Cold War and Decolonization in Guinea, 1946-1958

Illustrations

ix Illustrations The nature of the photographs in this collection requires an explanation. Although the book focuses on grassroots mobilization in the Guinean nationalist movement, few of the photographs are of local activists. Rather, most are of African political leaders, who were almost exclusively male elites, or of French men and women engaged in activities that had ramifications in Guinea. A number of factors coalesced to produce this ironic situation. In the 1950s, few photographs were taken of local activists in Guinea. Of those that were created, few survived. The French burned the government archives when they left Guinea in 1958, and the Guinean military demolished the party archives after the coup in 1984. Moisture, insects, rodents, and mold contributed to the damage as well. Documents and photographs that were not lost or destroyed often migrated into private collections. Photographs of party leaders, in contrast, were safely stored in French government and foreign newspaper archives outside of Guinea. Finally, photographs once housed in the privately run Centre de Recherche et de Documentation Africaine (CRDA) in Paris, which served as the RDA’s unofficial archive, are no longer publicly accessible. The CRDA closed in the 1990s, and its document and photograph collection was shipped to the Ivory Coast, where it remains in storage. Maps 0.1 French Guinea xv 0.2 Africa, ca. 1947 xvi Photographs 1.1 General Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French, addressing the Brazzaville Conference, January 1944 10 1.2 General Charles de Gaulle walks through the streets of Bayeux after his triumphant return to France, June 18, 1944 12 1.3 Exuberant crowd welcoming General de Gaulle to a liberated Paris, August 26, 1944 13 1.4 Sellers of the PCF newspaper L’Humanité advocating a “Yes” vote in the constitutional referendum, Aubervilliers, France, May 5, 1946 20 1.5 French citizens vote in the constitutional referendum of May 5, 1946, Paris, France 20 1.6 Sellers of the PCF newspaper L’Humanité publicizing the second constitutional draft, Aubervilliers, France, September 29, 1946 24 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. x Illustrations 2.1 Félix Houphouët-Boigny addressing members of the Syndicat Agricole Africain, the core of the future RDA, in Treichville, Ivory Coast, 1945 47 2.2 François Mitterrand, minister of Overseas France, at the inauguration of the port of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, February 8, 1951 50 2.3 Maurice Thorez, secretary-general of the PCF, addressing French miners, December 5, 1947 58 4.1 Sékou Touré (center) and Saïfoulaye Diallo (right), Conakry, October 2, 1958 99 4.2 Abdoulaye Diallo, secretary-general of the French Soudanese CGT unions in the 1950s, was of Guinean origin 111 5.1 Minister Félix Houphouët-Boigny, after his appointment to de Gaulle’s cabinet, arriving at Hôtel Matignon, Paris, France, June 1, 1958 139 5.2 Prime Minister de Gaulle promoting the constitution in a suburb of Brazzaville, French Congo, August 23, 1958 147 5.3 Uniformed RDA women in Guinea with handmade poster featuring the party symbol 148 5.4 Prime Minister de Gaulle greeted by a crowd on his arrival in Conakry, August 25, 1958 150 6.1 Advocating the “No” vote in the September 1958 referendum campaign, Dakar, Senegal 159 6.2 Advocating the “Yes” vote in the September 1958 referendum campaign, Dakar, Senegal 160 6.3 La Liberté promotes the “No” vote, September 1958 referendum campaign in Guinea 164 6.4 Local musicians perform during the September 1958 referendum campaign 165 6.5 Woman voting in the referendum, Dakar, Senegal, September 28, 1958 169 6.6 Sékou Touré, president of newly independent Guinea, October 6, 1958 173 6.7 Russians inspect the Patrice Lumumba printