, but their primary focus has been on colonial reforms, electoral > politics, and male party leaders. Their works do not explore the > mechanisms by which people were mobilized or the ways in which the rank > and file influenced party methods and programs.24 Guinean historian > Sidiki Kobélé Kéïta has written the most comprehensive, if largely > uncritical, account of the Guinean nationalist movement. His two-volume > study devotes considerable attention to elite electoral politics, and > some to the movement's popular roots. However, the specific tactics of > mass mobilization are not scrutinized. The central role of women is > mentioned, but the dynamics of their participation are not explored in > depth. 25 Although some other works remark upon the crucial nature of > women's involvement, few offer an analysis of women's motivations, > methods, and visions of a transformed society or discuss their role in > shaping the nationalist movement and defining the terms of the debate.> 26 A notable exception is Idiatou Camara's unpublished undergraduate > thesis, which demonstrates the ways in which urban women helped to > construct Guinea's nationalist movement and were critical to its > success. Unfortunately, this unique work, preserved in Guinea's > national archives, is available only in that country.27 13 > > If the focus on popular mobilization is one trend in recent > nationalist scholarship, criticism of the negative qualities of > nationalism is another. In the 1950s and 1960s, nationalism in Africa > and Asia was associated positively with anticolonialism and popular > liberation.28 A generation later, however, following the disintegration > of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia, and internal > struggles in a number of African and Asian countries, nationalism > acquired a highly negative connotation. Ethnic chauvinism and > ethnically motivated atrocities overwhelmed the positive > characteristics associated with earlier nationalist movements. > Increasingly, nationalism was deemed a negative force, promoting > ethnic, linguistic, and religious homogeneity, brutally excluding?or > eliminating?those considered outsiders.29 These illiberal, > counterrevolutionary forces had much in common with the right-wing > nationalisms of Europe in the "Age of Empire" (1880?1914), when, in the > words of E. J. Hobsbawm, "ethnicity and language became the central ... > or even the only criteria of potential nationhood." In the case of > Europe, and later Africa and Asia, "a concept associated with > liberalism and the left [mutated] into a chauvinist, imperialist and > xenophobic movement of the right, or more precisely, the radical right."> 30 In Guinea, the RDA was forced to confront these narrow, ethnically > exclusive tendencies, both within its own ranks and in those of the > ethnic associations promoted by the colonial government and its African > supporters. 14 > > Nationalism thus remains a hotly debated topic with undeniable > relevance to the contemporary world. We revisit the case of Guinea, a > small West African nation that won its independence from France in > 1958, because its local lessons enhance our understanding of global > trends. While earlier studies have reevaluated particular aspects of > the African nationalist experience, none has attempted to integrate > these parts into a fully reconceptualized whole. Building upon these > works, this article elaborates a new framework in which to consider the > nationalist movement of postwar Guinea. It raises theoretical and > methodological issues that fundamentally alter the way in which we > understand anticolonial nationalism in the non-Western world. 15 > > An examination of the Guinean case leads to three theoretical > conclusions. First, anticolonial nationalism, in many instances, > embraces heterogeneous populations that are ethnically and religiously > diverse. As such, it belongs to a progressive political tradition that > one might call "inclusive nationalism."31 Second, while anticolonial > nationalist movements have been led by educated elites, often inspired > by European ideals, elites did not instigate the anticolonial protests. > Rather, they built their base among popular groups already engaged in > struggle against the colonial state. They identified issues around > which the masses were already mobilizing and incorporated them into the > nationalist agenda. These agendas were successful largely because they > were deeply rooted in mass concerns, rather than imposed from above or > outside. Third, conceptualizing the nation was a two-way street. Masses > as well as elites had an impact on the ideas, objectives, strategies, > and methods of the nationalist leaders. While elites brought European > ideas and models of nationalism to the table, the nonliterate majority > brought others that were embedded in indigenous histories, practices, > and beliefs.32 16 > > Finally, an assessment of the Guinean case leads to an important > observation about mobilizing methods. It shows us how people were > mobilized?the mechanisms and processes by which mass mobilization > occurred. While some indigenous cultural practices and images were co-> opted by elites and presented to the populace, the people themselves > brought others to the movement. Again, we see that the masses were not > simply an "audience" for elite-inspired nationalism, nor the > "transmitters" of a message formulated for them.33 The songs and > slogans employed by nonliterate people to communicate the nationalist > message were not composed by party leaders on their behalf. Rather, > people without formal education created these devices to communicate > among themselves, to transmit their own messages to the elites, and to > interpret elite messages in terms meaningful to themselves. 17 > > The postwar Guinean movement, spearheaded by the RDA, was not > only vehemently anticolonial, but also nationalist and inclusive. It > was the conscious struggle to bridge ethnic, class, and gender > differences that made the Guinean movement so effective and placed it > squarely in the progressive political tradition of the European > revolutionary era (1789?1848).34 Much of the Guinean population shared > a precolonial history. A large proportion shared a religion. All had > mutually understood experiences and grievances resulting from French > colonialism. Together, these formed a common basis that allowed a > nation to be forged from a multilingual, ethnically heterogeneous > population. 18 > > While the movement's leadership was composed of Western-educated > elites whose views of democracy and national self-determination were > derived largely from European models, its strength lay in its solid > support among peasants, workers, veterans, and women. The Guinean > nationalist movement was successful because it built its base among > these groups, which were already engaged in anticolonial protest. It > was their grievances that drove the nationalist agenda and their > energies that were harnessed in the struggle for national independence.> 35 19 > > If grassroots activists shaped Guinea's nationalist agenda, they > also influenced its form. Indigenous cultural practices were adapted?by > elites and nonelites alike?to transmit the new nationalist message. > While print media contributed to the spread of nationalist ideas in > nineteenth-century Europe, books and newspapers were less significant > in Guinea, where mass education had yet to be realized. Mobilizing the > largely nonliterate population required new methods of communication, > notably songs, symbols, and uniforms. The majority of songs were > composed by nonliterate women, who sang their nationalist message at > public water taps, taxi stands, and marketplaces.36 Symbols and > uniforms also had popular origins that spoke to mass sentiments and > were integral to grassroots organizing efforts. 20 > > If nationalist historiography has undergone a major transformation, so, > too, has the meaning of "the nation." In 1882, the French philosopher > Ernest Renan contested the nineteenth-century German romantic notion of > the nation as a primordial, ethnically and culturally bound entity. The > nation is not based upon race, ethnicity, language, or religion, he > wrote, but rather on a shared past and a vision of a common future.37 > More than a century later, Miroslav Hroch built upon these ideas, > arguing that the nation is not an "eternal category, but ... the > product of a long and complicated process of historical development" > that cannot be reduced to an ethnicity or language group. Rather, Hroch > claims, the nation is "a large social group integrated not by one but > by a combination of several kinds of objective relationships (economic, > political, linguistic, cultural, religious, geographical, historical), > and their subjective reflection in collective consciousness."38 > Similarly, Benedict Anderson describes the nation as "an imagined > political community" that is sovereign and contained within defined > territorial boundaries. The community is "imagined" because most of its > members are strangers to one another, yet they consider themselves > bound together in emotional solidarity as well as in a sovereign > political entity.39 21 > > According to these definitions of "the nation," broader and more > nuanced than some that had previously prevailed, Guinea in the postwar > period was unquestionably a nation-in-the-making. More than any other > Guinean party, the RDA consciously and successfully shaped a national > rather than an ethnic identity.40 Although characterized by its > opponents as a party of Malinke and Susu with strong anti-Peul > undercurrents, the Guinean RDA prided itself on its multiethnic > membership and its particular appeal to the lower classes of all ethnic > groups. The party's allure for Néné Diallo is a case in point. A low-> status cloth-dyer, Diallo was among the first Peul women to join the > RDA. "The RDA welcomed everyone," she claimed. "It treated everyone > like family. It did not discriminate against the downtrodden or the > poor." While many of her family members joined opposing parties such as > the Bloc Africain de Guinée and Démocratie Socialiste de Guinée, both > of which were led by Peul notables, Diallo was adamant in her support > for the RDA. Likening members of her ethnic group to family, Diallo > contended, > > It all depended upon who helped me. The other ones did nothing for me > ... Diawadou [leader of the Bloc Africain de Guinée] is my kin. Barry > III [leader of the Démocratie Socialiste de Guinée] is my kin ... Even > if they were my mother, I would not support them ... Sékou worked for > us. Allah and his Envoy are my witness. He told us he had no material > things to offer, but he stood up for us and respected us. That is why > we followed him ... Although Sékou did not give us anything, he cared > for us.41 22 > > To build an inclusive nation, the Guinean RDA, under the > leadership of Western-educated elites, constructed a broad ethnic, > class, and gender alliance that was heir to a long European, and > particularly French, tradition. With its emphasis on individual rights > and liberties and government by the governed, it was, in part, a > product of the European Enlightenment. As a mass movement for "the self-> determination of peoples," popular sovereignty, and citizenship, led by > an aspiring intellectual elite against an oppressive, hierarchical > state, it was also an outgrowth of the French Revolution and influenced > by subsequent European nationalist movements.42 Rather than rejecting > the modern nation-state as an alien institution imposed on African > society by colonial rule, nationalist leaders charged that the state > had failed because its work was incomplete. The colonial state was, in > Partha Chatterjee's words, "restricting and even violating the true > principles of modern government" by denying inalienable rights to > colonized peoples.43 23 > > The presence of European ideas in African political thought was a > product of French colonialism?the unintended outcome of French > assimilationist policies. When Guinea was colonized in 1891, the > colonial administration, along with its missionary assistants, embarked > upon a self-described "civilizing mission" with the goal of > transforming an elite corps of Africans into "Black Frenchmen." This > small group of assimilated Africans, or évolués, would serve as > intermediaries between the government and the populace and work in > European-owned enterprises. With a strong emphasis on "practical" > education, especially in the poorly funded, lower-echelon rural > schools, the African curriculum was designed to be devoid of subjects > that might develop thought and hone analytical skills. However, some > European ideas infiltrated the curriculum, as colonial educators > denigrated African cultures, deplored African customs, and ignored > African history?in favor of that which was French.44 24 > > While many évolués embraced French civilization, some of the most > assimilated challenged French cultural hegemony with their own. As > schoolchildren, they had been prohibited from speaking their own > languages and denied the opportunity to explore their own pasts. The > most successful among them were rewarded with higher education abroad. > On the eve of World War II, an elite group of African and Caribbean > intellectuals in Paris rebelled against their growing sense of > rootlessness and alienation. Under the leadership of Léopold Senghor of > Senegal and Aimé Césaire of Martinique, they launched the Négritude > movement. While Europeans championed Western civilization as the > epitome of human achievement, practitiotioners of Négritude pointed to > the West's legacy of brutality, exploitation, and alienation. In > contrast, they posited African cultures, which, they claimed, promoted > peace, harmony, and community.45 Through poetry, essays, novels, and > plays, these cultural nationalists stressed a common African essence, a > system of shared values and beliefs that laid the foundations for > nationalist movements in the political realm.46 25 > > Although few Guineans achieved the educational qualifications > necessary to study in France, the ideas of Négritude reached elites in > Guinea through Senghor's literary and scholarly journal, Présence > Africaine. Published simultaneously in Dakar and Paris, the journal was > circulated among Western-educated intellectuals in Guinea.47 While the > ideas promoted by Senghor and his colleagues certainly influenced some > Guinean nationalists,48 proponents of class analysis, including Sékou > Touré and interterritorial RDA leader Gabriel d'Arboussier, rejected > the racially based theories of Négritude, claiming that they obscured > the socioeconomic roots of oppression and distracted the masses from > the class struggle.49 26 > > On the eve of World War II, Négritude was joined by other > critiques of colonialism that had germinated on African soil. These, > too, were influenced by European ideas. Just as African intellectuals > in France challenged the premises of assimilation, French intellectuals > in Africa defied the mandate to only partially educate their African > charges. During the Popular Front government of 1936?1938, a growing > number of French teachers pushed the boundaries of the African > curriculum, extolling the republican principles of liberty, equality, > and fraternity and championing the universal rights of man. Moving onto > terrain considered dangerous by both previous and subsequent > governments, they taught the history of the French Revolution along > with practical skills and the elements of literacy.50 27 > > The belief in the universal rights of man, as embodied in French > civilization, was the cornerstone of French assimilationist policies. > The 1789 "Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen" promoted > radical ideas that bolstered the Guinean nationalist cause. Those > exposed to the text learned that "Men are born free and remain free and > equal in rights." In striking contrast to their experience under French > colonialism, they read that "The aim of all political association is > the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man," > including "liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression." > While their people were ruled by governmental decree, Guinean students > learned that "Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen > has a right to take part personally or through his representative in > its formation."51 Thus, the rows of African schoolchildren who > dutifully chanted, "Nos Ancêtres les Gaulois" imbibed revolutionary > lessons as well.52 Embracing the notion of French universalism, African > elites incorporated many of its tenets into their nationalist ideology. > African trade unionists and military veterans, who seized upon French > claims of universalism to demand equal treatment, were a critical > component of the Guinean nationalist movement.53 28 > If the Enlightenment and the French Revolution of 1789 laid the > foundations for European nationalist endeavors, the continent-wide > revolutions of 1848 resulted in the widespread building of modern > nation-states based on liberal republican ideals. Struggling against > the tyranny of monarchs ruling over large multiethnic empires, > proponents of European nationalism supported their claims for national > independence by asserting that "no people ought to be exploited and > ruled by another." While concurring that certain fundamental features > distinguished one people from another, they contended that those > differences were not reducible to ethnic or linguistic traits.54 > According to Hobsbawm, "French nationality was French citizenship: > ethnicity, history, the language or patois spoken at home, were > irrelevant to the definition of `the nation.'"55 It was assumed that > small ethnic groups would necessarily be joined into larger, > economically and politically viable territorial states. It was this > broad-based, multiethnic nationalism that took root in Guinea a century > later. In Guinea, as in France, nationality was equated with > citizenship, rather than ethnicity or language.56 29 > > The foundations laid by the European Enlightenment and subsequent > revolutions were built upon by French Communists. Because their > opposition to imperialism resonated strongly with African > intellectuals, members of the Parti Communiste Français (PCF) had a > tremendous influence on African elites educated during the 1930s and > 1940s.57 Since the establishment of the Popular Front government in > 1936, French Communists had worked in French West and Equatorial Africa > as teachers, technicians, and military officers. They had taught at the > prestigious federal school École Normale William Ponty in Senegal, and > at the upper primary and vocational schools in Conakry and other major > cities.58 They had helped to establish a number of Groupes d'études > Communistes (GECs), where African intellectuals studied Marxist-> Leninist theories and applied them to the political, economic, and > social conditions of their own territories.59 Leadership and > organizational training were also provided by the Communist-affiliated > trade union movement, the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT).60 > Numerous RDA stalwarts, including Sékou Touré, emerged from the GEC/CGT > milieu, which deeply influenced their organizing skills, strategies, > and ideology.61 They consciously modeled the RDA's structure and > orientation on those of the PCF.62 It was to French Communists, as much > as to nineteenth-century nationalists, that the RDA owed the notion of > a broad-based nationalist alliance forged from a heterogeneous, > sometimes divided, population. 30 > > The construction of an inclusive nationalist alliance was the product > of struggle. Guinea in the 1950s was anything but a homogeneous > society. It was multilingual and multiethnic and included people of > diverse religious backgrounds. Despite the nation-building efforts of > party leaders, the battle to forge an ethnic, class, and gender > alliance was fraught with tensions and marred by setbacks. Female > emancipation, regional and ethnic inclusiveness, and the growing role > of Western-educated elites were heavily contested at the grassroots. > While RDA leaders remained deeply committed to inclusive nation-> building, they struggled to convince the swelling grassroots membership > on this point.63 While tensions sometimes percolated to the surface, > there existed in Guinea what Karl Deutsch calls a "wide complementarity > of social communication," which allowed Guineans to "communicate more > effectively" among themselves than with others who might speak the same > languages and belong to the same ethnic groups.64 31 > > The "complementarity of social communication" in Guinea was > predicated on the territory's shared history. Parts of Guinea had been > incorporated into multiethnic political, economic, religious, and > cultural systems long before European conquest. For centuries, Malinke > trading networks and their associated Muslim communities had connected > diverse parts of what would become modern Guinea. Jallonke (Susu, > Limba, Landuma, Baga, Bassari) and Fulbe (Peul and Tukulor) residents > of the Futa Jallon traded extensively with coastal peoples.65 In the > eighteenth century, the Fulbe jihads brought the Futa Jallon under > unified political and religious control.66 In the nineteenth century, > the politico-religious empires of the Tukulor leader, El-Hadj Umar b. > Said Tall, and the Malinke leader, Samori Touré, brought together vast > expanses of territory that included much of modern Guinea and its > neighbors.67 Many Guineans had, in Hobsbawm's words, "the consciousness > of ... having belonged to a lasting political entity."68 This legacy of > political, economic, religious, and cultural interaction linked > Guineans to one another and to peoples in neighboring territories.69 > 32 > > Precolonial African political leaders, particularly those who had > resisted French conquest, were championed by the postwar nationalist > movement?their subjugation and enslavement of African peoples > minimized, if not erased from historical memory.70 Samori Touré was > particularly revered for his seventeen-year conflict with the French, > which had staved off colonial rule for nearly two decades.71 To > Guineans during the nationalist period, Samori was promoted not as a > Malinke leader, but as a common ancestor who belonged to all Guineans.> 72 33 > > The Guinean RDA skillfully used the history of resistance to > colonial conquest to rally people to the leadership of its secretary-> general, Sékou Touré, a great-grandson of Samori Touré, and to inspire > renewed resistance to colonial rule.73 Making a veiled reference to > Samori's enslavement of conquered peoples, the RDA noted, "If Samory > Touré can make you slaves, Sékou Touré can make you free."74 The party > also promoted other historic resisters, consciously selecting > representatives from Guinea's major regions and ethnic groups.75 Among > the most prominent were rival Peul politico-religious leaders from the > Futa Jallon, Almamy Bokar Biro Barry of Timbo and Chief Alfa Yaya > Diallo of Labé; N'Zébéla Togba Pivi, a Loma war chief from the forest > region; and Cerno Aliou, the Wali of Gumba, a Peul religious leader > whose egalitarian Islamic movement attracted the lower classes and was > crushed by the colonial administration.76 34 > > If a common past was one unifying factor in Guinea, shared > religion?at least by a substantial majority?was another. Nearly three-> quarters of the Guinean population was Muslim, while a significant > minority was Christian.77 Christian missionaries had attracted some > converts among the Baga (subsequently incorporated into the Susu) in > the coastal areas. They had had some success in the forest region, > which, apart from Malinke trading communities, Islam had failed to > penetrate. However, they had made little headway among devout Muslims > in Upper Guinea and the Futa Jallon. Other Christians in Guinea > included civil servants from diverse parts of the French empire, along > with their descendants. Apart from Muslims and Christians, a minority > of the population, particularly in the coastal and forest regions, > continued to practice indigenous religions.78 35 > > Despite the fact that the colonizers were largely Christian, the > nationalist movement did not assume an anti-Christian fervor. Rather > than lashing out at Christian infidels, RDA leaders, like others in > Africa and Asia, stressed the positive attributes of Islam and their > compatibility with the nationalist program.79 An article in the Guinean > RDA newspaper, La Liberté, noted "the total identity of the RDA's > programme of emancipation with the liberating principles of justice and > hope in Islam."80 A regular attendee at Friday religious services, > Sékou Touré frequented a different mosque each week, widely publicizing > his relationship with Islam. During Friday prayers, worshipers were > reminded of the commonalities between adherents of Islam and the RDA. > Prayers such as the following drew parallels between the struggles of > the two communities: > > God is great> It is hard> To bring unbelievers> Into the brotherhood of believers> But we need the die-hards> To spur us on.> Verses from the first chapter of the Qurn (the fatiha) were commonly > recited at RDA meetings and for workers during highly politicized > strikes. 81 Islamic practices?including Qurnic readings, the daily > regimen of prayers, and religious festivals and holy days?provided the > common symbols, rituals, and collective practices that, in Hobsbawm's > words, gave "a palpable reality to otherwise imaginary community." 82 > 36 > > If some of these practices were initiated by RDA leaders, others > clearly emanated from the grassroots. In a manuscript based largely on > interviews with female militants, Idiatou Camara notes that at baptisms > and other gatherings, RDA women recited verses from the fatiha to > "curse the traitors of the fatherland" and to bind loyalists to the > party. Whenever a member of a rival party was converted to the RDA, he > or she ate the "bread of fatiha," over which those assembled had > intoned Qurnic verses "to express their firm conviction and faith in > the RDA." 83 37 > > The close association of Sékou Touré's work with Allah's Will was > another politico-religious practice of local origin. Grassroots > activists readily linked the names of Sékou Touré, Allah, and Mohammed. > Recalling the day she was recruited into the RDA, Aissatou N'Diaye > reminisced that she and Mafory Bangoura had been called to a meeting > with Sékou Touré: > > Upon our arrival, he asked us to help him mobilize women ... He also > said that he had nothing material, not money or gold, to offer in > return. If the women would help him, they would do it for the love of > Allah, his Envoy, and their cause ... He asked us to do this work in > the name of Allah and his Prophet, Mohammed.84> Similarly, police reports describe groups of RDA members crisscrossing > the capital city, "singing praises to the Blessed of Allah, Sékou > Touré."85 In one song, women beseeched Allah to bless Sékou Touré, > "savior of the orphans and the Muslims."86 In another, party members > proclaimed that both God and his Prophet favored the elephant?the > emblem of both Sékou Touré and the RDA: > > > > God wants the elephant> Muhammad the Prophet wants the elephant> You went to Paris> You returned from Paris> Your face shows> That even the people of Paris> Want the elephant.87> At the funeral of M'Balia Camara, the RDA's first woman martyr, party > officials were followed by a procession of men, women, and children > singing RDA songs and chanting verses of the Qurn mingled with the name > of Sékou Touré. 88 38 > > If Islam was a binding force, so too were pre-Islamic religious > practices. Grassroots activists, rather than party leaders, first > associated indigenous religious beliefs and symbols with the > nationalist cause. 89 Numerous accounts link the RDA to Bassikolo, a > spirit represented by a sacred tree in the Conakry neighborhood of > Tumbo. Revered as the guardian of women and children, Bassikolo was > believed to grant them wishes, to protect them from illness, and to > ensure women's fertility. Just as some women read from the Qurn to > convene RDA and trade union meetings, others began by asking for > Bassikolo's assistance. They also sought his help during electoral > campaigns, beseeching him to aid in the party's triumph. 90 After > sweeping electoral victories in 1956, for instance, the RDA > neighborhood committee in Tumbo organized a dance in Bassikolo's honor. > Before a crowd of some two thousand people, speakers thanked the spirit > for helping the party realize its electoral goals and requested his > continued assistance in the future. 91 39 > > According to Fatou Khimely, women who invoked Bassikolo > customarily assumed male garb and social roles. To call forth the > spirit for the new political endeavor, women also "wore trousers and > cursed the enemies of the RDA."92 Women's assumption of male clothing > and gender roles in times of crisis was rooted in precolonial cultural > practices. In the forest region, for instance, women historically took > collective action against men who abused their wives and failed to mend > their ways. Dressed as male warriors and armed with sharp knives they > called "penis cutters," women surrounded the offending parties' homes. > While the women pounded on the buildings with clubs, no man dared to > show his face.93 This precolonial gender practice, and its extension to > the political realm under colonial rule, bears a striking resemblance > to that of Igbo women in southeastern Nigeria, where, Judith Van Allen > notes, "making war" or "sitting on a man" was women's "ultimate > sanction."94 40 > > If many Guineans shared a precolonial history and religious and > cultural practices, all were bound by the common history of French > colonialism. Even before Guinea's colonization, Renan recognized that > "suffering in common unifies more than joy does." He noted that shared > grievances are the critical constituent of national memories because > "they impose duties, and require a common effort." In fact, he claimed, > a nation is "a large-scale solidarity, constituted by the feeling of > the sacrifices that one has made in the past and of those that one is > prepared to make in the future."95 41 > > Despite Renan's prescient words, French officials failed to > recognize the uniunifying power of shared suffering under colonialism. > To the government, "Guinea" was merely an "administrative unit," with > no natural claim to nation-statehood.96 From the perspective of > ethnicity, linguistics, and geography, its borders were arbitrary. > Historically, the logic of its boundaries corresponded with nothing > more than the extent of imperial conquest and "effective occupation," > legitimized by the General Act of the 1884?1885 Berlin Conference.97 > However, Hobsbawm writes, "The unity imposed by conquest and > administration might ... produce a people that saw itself as a > `nation.'"98 Such was the case in Guinea. 42 > > The people of Guinea experienced French colonialism as Guineans?> not as Malinkes, Susus, or Peuls. They were subjected to taxation, > forced labor, military conscription, and the arbitrary "justice" of the > indigénat as Africans, not as members of particular ethnic groups.99 As > Guineans, they participated in the same political and economic systems, > within geographic boundaries created by the colonial power. Despite > their variety in language and ethnicity, they shared symbols, memories, > and historical experiences that permitted them to communicate more > effectively with other Guineans than with outsiders. Increasingly > during the 1950s, this shared experience was reflected in their > collective consciousness of themselves as Guineans.100 43 > > The Guinean RDA was by no means the only postwar African movement > to promote national over regional and ethnic identity and to root > national identity in shared suffering under colonialism. However, it > was among the first. Kevin Dunn's observations concerning the > nationalist ideology of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba are apt for > the Guinean RDA, which led Guinea to independence nearly two years > before the Congo achieved its own. Influenced by the anticolonial, > nationalist, and Pan-African ideas that prevailed at the All-African > People's Conference convened by Sékou Touré, Kwame Nkrumah, and others > in December 1958, Lumumba emphasized national over ethnic and regional > identity, accepting "the colonially constructed space of the Congo" as > the basis of an independent nation-state.101 While his rivals > "privileged smaller, fragmented spaces bound by ethnicity, language, or > regional memories, Lumumba tied Congolese identity to the larger > colonially demarcated space of the Congo." In an effort to create a > unified identity for people of diverse ethnic origins from all parts of > the territory, Lumumba "ground[ed] Congolese identity in the collective > social memories of suffering at the hands of Belgian colonizers."102 In > Guinea, the RDA had promoted a similar inclusive nationalist > philosophy. 44 > > If the shared history of the Guinean people was rooted in the > precolonial past and strengthened by the common experience of > colonialism, the identity of Guinea as a nation was still developing in > the late colonial period. France, like other colonial powers, > maintained control through policies of divide and rule. Existent social > cleavages were reinforced, and new ones created, through colonial > policies. Layers of African intermediaries?government-appointed chiefs, > colonial soldiers, and police?became the focal point of popular anger, > diverting attention from the Europeans at the reins of power. It was > the task of Guinea's nationalist leaders to shift the focus and > demonstrate common cause.103 45 > > Although Guinea had the makings of a nation-state, the postwar > anticolonial movement was not automatically a nationalist one. Rather, > it was consciously molded as such. Nation-building was a long, arduous > process that began during the anticolonial struggle and continued after > political independence. According to John Breuilly, "the nation" was > not only "a body of citizens claiming independence on the basis of > universal human rights," it was also "a project, a unity to be > fashioned out of the fight for independence and in the new era of > freedom."104 It was the conscious struggle to bridge ethnic, class, and > gender divisions?and the ultimate success of that endeavor?that made > the nationalist movement in Guinea so extraordinary. 46 > > Who were the actors in this remarkable movement of masses and elites? > Guinea's nationalist leaders, who articulated the broad-based > progressive nationalism of revolutionary Europe, were the product of > French assimilation policies, as well as a colonial educational system > that was limited in both scope and substance. Graduates of programs > designed to create an elite cadre?rather than a mass?of "Black > Frenchmen," they belonged to a select, almost exclusively male, > fraternity. While most went no further than primary school in their > home regions, those who progressed to more advanced schooling in the > capital found peers of diverse ethnic origins from across the > territory. As new friendships were cemented through the new vernacular > (French), ethnic barriers were weakened and cast aside. These new > Western-educated elites increasingly thought of themselves as Guinean, > rather than Malinke, Susu, or Peul.105 47 > > In postwar Guinea, formal education remained the luxury of a few, > and that education was rudimentary. There was no schooling beyond lower > primary (sixth grade) in most parts of the country, and no education > beyond upper primary (ninth grade) anywhere in the territory. The > largest administrative districts were equipped with lower primary > schools (écoles primaires élémentaires), which provided a maximum of > six years of schooling to those who could afford it. Possession of a > lower primary school certificate, certificat d'études primaires > élémentaires (CEP), was sufficient for employment in the cadre > subalterne, the lowest rung of the French civil service. Another three > years of education were provided by the upper primary school (école > primaire supérieure [EPS]) in the capital city. EPS graduates joined > the middle-level government cadres (cadres moyens or cadres locaux). At > the end of World War II, Guinea possessed only one upper primary school > and one vocational school, both in Conakry. In 1945, with a population > of just over two million, Guinea had only 7,900 pupils in upper and > lower primary and vocational schools. Of the total, 7,417 were in the > lower primary grades, and only 606 of these were girls.106 Thus, at the > end of World War II, the number of Guinean évolués was minuscule?and > virtually all of them were male. 48 > > Students seeking education beyond the primary grades had to leave > Guinea. Each year, a small number of EPS graduates won the right to > attend one of the highly selective federal schools, which drew the best > and the brightest from all the territories of French West Africa. The > most prestigious of the federal schools was the école Normale William > Ponty, located near Dakar, Senegal.107 Ponty students were trained to > be teachers, assistant doctors, and assistant pharmacists, and for > other civil service posts in the cadre commun secondaire. Although they > constituted the elite among African civil servants, Ponty graduates > could never rise to the top of the civil service system. Their diplomas > had no equivalence outside French West Africa. Thus, they could not > accede to the cadre supérieur, reserved for those with French diplomas.> 108 With its relatively undeveloped educational system, postwar Guinea > boasted very few Ponty graduates. In 1948, for instance, only eleven > new Guinean students were admitted to the school.109 49 > > Given the paucity of private investment, discrimination by > European-owned enterprises, and obligations stemming from state-> subsidized studies, most Western-educated Africans joined the colonial > bureaucracy. They served in a wide range of civil service positions, as > teachers, clerks, and accountants; postal, telegraph, and telephone > workers; and assistant doctors, pharmacists, and veterinarians.110 > Because they were invested in the colonial system?and risked their > livelihoods if they contested state policies?many civil servants, > especially those in the highest ranks, joined officially sanctioned > regional and ethnic parties and supported government directives. Most > Ponty graduates fell within this category.111 Hence, Morgenthau notes, > Guinean RDA leaders frequently "accused the Ponty graduates of > betraying the masses, and called them the valets of the administration."> 112 50 > > The relatively privileged position of federal school graduates in > the colonial system was one reason that they were generally hostile to > the RDA. Class snobbery was another. Many considered the Guinean RDA > leader, Sékou Touré, to be beneath them. 113 Sékou Touré had attended > Qurnic school, lower primary school, and the vocational school in > Conakry. When he entered the civil service, he became a postal clerk. > Continuing his studies by correspondence, he ultimately qualified to > work as an accountant in the Treasury. 114 Despite his comparatively > advanced level of education, Sékou Touré was derided by his more > credentialed rivals as an "illiterate," or at most a man with "a sixth-> grade education." Even among his supporters, there was sometimes a note > of disdain. A Peul aristocrat, Ponty graduate, and teacher, Bocar Biro > Barry was unusual in his support for the RDA. 115 When he discussed > Sékou Touré, however, his assessment was tinged with elitism: "Sékou > was practically illiterate. He only had the CEP ... [His rivals] said, > `Sékou, who is that? That's an illiterate. He doesn't know anything.' > Because, effectively, he was self-taught. You know, as a diploma, he > only had the certificat d'études [primaires élémentaires]." 116 51 > > Although some Ponty graduates joined the RDA, most Guinean RDA > leaders were the product of lower state schools. Equipped with only > primary school certificates, they staffed the lower echelons of the > colonial bureaucracy. Accorded a modicum of privilege that > distinguished them from the nonliterate masses, but not enough to > render them equal to Frenchmen, this class of intended collaborators > grew increasingly frustrated by their unequal treatment and inability > to rise above the lowest ranks of government service.117 Commenting on > the uncertain loyalty of these lower-level elites, the governor of > Guinea observed, "The most dubious elements are found among the semi-> évolués, who sometimes have a fault-finding, duplicitous attitude, and > who are on the lookout for any occasion to criticize and make demands."> 118 It was these angry intellectuals who first agitated for a greater > voice in political affairs and then spearheaded opposition to colonial > rule. 52 > > If elites are the first to imagine a nation, they cannot make their > vision a reality without the support of a mass movement. The > nationalist program, by its very nature, requires an alliance of > divergent interests?an "imagined community" of comrades that masks any > exploitation and inequality within it.119 In Guinea, the RDA's success > was due to its ability to form a formidable ethnic, class, and gender > alliance. It was this broad-based alliance that made the Guinean RDA a > mass movement and permitted it to trump rivals that were constrained by > their narrow ethnic, regional, and elite male focus. 53 > > While the nationalist movement in Guinea was led by intellectual > elites with their own vision of "the nation," it was first and foremost > a movement of the masses?of peasants, workers, veterans, and women. The > RDA did not introduce these actors to politics. Rather, during World > War II and its aftermath, these groups instigated a panoply of > anticolonial actions. Here I take issue with Breuilly, who contends > that nationalist leaders generally "forge links with large parts of the > population hitherto uninvolved in politics," and Tom Nairn, who asserts > that the emergence of modern nationalism "was tied to the political > baptism of the lower classes."120 I argue instead that the Guinean RDA > targeted social groups already engaged in struggle against the colonial > state: military veterans and urban workers fighting for equality with > their metropolitan counterparts; male and female peasants burdened by > the war effort and the demands of government-appointed chiefs; and > urban women unable to provide for their families during the postwar > economic crisis. Embracing the particular causes of these social > groups, the RDA harnessed their energies and enticed them into the > broader nationalist movement.121 54 > > Key to the RDA's success was its focus on groups that had already > mobilized themselves. It forged an unlikely alliance through consistent > focus on areas of common interest determined by the groups involved: > forced labor in the rural areas; abuses by government-appointed chiefs; > racial discrimination in wages, benefits, and social services; and the > promotion of health, sanitation, and educational programs and > facilities. While other political parties concentrated on so-called > "traditional" elites?chiefs, notables, and their allies?the RDA > consciously focused on the majority of the population, polling their > grievances and channeling their discontent. 55 > > In the case of labor, active opposition to state demands began > during the war, when thousands of forced laborers resisted the > impositions of the war effort by deserting their workplaces.122 When > forced labor was officially abolished in April 1946, tens of thousands > of rural workers vacated their stations en masse. Official records > reveal an extraordinary picture of labor unrest throughout the > territory.123 This rural-based labor activity predated the trade union > organizing that swept the urban areas in the late 1940s and early > 1950s. While they focused on the urban rather than the rural areas, > trade unions attempted to harness the popular discontent of workers > that emanated from the grassroots. The RDA, in turn, built a powerful > base in the urban working class. 56 > > Likewise, it was the rural populace, rather than RDA leaders, who > initiated popular resistance to the colonial chieftaincy. Serving as > local agents of the colonial administration, canton and village chiefs > forcibly recruited labor and military conscripts, requisitioned cash > crops, and exacted onerous taxes from the rural population. They > frequently abused their powers for personal ends, extorting labor, > cash, crops, and livestock for their own use. Rural women, who were > forced to perform much of the chiefs' unpaid labor and frequently were > subjected to sexual abuse, were among the most vociferous and active > opponents of the chieftaincy. So, too, were returning military > veterans. Forcibly conscripted from the rural areas, these men had > suffered devastating wartime experiences and postwar deprivations. > Inspired by anti-fascist and anti-Nazi rhetoric, angered by their > unequal treatment in comparison to their French counterparts, many > veterans were deeply resentful of colonial authorities?be they European > or African.124 57 > > For the most part, colonial chiefs staunchly opposed the RDA, > which seriously undermined their power base. With significant coercive > powers at the local level, they were the primary obstacle to RDA > expansion in the rural areas. Capitalizing on preexisting rural > sentiment, the RDA helped to articulate grievances against the chiefs > and coordinate the spontaneous actions of the population. Although it > was the RDA, within the framework of limited self-government, that > abolished the institution of the chieftaincy in 1957, it was a decade-> long popular revolt that made that action possible.125 Had the > institution survived, the referendum that brought national independence > in 1958 might well have had a different outcome.126 58 > > The first Guinean leaders to understand the importance of mass > politics and the necessity of building a popular base were not the > Ponty-educated intellectuals. Rather, they were trade union leaders, > whose lives were closely linked to those of the nonliterate masses. Few > of these men had advanced beyond lower primary or technical school. > Even fewer had had opportunities to study outside of Guinea. The most > prescient of these leaders was Sékou Touré. In 1945, Sékou Touré, then > a young postal clerk, helped to establish a trade union for African > postal, telegraph, and telephone workers.127 The following year, he > organized the Union des Syndicats Confédérés de Guinée, which brought > together all the Guinean affiliates of the French Communist Party?> linked CGT. The CGT unions united workers of various ethnicities and > civil service rankings, as well as previously neglected "auxiliaries," > who had no permanent civil service status.128 In 1948, Sékou Touré > toured the territory, making contact with skilled and unskilled workers > and Western-educated civil servants. He instigated the establishment of > CGT branches in most of the major administrative districts.129 By 1952, > the Guinean CGT boasted some three thousand members in twenty > affiliated unions.130 59 > > While the CGT unions included Western-educated civil servants, > they were dominated numerically by nonliterate workers. It was the deep > involvement of Sékou Touré with the latter that distinguished him from > many of his peers. According to Bocar Biro Barry, Sékou Touré "created > his trade union from the illiterates." He organized domestic servants, > dock workers, laundrymen, and orderlies. Gradually, he added low-level > government clerks. The CGT unions, in turn, served as the base for his > political organizing. According to Barry, > > It was in this way that he created his trade union. It was in this way > that he created his party. He found the elements of his party through > the trade union?because the party was created from domestic servants, > dock workers, and orderlies ... He first put himself at the level of > the lowliest people in order to try to climb ... He was much smarter > than [his opponents]. He began with nothing. He said, "We are the poor. > I am with the poor. The teachers, they are bourgeois. The doctors, they > are bourgeois. They are the big intellectuals. They speak a language > that you don't understand. I come, we speak in Susu. We speak in > Maninka. We understand one another." This is how, little by little, he > won the little man of the streets. He launched his party from his trade > union.131> The Guinean RDA, like the CGT, was built from a mass base. Despite > periodic internal struggles stemming from conflicting interests brought > together in a single alliance, the party remained united throughout the > preindependence period. 60 > > Although the masses were rallied to the nationalist cause by > intellectual elites, the process was not unidirectional. Masses as well > as elites conceptualized and mobilized the nation. Nairn is correct in > his claim that common people were "the ultimate recipients of the new > message"?and responsible for much of its content.132 Their languages > had to be spoken, their cultural forms respected, and their grievances > addressed, or intellectual appeals would fall on deaf ears. Unlike > rival parties, the Guinean RDA attained its strength by addressing > preexisting popular grievances and promoting solutions for them. Thus, > it was local-level actors who determined many of the basic claims on > the nationalist agenda. 61 > > Just as the concerns of the African masses influenced the demands > of the African elites, nationalist thought was transformed on African > soil. Africans did not simply import European concepts and adopt them > as their own.133 Like its European counterpart, African nationalism was > rooted in indigenous "cultural systems" that predated the nationalist > struggle.134 On both continents, indigenous "cultural and political > traditions," as well as "memories, myths, symbols and vernacular forms > of expression," were harnessed to the nationalist agenda.135 Obviously, > those in Africa differed significantly from those in Europe. 62 > > African models diverged from European in other ways as well. > Hobsbawm, Anderson, and Ernest Gellner stress the importance of mass > education and "print capitalism" to the success of European nationalist > movements.136 During the "Age of Revolution" (1789?1848), Europe > experienced a dramatic growth in popular education. Books and > newspapers increasingly were written in vernacular languages, rather > than foreign tongues understood by only a tiny minority.137 According > to Anderson, the widespread availability of printed material?and > people's ability to read it?"made it possible for rapidly growing > numbers of people to think about themselves, and to relate themselves > to others, in profoundly new ways." These phenomena generated large > literate populations who could imagine new kinds of communities, along > with the technical means to mobilize them.138 63 > > Critiquing Anderson, Anne McClintock contends that "mass national > commodity spectacle," rather than print capitalism, has been modern > nationalism's driving force. Nationalism is "invented and performed" > through spectacle, she argues. It "takes shape through the visible, > ritual organization of fetish objects" such as flags, uniforms, > anthems, and mass rallies?in other words, "the myriad forms of popular > culture." It is this mass spectacle that creates "a sense of popular, > collective unity."139 64 > > McClintock's analysis is particularly apt for the colonized > world, where print capitalism and mass education were significantly > less important than in Europe. In the case of Guinea, party tracts and > newspapers, written exclusively in French, were not widely circulated > outside the urban areas. Yet the population was predominantly rural-> based and non-French-speaking. Moreover, the percentage of the > population that could actually read was minute?and overwhelmingly male. > Grievances, demands, and calls for popular mobilization, while > articulated in the party press, had to be carried to the masses through > other, largely aural and visual, means.140 65 > > Mass spectacle was a critical feature of Guinean nationalism. > Party elites and nonliterate militants constructed a vision of national > unity through enormous rallies and intensive campaigning in the rural > areas. Party slogans, symbols, uniforms, and, most importantly, song > were the critical means by which the population communicated the > anticolonial message and created an imagined political community. The > party color (white) was sported at large public rallies, which often > numbered two thousand or more. Speakers appealed to popular sentiment > through culturally rooted images, anecdotes, and parables.141 In order > to promote unity between people of diverse socioeconomic and ethnic > backgrounds, the Guinean RDA adopted a uniform.142 It selected as its > party symbol Syli, the powerful elephant "who does not forget," the > mighty king of the beasts.143 The elephant was featured in countless > songs, and on RDA women's bracelets, necklaces, and wrappers. Posters > sporting hand-drawn elephants were plastered on walls and waved in > demononstrations. Ballot designs were also aimed toward the nonliterate > population, the white RDA ballot emblazoned with an elephant.144 66 > > While Gellner, Anderson, and Anthony D. Smith imply that it was > the party elites who devised popular means to appeal to the masses,145 > evidence from Guinea indicates that the nonliterate population created > as well as received the nationalist message. Local activists inspired > the party color and produced the uniforms and songs. Former RDA > militants Léon Maka and Mira Baldé contend that the party color and > uniform were primarily popular in origin. Maka attributed them to the > RDA women's leader, Mafory Bangoura?a cloth-dyer and seamstress without > formal schooling?and to rank-and-file members of the RDA women's > committees; the role of Sékou Touré's wife was only tertiary.146 > Uniforms brought people together and strengthened their sense of > collective identity, Maka claimed. How ever, because RDA members were > generally from the lower classes, they could not afford expensive > material. "There was no money. Cloth cost a lot," Maka recalled. "RDA > women?market women?wore inexpensive cloth, while our adversaries wore > large boubous made from luxury cloth, like silk." Since RDA women could > not afford silk?or large quantities of any material?Maka observed, > > Andrée Touré and Mafory Bangoura made blouses that went just to the > waist. These were called temuray. They were made out of percale, an > inexpensive cloth. The wrapper was dyed in the fashion of the country. > The [women] cloth-dyers did this with indigo. They gathered the indigo > leaves in the bush and beat them with pestles. It was the women who > decided that the blouse should be white. When the men saw that the > women had adopted white, they, too, automatically began to wear it. > Eventually, it became the national color of the RDA. Everyone wore it > on public occasions. This was not done by decree from above. No, it was > the people who decided to do it.> Mira Baldé concluded, "And white was easy, because it was common. > Percale was white. It did not cost much. So it was easy for the masses > to obtain."147 67 > > Grassroots actors brought ideas, practices, and methods to the > nationalist movement that dramatically reshaped the whole. As the above > example illustrates, African women were central to this process. While > women's formative influence on African nationalist movements has been > the subject of some scholarly inquiry, these studies have had little > impact on nationalist theory more generally.148 As McClintock notes, > "theories of nationalism have tended to ignore gender as a category > constitutive of nationalism itself."149 And yet nationalisms emerge > "through social contests that are ... always gendered."150 Proposing a > feminist theory of nationalism, McClintock advocates "bringing into > historical visibility women's active cultural and political > participation in national formations."151 68 > > Making women's participation visible requires a shift in focus > from the literate elite to the nonliterate base, where women were the > preeminent creators and performers of mass national spectacle. As > Geiger demonstrates for the nationalist movement in colonial Tanzania, > "women's work" included the creation and performance of nationalism > through song and dance.152 Similarly, in Guinea, RDA women proudly wore > their party uniforms as they sang and danced the nationalist message. > Oral transmission of information was crucial to the success of the RDA, > which targeted the large mass of Guineans who had little or no formal > education. As traditional storytellers and singers, women were deemed > the best sloganeers. They were the practiced creators of ideas, images, > and phrases that appealed to the nonelite population.153 69 > > Most significantly, it was nonliterate women who composed the > songs that spread the nationalist message throughout the territory.154 > "The women composed these songs," claimed Fatou Kéïta, a Susu > seamstress. "They did it spontaneously. There was not one author. When > somebody found a song, they sang it. The next person heard it and sang > it, and so on. It spread like that."155 Néné Diallo, a Peul cloth-dyer, > agreed: "There were countless songs Day after day, songs were made up. > Everyone sang songs. We repeated the songs of others as they did ours."> 156 Fatou Diarra, a former militant of Malinke and Senegalese descent, > recalled precisely how women mobilized through song: > > Women went to the markets every day If there was a new song, all the > women learned it and sang it in the taxis, teaching one another. When > there was an event, the leader went to the market with the song to > teach it to the other women.> After the 1954 elections, women sang at the markets that the > colonial authorities had rigged the elections. "You women who go up, > You women who go down. The other party has stolen our votes, Stolen the > votes of Syli." All the women sang this song, so by the time they heard > the election results, they already knew that they had been cheated, > that the election had been rigged.157 70 > > The June 1954 National Assembly elections, which pitted Sékou > Touré against Barry Diawadou, were deemed fraudulent by independent > outside observers. The official pronouncement of Barry Diawadou as the > winner fueled public anger against the state.158 The message of > betrayal?and steadfast adherence to the people's choice?was spread > through song. Aissatou N'Diaye, an RDA activist of Tukulor-Senegalese > ancestry, remembered the intense local reaction to the official > results: > > When it was said that Sékou had lost, there was a popular revolt ... > Sékou was not in Conakry; he was campaigning in the interior ... We > prepared songs for his return. We gathered at Fanta Camara's to prepare > the songs. We asked the crowd to make up a song that would be sung ... > He came at dusk or late afternoon ... By then the song was known to > everyone in town, even to vagabonds. The song went like this:> > > > The saboteurs said they were the leaders> Whereas Mr. Touré said he is not the leader> But he gets to lead the country> Look, people, at the RDA> Look, people, at the RDA> RDA women, unite> Laugh with me, Touré> Laugh with me, Touré.159> Another song composed for the occasion, which was punctuated by mooing > cows, derided Barry Diawadou's alleged victory as a fraud effected by > inflated voter rolls. Vote rigging was deemed particularly notorious in > the Futa Jallon, the candidate's home and bastion of the Peul > aristocracy. Swaying and mooing like a cow, N'Diaye demonstrated how > the people had sung: > > > > Look, people, at Barry Diawadou> Look, people, at Barry Diawadou> The cows have voted for you in the Futa> "Mbu, mbe," we don't want you.160> When Sékou Touré arrived in Conakry, a crowd of some 30,000 supporters > received him, crying, "Syli! Syli!" and singing: > > > > The elephant has entered the city> Yes, the elephant has arrived> The city is full> Because the elephant has arrived.161> Women sang and danced all night in front of Sékou Touré's home, > informing the world that despite the official results, Sékou Touré?the > mighty elephant?was the people's choice.162 71 > > With song as their chosen medium, RDA women praised the party, > ridiculed the opposition, and commented on recent political events. The > songs' idiom and content provide a window into the popular culture that > sustained the nationalist movement. Sexually charged lyrics were > common. Some were meant to shame political laggards, others to mock > political rivals. Publicly disgracing hesitant or retrograde men, women > humiliated them through songs that questioned their virility.163 Police > reports describe RDA women, in groups of a hundred or more, parading > through the capital city, carrying banners, singing political songs, > and casting aspersions on Sékou Touré's chief rival, Barry Diawadou. > Diawadou frequently was derided as being cowardly and uncircumcised?a > mere boy rather than a real man.164 In one such song, he was accused of > having fled from the capital city, an RDA stronghold, to the relative > safety of the interior: > > > > Barry Diawadou left Conakry> To go to Upper Guinea> Because he found> That Syli is always in the lead> Barry was slapped like a dog> The penis of Barry> Is circumcised this time!165> Although their political content was new, songs that ridiculed the > virility of their male targets were in keeping with long-standing > practices among Susu women. Historically, Susu women had used sexually > explicit songs and dances to publicly humiliate and sanction men who > had abused their wives. Party leaders?generally Western-educated male > elites?were embarrassed by these practices and tried, unsuccessfully, > to discourage them.166 The popular origin of this critical means of > communication is thus beyond dispute. 72 > > The waves of anticolonial protest that swept the African and Asian > continents in the postwar decade were an amalgamation of elite and > popular politics. Manifold acts of anticolonial resistance contributed > to the development of full-fledged movements for national self-> determination and independence. Many of these movements belonged to the > progressive political tradition of "inclusive nationalism," in which > ethnically and religiously diverse peoples were mobilized into a single > nationalist movement. The product of both European and indigenous > ideals, the nationalist movements were led by educated elites, but they > were firmly grounded in the urban and rural populace. Only those > movements that generated mass support were successful in bringing about > national independence. Their leaders focused on population groups > already engaged in anticolonial resistance and mobilized around > grievances that these groups had previously identified. The momentum > galvanized by the grassroots was thus directed toward the nationalist > cause. While the lower classes responded to elite appeals, they also > brought their own ideas and objectives to the anticolonial struggle. > They employed strategies and methods that spoke to their concerns and > images that resonated with their cultures. Thus, nationalist > mobilization was neither top down nor bottom up. It was, unequivocally, > both. 73 > > Guinea's postwar nationalist movement, led by the Rassemblement > Démocratique Africain, was emblematic of these trends. The Guinean RDA > strove to build a nation from a population that was ethnically and > linguistically heterogeneous. Party leaders focused on that which was > common to the largest number of people: a shared precolonial history, > religion, and experience of French colonialism. From this common past, > a future as one nation was imagined, and the struggle to realize it was > launched. Although they were mobilized by elites into the nationalist > movement, "ordinary Guineans" were not passive recipients of ideas > instilled from above. They brought their own ideas and experiences to > the table, informing the ways in which nationalism was understood. The > methods of mobilization, like the contents of the message, were > influenced by the grassroots. Lower classes as well as elites adapted > indigenous cultural forms for new purposes and made imported ones their > own. 74 > > Why revisit the case of Guinea nearly five decades after its > independence? Because Guinea's postwar nationalist movement provides > the raw material that allows us to better understand the interaction > between leaders and the rank and file in imagining and creating a > nation. It helps us to construct a new theoretical and methodological > framework for nationalist mobilization throughout the colonized world. > In this regard, Guinea's significance far outstrips its size. 75 > > > > I would like to thank Mark Peyrot for urging me to write this article, > and the Research and Sabbatical Committee at Loyola College for > providing financial support. I am grateful to Timothy Scarnecchia, my > colleagues in the Loyola College History Department, and anonymous AHR > reviewers for their extremely helpful comments. Unless otherwise > indicated, all translations from French language sources are mine, and > I conducted all interviews, in collaboration with Siba N. Grovogui. I > transcribed and translated the interviews that were conducted in > French; those conducted in Susu and Malinke were transcribed and > translated by Siba N. Grovogui.> > Elizabeth Schmidt is Professor of History at Loyola College in > Maryland. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-> Madison in 1987. Her books include Mobilizing the Masses: Gender, > Ethnicity, and Class in the Nationalist Movement in Guinea, 1939?1958 > (2005); Peasants, Traders, and Wives: Shona Women in the History of > Zimbabwe, 1870?1939 (1992); and Decoding Corporate Camouflage: U.S. > Business Support for Apartheid (1980). Her 1992 book was a finalist for > the African Studies Association's Herskovits Award and was named an > Outstanding Academic Book for 1994 by Choice. Schmidt is currently > working on a book entitled Cold War and Decolonization in Guinea, 1946?> 1958, which examines the decade-long struggle between grassroots > activists and nationalist leaders for control of the political agenda, > in the context of Cold War repression. Her research on Guinea has been > supported by the American Council of Learned Societies, the Social > Science Research Council, and the Fulbright program.> > > Notes> 1 Patrick Manning, Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa, 1880?1985 (New York, > 1988), 148?149; Ruth Schachter Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-> Speaking West Africa (Oxford, 1964), 400.> > 2 Centre des Archives d'Outre-Mer, Archives Nationales (de France) > (CAOM), Carton 2181, dos. 6, Gouverneur, Guinée Française, Conakry, à > Ministre, F.O.M., Paris, "Discours Prononcé par le Président Sékou > Touré, le 14 Septembre 1958," September 15, 1958, #0191/CAB; Carton > 2181, dos. 6, Gouverneur, Guinée Française, Conakry, à Ministre, F.O.> M., Paris, "Motion du Parti Démocratique de la Guinée en Date du 14 > Septembre 1958," September 15, 1958, #0191/CAB; Carton 2181, dos. 6, > Gouverneur, Guinée Française, Conakry, à Ministre, F.O.M., Paris, > "Nouvelles Locales Reçues de l'A.F.P. en Date du 19 Septembre 1958," > September 19, 1958, #2276/CAB; "La Résolution," La Liberté, September > 23, 1958, 2; Georges Chaffard, Les Carnets Secrets de la > Décolonisation, 2 vols. (Paris, 1967), 2: 204, 206; Morgenthau, > Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, 219.> > 3 Interview with Bocar Biro Barry, Conakry, January 21, 1991. In his > September 14 address, Sékou Touré made reference to the proindependence > positions already taken by trade union, student, and youth > organizations. CAOM, Carton 2181, dos. 6, "Discours Prononcé par le > Président Sékou Touré, le 14 Septembre 1958." See also "Unanimement le > 28 Septembre La Guinée Votera NON," La Liberté, September 23, 1958, 1?> 2. Former university student leader Charles Diané also claims that > Sékou Touré opted for the "No" vote in the eleventh hour?pushed by the > student movement. Charles Diané, La F.E.A.N.F. et Les Grandes Heures du > Mouvement Syndical étudiant Noir (Paris, 1990), 128?129.> > 4 See, for instance, "Unanimement le 28 Septembre," 1?2; "Les Résultats > du Scrutin," La Liberté, October 4, 1958, 5.> > 5 Archives de Guinée (AG), AM-1339, Idiatou Camara, "La Contribution de > la Femme de Guinée à la Lutte de Libération Nationale (1945?1958)," > Mémoire de Fin d'études Supérieures, IPGAN, Conakry, 1979, 111.> > 6 Camara, "La Contribution de la Femme," 108; Chaffard, Les Carnets > Secrets, 2: 177, 193?194, 196; Lansiné Kaba, Le "Non" de la Guinée à De > Gaulle (Paris, 1989), 80?86; Pierre Messmer, Après Tant de Batailles: > Mémoires (Paris, 1992), 234; Charles de Gaulle, Memoirs of Hope: > Renewal and Endeavor, trans. Terence Kilmartin (New York, 1971), 55.> > 7 De Gaulle, Memoirs of Hope, 55.> > 8 Chaffard, Les Carnets Secrets, 2: 194.> > 9 See, for instance, Sylvia G. Haim, ed., Arab Nationalism: An > Anthology (Berkeley, Calif., 1962); Patrick Seale, The Struggle for > Syria: A Study of Post-War Arab Politics, 1945?1958 (New Haven, Conn., > 1965); Ray T. Smith, "The Role of India's `Liberals' in the Nationalist > Movement, 1925?1947," Asian Survey 8, no. 7 (July 1968): 607?624; David > G. Marr, Vietnamese Anticolonialism, 1885?1925 (Berkeley, Calif., > 1971).> > 10 Ayesha Jalal and Anil Seal, "Alternative to Partition: Muslim > Politics between the Wars," Modern Asian Studies 15, no. 3 (1981): 415?> 454; Farzana Shaikh, "Muslims and Political Representation in Colonial > India: The Making of Pakistan," Modern Asian Studies 20, no. 3 (1986): > 539?557; Youssef M. Choueiri, Arab History and the Nation-State: A > Study in Modern Arab Historiography, 1820?1980 (New York, 1989); > Youssef M. Choueiri, Arab Nationalism?A History: Nation and State in > the Arab World (Malden, Mass., 2000); David E. F. Henley, > "Ethnogeographic Integration and Exclusion in Anticolonial Nationalism: > Indonesia and Indochina," Comparative Studies in Society and History > 37, no. 2 (April 1995): 286?324; Bassam Tibi, Arab Nationalism: Between > Islam and the Nation-State, 3rd ed. (New York, 1997); Robert H. Taylor, > The Idea of Freedom in Asia and Africa (Stanford, Calif., 2002).> > 11 Rajat Ray, Urban Roots of Indian Nationalism: Pressure Groups and > Conflict of Interests in Calcutta City Politics, 1875?1939 (New Delhi, > 1979); Nasir Islam, "Islam and National Identity: The Case of Pakistan > and Bangladesh," International Journal of Middle East Studies 13, no. 1 > (February 1981): 55?72; Philip S. Khoury, Syria and the French Mandate: > The Politics of Arab Nationalism, 1920?1945 (Princeton, N.J., 1987); > Dilip M. Menon, Caste, Nationalism and Communism in South India: > Malabar, 1900?1948 (Cambridge, 1994); Sanjay Seth, "Rewriting Histories > of Nationalism: The Politics of `Moderate Nationalism' in India, 1870?> 1905," AHR 104, no. 1 (February 1999): 95?116; Hanna Batatu, Syria's > Peasantry, the Descendants of Its Lesser Rural Notables, and Their > Politics (Princeton, N.J., 1999); Taj-ul-Islam Hashmi, "Peasant > Nationalism and the Politics of Partition: The Class-Communal Symbiosis > in East Bengal, 1940?1947," in Ian Talbot and Gurharpal Singh, eds., > Region and Partition: Bengal, Punjab and the Partition of the > Subcontinent (New York, 1999), 6?41.> > 12 See Gail Minault, "Urdu Political Poetry during the Khilafat > Movement," Modern Asian Studies 8, no. 4 (October 1974): 459?471; Gail > Minault, "Islam and Mass Politics: The Indian Ulama and the Khilafat > Movement," in Donald E. Smith, ed., Religion and Political > Modernization (New Haven, Conn., 1974), 168?182; Gail Minault, The > Khilafat Movement: Religious Symbolism and Political Mobilization in > India (New York, 1982); Sandria B. Freitag, "The Roots of Muslim > Separatism in South Asia: Personal Practice and Public Structures in > Kanpur and Bombay," in Edmund Burke, III and Ira M. Lapidus, eds., > Islam, Politics, and Social Movements (Berkeley, Calif., 1988), 115?> 145.> > 13 Peter van der Veer, Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in > India (Berkeley, Calif., 1994); James L. Gelvin, Divided Loyalties: > Nationalism and Mass Politics in Syria at the Close of Empire > (Berkeley, Calif., 1998); Nels Johnson, Islam and the Politics of > Meaning in Palestinian Nationalism (Boston, 1982); Ted Swedenburg, "The > Role of the Palestinian Peasantry in the Great Revolt (1936?1939)," in > Burke and Lapidus, Islam, Politics, and Social Movements, 169?203.> > 14 Pamela Price, "Revolution and Rank in Tamil Nationalism," Journal of > Asian Studies 55, no. 2 (May 1996): 365.> For the use of indigenous cultural and religious symbols and > practices by resurgent Asante nationalists in independent Ghana, see > Jean M. Allman, "The Youngmen and the Porcupine: Class, Nationalism and > Asante's Struggle for Self-Determination, 1954?1957," Journal of > African History 31, no. 2 (1990): 263?264, 272, 274?277; Jean Marie > Allman, The Quills of the Porcupine: Asante Nationalism in an Emergent > Ghana (Madison, Wis., 1993), 6, 9?10, 16?17, 19, 28, 41?46, 49, 62, 65, > 97, 131, 140, 160, 183?184; Pashington Obeng, "Gendered Nationalism: > Forms of Masculinity in Modern Asante of Ghana," in Lisa A. Lindsay and > Stephan F. Miescher, eds., Men and Masculinities in Modern Africa > (Portsmouth, N.H., 2003), 203?206.> > > 15 Israel Gershoni, "Rethinking the Formation of Arab Nationalism in > the Middle East, 1920?1945," in James Jankowski and Israel Gershoni, > eds., Rethinking Nationalism in the Arab Middle East (New York, 1997), > 25.> > 16 See, for instance, James S. Coleman, "Nationalism in Tropical > Africa," American Political Science Review 48, no. 2 (June 1954): 404?> 426; James S. Coleman, Nigeria: Background to Nationalism (Berkeley, > Calif., 1958); Thomas Hodgkin, Nationalism in Colonial Africa (New > York, 1957); David Apter, Ghana in Transition (Princeton, N.J., 1963); > Robert I. Rotberg, The Rise of Nationalism in Central Africa: The > Making of Malawi and Zambia, 1873?1964 (Cambridge, Mass., 1965); Robert > I. Rotberg, "African Nationalism: Concept or Confusion?" Journal of > Modern African Studies 4, no. 1 (May 1966): 33?46; Carl G. Rosberg, > Jr., and John Nottingham, The Myth of "Mau Mau": Nationalism in Kenya > (Stanford, Calif., 1966); John Lonsdale, "The Emergence of African > Nations: A Historiographical Analysis," African Affairs 67, no. 266 > (1968): 11?28; J. M. Lonsdale, "Some Origins of Nationalism in East > Africa," Journal of African History 9, no. 1 (1968): 119?146.> > 17 See, for instance, Coleman, "Nationalism in Tropical Africa," 407?> 408; Lonsdale, "Some Origins of Nationalism in East Africa," 119?120, > 140?141, 146; Lonsdale, "Emergence of African Nations," 11, 25.> > 18 Coleman, for instance, maintained that "the student of political > nationalism is concerned mainly with the attitudes, activities, and > status of the nationalist-minded Western-educated elite." Coleman, > "Nationalism in Tropical Africa," 425.> > 19 Lonsdale, "Some Origins of Nationalism in East Africa," 146.> > 20 Lonsdale, "Emergence of African Nations," 25; see also Lonsdale, > "Some Origins of Nationalism in East Africa," 119.> > 21 Lonsdale, "Some Origins of Nationalism in East Africa," 140?141, > 146.> > 22 Susan Geiger, "Tanganyikan Nationalism as `Women's Work': Life > Histories, Collective Biography and Changing Historiography," Journal > of African History 37, no. 3 (1996): 468?469.> > 23 Susan Geiger, TANU Women: Gender and Culture in the Making of > Tanganyikan Nationalism, 1955?1965 (Portsmouth, N.H., 1997), 14, 66.> > 24 See Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, > 219?254; Jean Suret-Canale, La République de Guinée (Paris, 1970), 141?> 146, 159?172; Claude Rivière, Guinea: The Mobilization of a People, > trans. Virginia Thompson and Richard Adloff (Ithaca, N.Y., 1977), 51?> 82; Victor D. Du Bois, "Guinea," in James S. Coleman and Carl G. > Rosberg, Jr., eds., Political Parties and National Integration in > Tropical Africa (Berkeley, Calif., 1970), 186?215; L. Gray Cowan, > "Guinea," in Gwendolen M. Carter, ed., African One-Party States > (Ithaca, N.Y., 1962), 149?236. Other well-known works perpetuate the > top-down approach of earlier scholars. Yves Person, for example, > conflates the Guinean RDA with the person of Sékou Touré, erroneously > assuming that the party leader had "autocratic power" in the > preindependence period and that he imposed his will on the party. > Sylvain Soriba Camara and 'Ladipo Adamolekun present grand narratives > of events, once again focusing on governing and party structures, > policies, and leaders. Yves Person, "French West Africa and > Decolonization," in Prosser Gifford and William Roger Louis, eds., The > Transfer of Power in Africa: Decolonization, 1940?1960 (New Haven, > Conn., 1982), 141?172; Sylvain Soriba Camara, La Guinée Sans La France > (Paris, 1976); 'Ladipo Adamolekun, "The Road to Independence in French > Tropical Africa," in Timothy K. Welliver, ed., African Nationalism and > Independence (New York, 1993), 66?79; 'Ladipo Adamolekun, Sékou Touré's > Guinea: An Experiment in Nation Building (London, 1976).> > 25 Sidiki Kobélé Kéïta, Le P.D.G.: Artisan de l'Indépendance Nationale > en Guinée (1947?1958), 2 vols. (Conakry, 1978). Unfortunately, Kéïta's > two-volume work has not been circulated widely outside of Guinea.> > 26 See, for instance, Margarita Dobert, "Civic and Political > Participation of Women in French-Speaking West Africa" (Ph.D. > dissertation, George Washington University, 1970); Claude Rivière, "La > Promotion de la Femme Guinéenne," Cahiers d'études Africaines 8, no. 31 > (1968): 406?427. Dobert does not focus exclusively on Guinea or the > postwar nationalist period. Rivière focuses primarily on Guinea's > postindependence period.> > 27 Camara, "Contribution de la Femme."> > 28 Studies of Muslim-Hindu violence and the partition of India are > notable exceptions to this generalization.> > 29 See, for instance, Walker Connor, Ethnonationalism: The Quest for > Understanding (Princeton, N.J., 1993); Michael Ignatieff, Blood and > Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism (New York, 1994); Michael > Ignatieff, The Warrior's Honor: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience > (New York, 1998).> > 30 E. J. Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Program, Myth, > Reality, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1992), 102, 121; E. J. Hobsbawm, The Age > of Empire, 1875?1914 (New York, 1987), 143, 146; E. J. Hobsbawm, The > Age of Capital, 1848?1875 (New York, 1975), 84, 89. See also Partha > Chatterjee, Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: A Derivative > Discourse? (Minneapolis, 1993), 9.> > 31 Henley refers to this phenomenon as "integrative," as opposed to > "inclusive," nationalism, which he contrasts with "exclusive" > nationalism. See Henley, "Ethnogeographic Integration," 286, 289?290.> > 32 These themes are expanded upon in my recent book. See Elizabeth > Schmidt, Mobilizing the Masses: Gender, Ethnicity, and Class in the > Nationalist Movement in Guinea, 1939?1958 (Portsmouth, N.H., 2005).> > 33 Geiger, TANU Women, 14.> > 34 See E. J. Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution: Europe, 1789?1848 > (London, 1962).> > 35 For an in-depth discussion of this subject, see Schmidt, Mobilizing > the Masses.> > 36 For further elaboration, see Elizabeth Schmidt, "`Emancipate Your > Husbands!' Women and Nationalism in Guinea, 1953?1958," in Jean Allman, > Susan Geiger, and Nakanyike Musisi, eds., Women in African Colonial > Histories (Bloomington, Ind., 2002), 282?304; Schmidt, Mobilizing the > Masses, chap. 5.> > 37 First delivered as a lecture in 1882, this essay has been published > in English as Ernest Renan, "What Is a Nation?" in Geoff Eley and > Ronald Grigor Suny, eds., Becoming National: A Reader (New York, 1996), > 42?55.> > 38 Miroslav Hroch, "From National Movement to the Fully-Formed Nation: > The Nation-Building Process in Europe," in Eley and Suny, Becoming > National, 61; Miroslav Hroch, Social Preconditions of National Revival > in Europe: A Comparative Analysis of the Social Composition of > Patriotic Groups among the Smaller European Nations, trans. Ben Fowkes > (Cambridge, 1985), 4?5. See also Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism > since 1780, 87.> > 39 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin > and Spread of Nationalism, 2nd ed. (New York, 1991), 6?7. See also > Anthony D. Smith, State and Nation in the Third World: The Western > State and African Nationalism (New York, 1983), 6.> > 40 Guinea is a classic example of Breuilly's "idea of the nation as a > project, a unity to be fashioned out of the fight for independence." > John Breuilly, Nationalism and the State, 2nd ed. (Chicago, 1994), 7.> > 41 Interview with Néné Diallo, Conakry, April 11, 1991. When discussing > party policies or initiatives, informants frequently attributed them > personally to Sékou Touré, secretary-general of the Guinean branch of > the RDA.> > 42 Hobsbawm, Age of Revolution, 145; Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism > since 1780, 18?19; Thomas Hodgkin, African Political Parties: An > Introductory Guide (Gloucester, Mass., 1971), 163?164.> > 43 Partha Chatterjee, The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and > Postcolonial Histories (Princeton, N.J., 1993), 10, 26, 74.> > 44 Jean Suret-Canale, French Colonialism in Tropical Africa, 1900?1945, > trans. Till Gottheiner (New York, 1971), 383, 391. See Sékou Touré's > critique of African education under French colonialism: Sékou Touré, > "Le Leader Politique Considéré Comme le Représentant d'une Culture," > Présence Africaine, nos. 24?25 (February?May 1959): 104?115; Sékou > Touré, "L'élite Africaine Dans Le Combat Politique," Discours > Enregistré du Président Sékou Touré Adressé aux Membres du Congrès des > Hommes de Culture Noire, March 26, 1959, in Sékou Touré, L'Action > Politique du Parti Démocratique de Guinée (Paris, 1959), 161?176.> > 45 Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, trans. Joan Pinkham (New > York, 2000), 31?78; Sékou Touré, "L'élite Africaine Dans Le Combat > Politique," 161?176; Eileen Julien, "African Literature," in Phyllis M. > Martin and Patrick O'Meara, eds., Africa, 3rd ed. (Bloomington, Ind., > 1995), 297?298; Manning, Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa, 110, 179; > Smith, State and Nation in the Third World, 55; Hodgkin, African > Political Parties, 163.> > 46 Sékou Touré, "L'élite Africaine Dans le Combat Politique," 161?176; > Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, 11, 14, > 137?138, 144?146; Manning, Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa, 110, 179; > Hodgkin, Nationalism in Colonial Africa, 172, 174?176; Smith, State and > Nation in the Third World, 54?55.> > 47 Archives Nationales du Sénégal (ANS), 2G47/121, Guinée Française, > Affaires Politiques et Administratives, "Revues Trimestrielles des > événements, 3ème Trimestre 1947," December 5, 1947, #389 APA; Manning, > Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa, 3, 179.> > 48 While studying in France in 1952, Fodéba Kéïta established Les > Ballets Africains, which consciously borrowed dance forms and themes > from all the Guinean ethnic groups, blending them into a new "Guinean" > whole. Kéïta was also an accomplished playwright and poet in the > Négritude tradition. In 1960, Guinean scholar D. T. Niane committed to > writing the legendary oral epic "Sundiata," which celebrated the > founding of the thirteenth-century Mali empire. See Muriel Devey, La > Guinée (Paris, 1997), 290; Aly Gilbert Iffono, Lexique Historique de la > Guinée-Conakry (Paris, 1992), 98; Morgenthau, Political Parties in > French-Speaking West Africa, 14, 251; Manning, Francophone Sub-Saharan > Africa, 176; D. T. Niane, Soundjata, ou l'Epopée Mandingue (Paris, > 1960).> > 49 Gabriel d'Arboussier, "Une Dangereuse Mystification de la Théorie de > la Négritude," La Nouvelle Critique, no. 7 (June 1949): 34?47; Peter S. > Thompson, "Negritude and a New Africa: An Update," Research in African > Literatures 33, no. 4 (2002): 143, 146, 148; R. W. Johnson, "Sekou > Touré and the Guinean Revolution," African Affairs 69, no. 277 (October > 1970): 351. After independence, Sékou Touré developed his own theories > of African socialism and the African personality?and continued his > vehement critique of Négritude. See, for instance, Sékou Touré, "Le > Leader Politique Considéré Comme le Représentant d'une Culture," 104?> 115; Sékou Touré, "L'élite Africaine Dans Le Combat Politique," 161?> 176; Sékou Touré, "The Republic of Guinea," International Affairs 36, > no. 2 (April 1960): 169; Ahmed Sékou Touré, Revolution, Culture and > Panafricanism (Conakry, 1978), 11, 13, 71, 97, 175?177, 190?191, 196?> 204.> > 50 Suret-Canale, French Colonialism in Tropical Africa, 380?382, 387, > 391, 487; Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, > 14?15, 23, 85; Cowan, "Guinea," 153?154, 157?158. See also Anderson, > Imagined Communities, 115?116, 140.> > 51 "The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789)," in > John A. Maxwell and James J. Freidberg, eds., Human Rights in Western > Civilization: 1600 to the Present (Dubuque, Iowa, 1991), 26.> > 52 Suret-Canale, French Colonialism in Tropical Africa, 387, 391; > Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, 14; ANS, > 17G586, Guinée Française, Services de Police, Kankan, "Renseignements > A/S Conférence Publique du R.D.A. du 30 Oct. 1954," November 5, 1954, > #2894/1119, C/PS.2. See also Anderson, Imagined Communities, 118, 140?> 141; Smith, State and Nation in the Third World, 31; Hodgkin, > Nationalism in Colonial Africa, 170; Hugh Seton-Watson, Nations and > States: An Enquiry into the Origins of Nations and the Politics of > Nationalism (Boulder, Colo., 1977), 328?330, 436.> > 53 For an in-depth discussion of these issues, see Frederick Cooper, > Decolonization and African Society: The Labor Question in French and > British Africa (New York, 1996); Myron Echenberg, Colonial Conscripts: > The Tirailleurs Sénégalais in French West Africa, 1857?1960 > (Portsmouth, N.H., 1991); Nancy Ellen Lawler, Soldiers of Misfortune: > Ivoirien Tirailleurs of World War II (Athens, Ohio, 1992); Catherine > Coquery-Vidrovitch, "Nationalité et Citoyenneté en Afrique Occidentale > Français\[e\]: Originaires et Citoyens dans Le Sénégal Colonial," > Journal of African History 42, no. 2 (2001): 285?305; Schmidt, > Mobilizing the Masses, chaps. 2 and 3.> > 54 Hobsbawm, Age of Capital, 85.> > 55 Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780, 88.> > 56 Hobsbawm, Age of Capital, 84?86, 88?89; Hobsbawm, Age of Empire, > 144, 146?147; Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780, 19?20, 33, > 63, 87?88, 102. See also Anderson, Imagined Communities, 135.> > 57 ANS, 21G13, "état d'Esprit de la Population," December 1?15, 1950; > Kéïta, P.D.G., 1: 233.> > 58 Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, 14?15, > 85.> > 59 Ibid., 23, 25?26; Kéïta, P.D.G., 1: 169, 233; Cooper, Decolonization > and African Society, 159.> > 60 Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, 227.> > 61 AG, 2Z27, "Syndicat Professionnel des Agents et Sous-Agents > Indigènes du Service des Transmissions de la Guinée Française," > Conakry, March 18, 1945; Personal Archives of Joseph Montlouis: Letter > from Joseph Montlouis, Conakry, to Jean Suret-Canale, Conakry, April 5, > 1983; interviews with Mamadou Bela Doumbouya, Conakry, January 26, > 1991, and Joseph Montlouis, Conakry, March 3 and 6, 1991; Kéïta, P.D.> G., 1: 176, 180, 186; Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-Speaking > West Africa, 229; Johnson, "Sekou Touré and the Guinean Revolution," > 351?353.> > 62 ANS, 17G573, "Les Partis Politiques en Guinée, 1er Semestre 1951"; > 17G573, Gendarmerie, A.O.F., "En Guinée Française," September 12, 1951, > #174/4; 17G573, Guinée Française, Services de Police, Conakry, "Rapport > de Quinzaine du 1er au 15 Octobre 1951," #1847/1019, C/PS.2; 17G573, > Guinée Française, Services de Police, "Revue Trimestrielle, 3ème > Trimestre 1951," November 24, 1951; 17G573, Comité Directeur, P.D.G., > "Analyse de la Situation Politique en Afrique Noire et des Méthodes du > R.D.A. en Vue de Dégager un Programme d'Action," ca. January 14, 1952; > Kéïta, P.D.G., 1: 241?242; Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-> Speaking West Africa, 26, 98; Hodgkin, Nationalism in Colonial Africa, > 147.> > 63 See Schmidt, Mobilizing the Masses, chaps. 5, 6, and 7. For a more > general discussion of this phenomenon, see Mahmood Mamdani, Citizen and > Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism > (Princeton, N.J., 1996), 183?217.> > 64 Karl W. Deutsch, Nationalism and Social Communication: An Inquiry > into the Foundations of Nationality, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, Mass., 1966), > 97. See also Hroch, "From National Movement to the Fully-Formed > Nation," 61.> > 65 Walter Rodney, "Jihad and Social Revolution in Futa Djalon in the > Eighteenth Century," Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 4, > no. 2 (June 1968): 269?274. The Malinke (Mandinka/Mandinga/Mandingo) > are part of the greater Mande social formation. Their language is > called Maninka. The Fulbe are sometimes referred to as "Fulani," a > Hausa term, or "Fula," a Mande term. In Guinea, the Fulbe are divided > into Tukulor, originally from the Futa Toro (Senegal), and Peul, from > the Futa Jallon (Guinea). The term "Peul" is a French corruption of the > word "Pullo" (singular form of "Fulbe"), which is the term used by the > people to describe themselves. The language of the Fulbe is Fulfulde; > that of the Peul is Pulaar. The term "Jallonke," or "men of the > Jallon," refers to the people of a region, rather than an ethnic group. > The Jallonke trace their roots to several populations. The Susu, part > of the greater Mande group, settled in the Futa Jallon in the > thirteenth century. They displaced or absorbed most of the original > inhabitants, including the Limbas, Landumas, Bagas, and Bassaris. The > resulting population was referred to collectively as the Jallonke. See > Andrew F. Clark, From Frontier to Backwater: Economy and Society in the > Upper Senegal Valley (West Africa), 1850?1920 (Lanham, Md., 1999), 41, > 44?47; Jacques Richard-Molard, Afrique Occidentale Française (Paris, > 1952), 93; Rodney, "Jihad and Social Revolution," 270.> > 66 Rodney, "Jihad and Social Revolution," 269?284.> > 67 Umar Tall's mid-nineteenth-century empire extended eastward from > French military bases on the lower Senegal River to the ancient city of > Timbuktu on the Niger River. His capital, Dinguiraye, was in the Futa > Jallon. Some decades later, Samori Touré built an empire that included > Upper Guinea and the forest region and extended eastward to modern > Ghana. See Rodney, "Jihad and Social Revolution," 269?284; A. S. Kanya-> Forstner, "Mali-Tukulor," in Michael Crowder, ed., West African > Resistance: The Military Response to Colonial Occupation (New York, > 1971), 53?79; Yves Person, "Guinea-Samori," trans. Joan White, in > Crowder, West African Resistance, 111?143; Daniel R. Headrick, The > Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth > Century (New York, 1981), 119?120; Philip Curtin, Steven Feierman, > Leonard Thompson, and Jan Vansina, African History: From Earliest Times > to Independence, 2nd ed. (New York, 1995), 343?351.> > 68 Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780, 73. Duara makes > similar claims for premodern China, India, and Japan; see Prasenjit > Duara, "Historicizing National Identity, or Who Imagines What and > When," in Eley and Suny, Becoming National, 152.> > 69 Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, 234; > see also Lonsdale, "Emergence of African Nations," 28.> > 70 For a general discussion of this tendency, see Renan, "What Is a > Nation?" 52?53; Geoff Eley and Ronald Grigor Suny, "Introduction," in > Eley and Suny, Becoming National, 8; Duara, "Historicizing National > Identity," 164?165; Breuilly, Nationalism and the State, 161; Lonsdale, > "Some Origins of Nationalism in East Africa," 143. For alternative, > more critical readings of precolonial African political leaders, see > Jean Suret-Canale, "La Fin de la Chefferie en Guinée," Journal of > African History 7, no. 3 (1966): 459?493; Martin Klein, Slavery and > Colonial Rule in French West Africa (New York, 1998).> > 71 Person, "Guinea-Samori," 112; Headrick, Tools of Empire, 119?120; > interview with Bocar Biro Barry, Conakry, January 21, 1991. For more > critical views of Samori Touré, see the following papers, which were > presented on the panel "Samori Toure One Hundred Years On: Exploring > the Ambiguities," Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, > Philadelphia, Pa., November 13, 1999: David C. Conrad, "Victims, > Warriors, and Power Sources: Portrayals of Women in Guinean Narratives > of Samori Toure"; Saidou Mohamed N'Daou, "Almamy Samory Toure: Politics > of Memories in Post-Colonial Guinea (1958?1984)"; Emily Osborn, "Samori > Toure in Upper Guinea: Hero or Tyrant?"; Jeanne M. Toungara, > "Kabasarana and the Samorian Conquest of Northwestern Cote d'Ivoire."> > 72 Smith notes that ethnicity "is more about cultural perceptions than > physical demography." What is at issue is not actual descent, but "the > sense of ancestry and identity that people possess." Anthony D. Smith, > "The Origins of Nations," in Eley and Suny, Becoming National, 117, > 122. See also Hroch, "From National Movement to the Fully-Formed > Nation," 65; Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-Speaking West > Africa, 234?235.> > 73 Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, 234?> 235; Sidiki Kobélé Kéïta, Ahmed Sékou Touré: L'Homme et son Combat Anti-> Colonial (1922?1958) (Conakry, 1998), 22?24, 28?29; Hodgkin, African > Political Parties, 30; Hodgkin, Nationalism in Colonial Africa, 174; > Smith, "Origins of Nations," 121.> > 74 Quoted in Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-Speaking West > Africa, 235. The orthography of African names was inconsistent during > the colonial period. While "Samori" is now the preferred spelling, > "Samory" is an accepted variant.> > 75 Historic "resisters" at times collaborated with the colonial > administration, usually to forge alliances against rival African > rulers. This more complicated reality was rarely acknowledged by the > RDA. For a discussion of the ambiguous roles played by Bokar Biro Barry > and Alfa Yaya Diallo, see Suret-Canale, "Fin de la Chefferie en > Guinée," 465?467; Klein, Slavery and Colonial Rule, 147?148.> > 76 Interview with Bocar Biro Barry, Conakry, January 21, 1991; Siba N. > Grovogui, personal communication, April 26, 1999; Suret-Canale, "Fin de > la Chefferie en Guinée," 464?471; Klein, Slavery and Colonial Rule, 46, > 143, 147?148, 189; Iffono, Lexique Historique de la Guinée-Conakry, 19, > 119?120, 134?136, 171?172; Thomas E. O'Toole, Historical Dictionary of > Guinea (Republic of Guinea/Conakry), 2nd ed. (Metuchen, N.J., 1987), > 16, 30.> > 77 Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, 235; > O'Toole, Historical Dictionary of Guinea, 34.> > 78 Interviews in Conakry with Léon Maka, February 20, 1991, and Joseph > Montlouis, February 28, 1991; Siba N. Grovogui, personal communication, > 1991.> > 79 For similar trends elsewhere, see Minault, Khilafat Movement; Burke > and Lapidus, Islam, Politics, and Social Movements; Gelvin, Divided > Loyalties.> > 80La Liberté, December 28, 1954, quoted in Morgenthau, Political > Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, 235.> > 81 Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, 236?> 237. See also Camara, "La Contribution de la Femme," 61; ANS, 17G586, > Guinée Française, Services de Police, "Renseignements Objet: Réunion > Publique R.D.A. à Conakry et ses Suites," September 8, 1954, #2606/942, > C/PS.2; 17G586, Guinée Française, Services de Police, "Renseignements > Objet: Fêtes Musulmanes à Conakry," May 26, 1955, #1054/439, C/PS.2; > Hodgkin, African Political Parties, 136.> > 82 Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780, 71.> > 83 Camara, "La Contribution de la Femme," 61.> > 84 Interview with Aissatou N'Diaye, Conakry, April 8, 1991. See also > interview with Néné Diallo, Conakry, April 11, 1991.> > 85 ANS, 17G586, "Fêtes Musulmanes," May 26, 1955. See also Hodgkin, > Nationalism in Colonial Africa, 162?163.> > 86 ANS, 17G573, Guinée Française, Services de Police, "Renseignements > Objet: Incidents à Conakry," October 26, 1954, #2850/1094, C/PS.2.> > 87 Quoted in Hodgkin, African Political Parties, 138.> > 88 ANS, 17G586, Guinée Française, Services de Police, "Renseignements > Objet: Suite aux Incidents de Tondon," February 18, 1955, #389/160, > C/PS.2. M'Balia Camara, an officer of the RDA women's committee and > wife of the RDA president in Tondon (Dubréka circle), was killed by a > canton chief during a rampage against RDA supporters. The day she was > struck, February 9, 1955, was subsequently commemorated by the RDA and > set aside to honor women's role in the struggle for national > emancipation. "Incidents Graves à Tondon, Canton de Labaya, Cercle de > Dubréka," La Liberté, February 15, 1955, 1; "Les Grandioses Obsèques de > Camara M'Ballia," La Liberté, March 1, 1955, 1; Camara, "La > Contribution de la Femme," 132; interview with Aissatou N'Diaye, > Conakry, April 8, 1991.> > 89 For similar use of indigenous symbols by Asante nationalists in > colonial Ghana, see Allman, "Youngmen and the Porcupine," 263?264, 267, > 272, 274?277; Allman, Quills of the Porcupine, 6, 9?10, 16?17, 19, 28, > 41?46, 49, 62, 65, 97, 131, 140, 160, 183?184.> > 90 Camara, "La Contribution de la Femme," 59?60; ANS, 17G613, Guinée > Française, Services de Police, Conakry, "Renseignements A/S Situation > en Guinée, à la Veille du Dépot des Listes aux élections Cantonales du > 31 Mars Prochain," March 9, 1957, #555/247, C/PS.2; 17G613, Guinée > Française, Services de Police, Conakry, "Renseignements A/S Réunions > Diverses tenues à Conakry," May 29, 1957, #1223/480, C/PS.2.> > 91 ANS, 17G613, Guinée Française, Services de Police, Conakry, > "Renseignements A/S Fête R.D.A. Donnée en l'Honneur de Bassikolo dans > la Nuit du 26 au 27 Janvier 1957," n.d., #235/107, C/PS.2; 17G613, > "Situation en Guinée," March 9, 1957. See also 17G586, "Fêtes > Musulmanes," May 26, 1955.> > 92 Quoted in Camara, "La Contribution de la Femme," 60. See also ANS, > 17G613, "Situation en Guinée," March 9, 1957.> > 93 Siba N. Grovogui, personal communication, October 1991.> > 94 Judith Van Allen, "`Aba Riots' or Igbo `Women's War'? Ideology, > Stratification, and the Invisibility of Women," in Nancy J. Hafkin and > Edna G. Bay, eds., Women in Africa: Studies in Social and Economic > Change (Stanford, Calif., 1976), 60?62, 71?73. For a similar practice > among Ga women in colonial Ghana, see John Parker, Making the Town: Ga > State and Society in Early Colonial Accra (Portsmouth, N.H., 2000), 52, > 60?61.> > 95 Renan, "What Is a Nation?" 53.> > 96 See Anderson, Imagined Communities, 52?53, 113?114; Smith, State and > Nation in the Third World, Preface.> > 97 "General Act of the Conference of Berlin (1885)," in Bruce Fetter, > ed., Colonial Rule in Africa: Readings from Primary Sources (Madison, > Wis., 1979), 38.> > 98 Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780, 138. See also Smith, > State and Nation in the Third World, 27.> > 99 Selecting names and regions associated with particular ethnic > groups, RDA leader Moricandian Savané wrote, "The misery which kills > TOGBA of Macenta is the same as that of Samba of Upper Guinea, Soriba > of lower Guinea, or Diallo of the Fouta Djallon." Moricandian Savané, > La Liberté, August 18, 1954, quoted in Morgenthau, Political Parties in > French-Speaking West Africa, 233.> > 100 See Smith, "Origins of Nations," 107, 113, 116; Hobsbawm, Nations > and Nationalism since 1780, 20, 33, 63; Breuilly, Nationalism and the > State, 6.> > 101 Kevin C. Dunn, Imagining the Congo: The International Relations of > Identity (New York, 2003), 75?76.> > 102 Ibid., 76.> > 103 For a more general discussion of these issues, see Hobsbawm, > Nations and Nationalism since 1780, 136?137; Mamdani, Citizen and > Subject, 21?25, 33, 37?61.> > 104 Breuilly, Nationalism and the State, 7.> > 105 Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, 20. > See also Anderson, Imagined Communities, 121?122. Anderson makes the > crucial point that imperial languages become the new vernaculars of > colonized peoples. In Guinea, the common vernacular was French. It was > the sole language of education, beginning in primary school. For the > educated elite, speaking in French was second nature. Anderson, > Imagined Communities, 113, 133?134, 138; Suret-Canale, French > Colonialism in Tropical Africa, 341, 380?382, 487; Morgenthau, > Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, 11, 39; Kéïta, P.D.> G., 1: 73.> > 106 ANS, 2G43/109, Guinée Française, Chef du Service de l'Enseignement, > "Rapport Statistique Annuel sur l'Enseignement, Année Scolaire 1942?> 1943," Conakry, August 1943; 2G45/131, Guinée Française, Chef du > Service de l'Enseignement, "Rapport de Rentrée, Année Scolaire, 1944?> 1945," Conkary, January 13, 1945. See also AG, 5B47, Guinée Française, > Gouverneur, Conakry, à Ministre, F.O.M., Paris, October 25, 1947, > #711/APA; Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, > 10?13, 20, 219; Kéïta, Ahmed Sékou Touré: L'Homme et son Combat, 11, 30?> 31; Suret-Canale, République de Guinée, 147; Manning, Francophone Sub-> Saharan Africa, 100?101.> > 107 Suret-Canale, République de Guinée, 147; Morgenthau, Political > Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, 12?23; Kéïta, Ahmed Sékou > Touré: L'Homme et son Combat, 11, 30.> > 108 Suret-Canale, République de Guinée, 142, 147; Suret-Canale, French > Colonialism in Tropical Africa, 373?374, 377?378, 388; Morgenthau, > Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, 11?13, 15; Manning, > Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa, 80, 81, 84, 101.> > 109 Suret-Canale, République de Guinée, 147.> > 110 Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, 12?13"> >> > 111 Suret-Canale, République de Guinée, 142?143; Morgenthau, Political > Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, 20, 251; ANS, 17G573, "Rapport > Général d'Activité 1947?1950," presenté par Mamadou Madéïra Kéïta, > Secrétaire Général du P.D.G. au Premier Congrès Territorial du Parti > Démocratique de Guinée (Section Guinéenne du Rassemblement Démocratique > Africain), Conakry, October 15?18, 1950. For a more general discussion > of this phenomenon, see Breuilly, Nationalism and the State, 48. > Notable RDA adversaries among Ponty alumni in Guinea included several > members of the French parliament: National Assembly deputies Yacine > Diallo, Mamba Sano, and Barry Diawadou and Council of the Republic > senator Fodé Mamadou Touré. Another Ponty graduate was Framoï Bérété, > president of the anti-RDA ethnic association Union du Mandé, and a > member of the equally hostile Comité d'Entente Guinéenne. The > vehemently anti-RDA secretary-general of the Guinean teachers' union, > Koumandian Kéïta, was a graduate of école Normale de Katibougou, the > Ponty equivalent in the French Soudan. Morgenthau, Political Parties in > French-Speaking West Africa, 222, 224?225; R. W. Johnson, "The Parti > Démocratique de Guinée and the Mamou `Deviation,'" in Christopher Allen > and R. W. Johnson, eds., African Perspectives: Papers in the History, > Politics and Economics of Africa Presented to Thomas Hodgkin > (Cambridge, 1970), 368; interviews in Conakry with Bocar Biro Barry, > January 21, 1991; Léon Maka, February 20, 1991; and Fodé Mamdou Touré, > March 13, 1991.> > 112 Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, 20?> 21.> > 113école Normale de Katibougou graduate Koumandian Kéïta, an arch-rival > of the RDA and secretary-general of Guinea's powerful African teachers' > union, was a case in point. The deep antipathy that he and Sékou Touré > shared was both personal and political. ANS, 2G53/187, Guinée > Française, Secrétaire Général, "Revues Trimestrielles des événements, > 1953: 3ème Trimestre," September 12, 1953, #862/APA; 2G55/150, Guinée > Française, Gouverneur, "Rapport Politique Mensuel, Août 1955," > September 28, 1955, #487/APAS/CAB; 2G57/128, Guinée Française, Police > et Sûreté, "Synthèse Mensuelle de Renseignements Novembre 1957," > Conakry, November 25, 1957, #2593/C/PS.2; AG, 2D297, Guinée Française, > Secrétaire Général du Comité de Coordination des Syndicats de > l'Enseignement Primaire Public de l'A.O.F., Conakry, à Gouverneur, > Conakry, October 11, 1954, #1/CCE; interview with Bocar Biro Barry, > Conakry, January 21, 1991.> > 114 Suret-Canale, République de Guinée, 147; Kéïta, Ahmed Sékou Touré: > L'Homme et son Combat, 24, 29, 32, 36; Sidiki Kobélé Kéïta, Ahmed Sékou > Touré: L'Homme du 28 Septembre 1958, 2nd ed. (Conakry, 1977), 29, 31; > B. Ameillon, La Guinée: Bilan d'une Indépendance?(Paris, 1964), 49; AG, > 1E41, Guinée Française, Services de Police, "Fiche de Renseignements > Biographiques Relative à M. Sékou Touré," January 2, 1956.> > 115 Bocar Biro Barry is a grandson of Almamy Bokar Biro Barry. However, > he spells his first name differently.> > 116 Interview with Bocar Biro Barry, Conakry, January 21, 1991; Kéïta, > Ahmed Sékou Touré: L'Homme et son Combat, 10?11, 30; Suret-Canale, > République de Guinée, 142. Morgenthau contends that strains between the > more and less educated Guinean elites were comparable to those that > existed in colonial Ghana. Basil Davidson writes that those who > mobilized for the Convention People's Party, which ultimately became > the ruling party of independent Ghana, were derisively referred to by > more educated opponents as "Standard VII Boys" or, in reference to > homeless youths who organized for the party by night and slept on > porches, "verandah boys, hooligans, flotsam and jetsam, town rabble." > Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, 20?21; > Basil Davidson, Black Star: A View of the Life and Times of Kwame > Nkrumah, 2nd ed. (Boulder, Colo., 1989), 68, 70. See also Apter, Ghana > in Transition, 167, 207?208; Hodgkin, African Political Parties, 30?31.> > 117 Suret-Canale, République de Guinée, 142?143; Morgenthau, Political > Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, 12, 20, 251. See also Breuilly, > Nationalism and the State, 48?49; Hobsbawm, Age of Empire, 151; > Coleman, "Nationalism in Tropical Africa," 412.> > 118 AG, 5B49, Guinée Française, Secrétaire Général chargé de > l'Expédition des Affaires Courantes, pour le Gouverneur, Conakry, à > Haut Commissaire, Dakar, "Revue des événements du Quatrième Trimestre > 1947," February 17, 1948, #35/APA.> > 119 Anderson, Imagined Communities, 7. See also Hroch, "From National > Movement to the Fully-Formed Nation," 67.> > 120 Breuilly, Nationalism and the State, 19?20; Tom Nairn, The Break-up > of Britain: Crisis and Neo-Nationalism (London, 1977), 41.> > 121 For further elaboration, see Schmidt, Mobilizing the Masses.> > 122 ANS, 2G43/25, Guinée Française, "Rapport de Tournée Effectuée du 27 > Janvier au 9 Février par M. Chopin, Administrateur des Colonies, > Inspecteur du Travail, dans les Cercles de Conakry-Kindia-Forécariah," > Conakry, April 2, 1943; 2G43/25, Guinée Française, Gouverneur, "Rapport > sur le Travail et la Main d'Oeuvre de la Guinée Française Pendant > l'Année 1943," Conakry, July 24, 1944, #994/IT; 2G46/50, Guinée > Française, Inspecteur des Colonies (Pruvost), Mission en Guinée, > "Rapport sur la Main d'Oeuvre en Guinée," Conakry, July 13, 1946, > #116/C; 2G46/50, Guinée Française, Inspecteur du Travail, "Rapport > Annuel du Travail, 1946," Conakry, February 15, 1947, #66/IT.GV.> > 123 ANS, 2G46/50, "Rapport sur la Main d'Oeuvre," July 13, 1946; > 2G46/50, "Rapport Annuel du Travail, 1946." See also Virginia Thompson > and Richard Adloff, French West Africa (New York, 1969), 492.> > 124 See Schmidt, Mobilizing the Masses; ANS, 2G41/21, Guinée Française, > "Rapport Politique Annuel, 1941"; 2G42/22, Guinée Française, "Rapport > Politique Annuel, 1942"; 2G46/50, "Rapport sur la Main d'Oeuvre," July > 13, 1946; 2G47/121, "Revues Trimestrielles des événements, 3ème > Trimestre 1947"; AG, 1E42, Guinée Française, "Renseignements," Cercle > de Kankan, January 26, 1945, #66/C/APAN/31/1/46; 1E37, Guinée > Française, Cercle de Gaoual, Subdivision Centrale, "Rapport Politique > Annuel, Année 1947"; Suret-Canale, "Fin de la Chefferie en Guinée," > 462, 464, 467, 470, 479?480; Suret-Canale, République de Guinée, 95?98, > 137?139; Suret-Canale, French Colonialism in Tropical Africa, 80, 322?> 325, 327, 341?342; Kéïta, P.D.G., 1: 87?88, 99?102, 331; Klein, Slavery > and Colonial Rule, 212?213; Babacar Fall, Le Travail Forcé en Afrique-> Occidentale Française (1900?1945) (Paris, 1993), 279.> > 125 For further discussion of rivalry between "traditional" and > "modern" elites in African nationalist movements, see Seton-Watson, > Nations and States, 328?329, 341, 437.> > 126 Suret-Canale, "Fin de la Chefferie en Guinée," 459?460, 492; Kéïta, > P.D.G., 2: 147; interview with Mamadou Bela Doumbouya, Conakry, January > 26, 1991.> > 127 AG, 2Z27, "Syndicat Professionnel des Agents et Sous-Agents > Indigènes du Service des Transmissions de la Guinée Française," > Conakry, March 18, 1945; interviews with Joseph Montlouis (assistant > secretary-general, postal, telegraph, and telephone workers' union), > Conakry, March 3 and 6, 1991; Kéïta, Ahmed Sékou Touré: L'Homme du 28 > Septembre, 41.> > 128 Kéïta, P.D.G., 1: 180.> > 129 ANS, 17G573, Guinée Française, Services de Police, "Renseignements > A/S Activité de Certains Africains R.D.A.," February 24, 1948, #229/76 > C; AG, 1E38, Guinée Française, Cercle de Kankan, "Rapport Politique > Annuel, Année 1948"; 1E38, Guinée Française, Cercle de N'Zérékoré, > "Rapport Politique Annuel, Année 1948." See also AG, 5B49, Guinée > Française, Inspecteur des Affaires Administratives, pour le Gouverneur, > Conakry, à Haut Commissaire, Dakar, September 11, 1948, #596/APA.> > 130 ANS, 17G529, Guinée Française, "Liste des Organisations > Professionnelles," 1952; 17G271, Gouverneur de Guinée Française, > Conakry, à Haut Commissaire, Dakar, "A/S Activité Syndicale," February > 25, 1952, #85/APA; Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-Speaking > West Africa, 414.> > 131 Interview with Bocar Biro Barry, Conakry, January 21, 1991.> > 132 Tom Nairn, "Scotland and Europe," in Eley and Suny, Becoming > National, 84?85; see also Nairn, Break-up of Britain, 100; Anthony D. > Smith, Nations and Nationalism in a Global Era (Cambridge, 1995), 40.> > 133 See Chatterjee's critique of Anderson in this regard. Chatterjee, > Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World, 19?22; Chatterjee, Nation > and Its Fragments, 4?5. See also Anderson, Imagined Communities, 67, > 113, 116, 135, 140?141.> > 134 Anderson, Imagined Communities, 12. See also Smith, "Origins of > Nations," 111, 124.> > 135 Smith, Nations and Nationalism in a Global Era, 40, 47. See also > Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (Ithaca, N.Y., 1983), 49.> > 136 Hobsbawm, Age of Revolution, 135?136; Gellner, Nations and > Nationalism, 63, 89; Anderson, Imagined Communities, 36?40.> > 137 Hobsbawm, Age of Revolution, 133, 135?136; Hobsbawm, Nations and > Nationalism since 1780, 59.> > 138 Anderson, Imagined Communities, 24?25, 36?37, 40.> > 139 Anne McClintock, "`No Longer in a Future Heaven': Women and > Nationalism in South Africa," in Eley and Suny, Becoming National, 260, > 273?274. See also Breuilly, Nationalism and the State, 64, 67?68.> > 140 See Anderson, Imagined Communities, 23. For a discussion of these > issues in Africa more generally, see Hodgkin, African Political > Parties, 134?139.> > 141 Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, 238?> 239, 243?244; interview with Léon Maka and Mira Baldé (Mme. Maka), > Conakry, February 20, 1991; ANS, 17G586, Guinée Française, Services de > Police, Kankan, "Renseignements A/S Arrivé Kankan, Sékou Touré et > Conférence Publique du 9 Novembre 1954," November 13, 1954, #2936/1142, > C/PS.2; 17G586, Guinée Française, Services de Police, Kindia, > "Renseignements A/S Passage à Kindia du DéputéDiallo Sayfoulaye et > Compte-Rendu de Mandat de ce Parlementaire," July 17, 1956, #1396/503, > C/PS.2; 17G586, Guinée Française, Services de Police, Mamou, > "Renseignements A/S Visite Parlementaire à Mamou," July 23, 1956, > #1444/512, C/PS.2; 17G586, Guinée Française, Services de Police, > Conakry, "Renseignements A/S Réunion Publique d'Informations tenue le > Jeudi 30 Août 1956, par le DéputéDiallo Saï foulaye, à Conakry, Salle > de Cinéma `VOX,'" August 31, 1956, #1761/619, C/PS.2; 17G586, Guinée > Française, Services de Police, Conakry, "Renseignements A/S Conférence > Publique d'Information, tenue le 16 Septembre 1956 par le P.D.G.-R.D.A. > au Cinéma `VOX' à Conakry," September 17, 1956, #1907/658, C/PS.2. See > also Hodgkin, Nationalism in Colonial Africa, 150, 159; Hodgkin, > African Political Parties, 134?139; Thompson and Adloff, French West > Africa, 60.> > 142 Interviews in Conakry with Léon Maka and Mira Baldé, February 20, > 1991; Fatou Kéïta, April 7, 1991; and Aissatou N'Diaye, April 8, 1991. > See also Barbara A. Moss, "Clothed in Righteousness and Respect: The > Use of Uniforms within Zimbabwean Women's Ruwadzano in the Methodist > Church," paper presented to the Annual Meeting of the African Studies > Association, Atlanta, Ga., November 3, 1989.> > 143 Morgenthau, Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, 238; > Hodgkin, African Political Parties, 36, 38; Messmer, Après Tant de > Batailles, 234.> > 144 ANS, 17G586, Guinée Française, Services de Police, "Renseignements > Réunion Privée des Femmes R.D.A. à Conakry," October 7, 1954, > #2765/1033, C/PS.2; 17G586, Guinée Française, Services de Police, Labé, > "Renseignements Objet: Situation Politique à Labé dans la Première > Quinzaine de Novembre 1954," November 23, 1954, #2999/1180, C/PS.2; > Camara, "La Contribution de la Femme," 77; Chaffard, Les Carnets > Secrets, 2: 177; Ruth Schachter-Morgenthau, Le Multipartisme en Afrique > de l'Ouest Francophone Jusqu'aux Indépendances: La Période Nationaliste > (Paris, 1998), photograph 29, following 230; Kéïta, Ahmed Sékou Touré: > L'Homme et son Combat, photograph "Carte de Voeux 1955 de Sékou Touré," > following 136.> > 145 See Gellner, Nations and Nationalism, 49; Smith, Nations and > Nationalism in a Global Era, 40, 47; Smith, "Origins of Nations," 120; > Anderson, Imagined Communities, 140.> > 146 Interview with Léon Maka and Mira Baldé, Conakry, February 20, > 1991. For Mafory Bangoura's background, see "Les Femmes s'Organisent," > La Liberté, August 18, 1954, 4; Kéïta, P.D.G., 1: 340, 345; Camara, "La > Contribution de la Femme," 43?44; interviews in Conakry with Bocar Biro > Barry, January 29, 1991; Léon Maka, February 20, 1991; Aissatou > N'Diaye, April 8, 1991.> > 147 Interview with Léon Maka and Mira Baldé, Conakry, February 20, > 1991. See also interview with Aissatou N'Diaye, Conakry, April 8, 1991.> > 148 See Geiger, "Tanganyikan Nationalism as `Women's Work'"; Geiger, > TANU Women; LaRay Denzer, "Constance A. Cummings-John of Sierra Leone: > Her Early Political Career," Tarikh 7, no. 1 (1981): 20?32; LaRay > Denzer, "Women in Freetown Politics, 1914?61: A Preliminary Study," > Africa 57, no. 4 (1987): 439?456; Cheryl Johnson, "Grassroots > Organizing: Women in Anti-Colonial Activity in Southwestern Nigeria," > African Studies Review 25, no. 2 (September 1982): 137?157; Cheryl > Johnson, "Madam Alimotu Pelewura and the Lagos Market Women," Tarikh 7, > no. 1 (1981): 1?10; Nina Emma Mba, Nigerian Women Mobilized: Women's > Political Activity in Southern Nigeria, 1900?1965 (Berkeley, Calif., > 1982); Cora Ann Presley, Kikuyu Women, the Mau Mau Rebellion, and > Social Change in Kenya (Boulder, Colo., 1992); Timothy Scarnecchia, > "Poor Women and Nationalist Politics: Alliances and Fissures in the > Formation of a Nationalist Political Movement in Salisbury Rhodesia, > 1950?6," Journal of African History 37, no. 2 (1996): 283?310; Cherryl > Walker, Women and Resistance in South Africa (London, 1982). Many > studies emphasize women's contributions to male-dominated nationalist > movements?rather than their fundamentally formative roles. In the case > of Guinea, Margarita Dobert's 1970 doctoral dissertation skims the > surface of women's anticolonial activities. Far more insightful and > analytical is Idiatou Camara's unpublished undergraduate thesis, "La > Contribution de la Femme de Guinée à la Lutte de Libération Nationale > (1945?1958)." See Dobert, "Civic and Political Participation of Women"; > Camara, "Contribution de la Femme."> > 149 Quoted in Eley and Suny, Becoming National, 259.> > 150 McClintock, "`No Longer in a Future Heaven,'" 260.> > 151 Ibid., 261.> > 152 Geiger, "Tanganyikan Nationalism as `Women's Work,'" 467, 469, 471?> 472; Geiger, TANU Women, 162. For further discussion of women's > involvement in the "ideological reproduction of the collectivity" and > of women as "transmitters of its culture," see Nira Yuval-Davis and > Floya Anthias, "Introduction," in Nira Yuval-Davis and Floya Anthias, > eds., Woman-Nation-State (London, 1989), 7, 9?10.> > 153 Camara, "La Contribution de la Femme," 65; Mamadou Tounkara, > "Autour d'une Musique," La Liberté, November 9, 1954, 3; interview with > Fatou Diarra, Conakry, March 17, 1991.> > 154 See Camara, "La Contribution de la Femme," 80; Schmidt, Mobilizing > the Masses, chap. 5; Schmidt, "`Emancipate Your Husbands!'"; interviews > in Conakry with Léon Maka, February 20, 1991; Fatou Diarra, March 17, > 1991; Néné Diallo, April 11, 1991; Fatou Kéïta, May 24, 1991.> > 155 Interviews with Fatou Kéïta, Conakry, April 7 and May 24, 1991. See > also interview with Léon Maka, Conakry, February 20, 1991.> > 156 Interview with Néné Diallo, Conakry, April 11, 1991.> > 157 Interview with Fatou Diarra, Conakry, March 17, 1991. See also > Camara, "La Contribution de la Femme," 80.> > 158 Centre de Recherche et de Documentation Africaine (CRDA), Claude > Gerard, "Incidents en Guinée Française, 1954?1955," Afrique > Informations, no. 34 (March 15?April 1, 1955): 5?7; Morgenthau, > Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, 103, 106, 240.> > 159 Interview with Aissatou N'Diaye, Conakry, April 8, 1991.> > 160 Ibid. See also interviews with Fatou Kéïta, Conakry, April 7 and > May 24, 1991.> > 161 CRDA, Gerard, "Incidents en Guinée Française, 1954?1955," 9; > Camara, "La Contribution de la Femme," 78. See also interview with > Fatou Kéïta, Conakry, May 24, 1991.> > 162 Camara, "La Contribution de la Femme," 79.> > 163 Interviews in Conakry with Léon Maka, February 20, 1991; Léon Maka > and Mira Baldé, February 25, 1991; Fatou Kéïta, April 7, 1991; ANS, > 17G586, Guinée Française, Services de Police, "Renseignements," > September 8, 1954. For similar use of song elsewhere in Africa, see > Shirley Ardener, "Sexual Insult and Female Militancy," in Shirley > Ardener, ed., Perceiving Women (London, 1975), 29?30, 36?37; Caroline > Ifeka-Moller, "Female Militancy and Colonial Revolt: The Women's War of > 1929, Eastern Nigeria," in Ardener, Perceiving Women, 132?133; Van > Allen, "`Aba Riots' or Igbo `Women's War'?" 60?61; Mba, Nigerian Women > Mobilized, 150; Geiger, "Tanganyikan Nationalism as `Women's Work,'" > 473. Asante and Ga women in colonial Ghana also challenged men they > deemed cowardly?and thus effeminate?in the face of British colonialism; > see Obeng, "Gendered Nationalism," 193, 202?204; Parker, Making the > Town, 52, 71. The feminization of colonized males, and women's ridicule > of them, is discussed in Chatterjee, Nation and Its Fragments, 69?71.> > 164 ANS, 17G586, "Réunion Publique R.D.A. à Conakry," September 8, > 1954; 17G586, Guinée Française, Services de Police, "Renseignements A/S > R.D.A. Conakry," April 19, 1955, #811/332, C/PS.2; 17G586, Guinée > Française, Services de Police, "Renseignements Objet: RDA à Conakry," > April 27, 1955, #867/353, C/PS.2; 17G586, Guinée Française, Services de > Police, "Renseignements Objet: Incidents en Guinée," June 3, 1955, > #1095/463, C/PS.2; 17G586, Guinée Française, Services de Police, > "Renseignements Objet: R.D.A. à Conakry," June 6, 1955, #1106/469, C/PS.> 2. See also 17G573, Guinée Française, Services de Police, > "Renseignements A/S Attroupement R.D.A. devant le Commissariat de > Police de Mamou, le 15 Mai 1956," May 19, 1956, #929/324, C/PS.2; AG, > 1E41, Guinée Française, Services de Police, "Renseignements A/S > Conférence Publique tenue le Lundi 14 Janvier 1957 à Conakry, Salle du > Cinéma `VOX,' par le P.D.G.-R.D.A.," January 15, 1957, #89/50/C/PS.2.> > 165 ANS, 17G586, Guinée Française, Services de Police, "Renseignements > Objet: R.D.A. Conakry," June 14, 1955, #1158/490, C/PS.2. The Susu song > was transcribed and translated into French by the police. The English > translation is mine.> > 166 Siba N. Grovogui, personal communication, 1991.> > ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤> To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface> at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html> > To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l> To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:> [log in to unmask]> ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
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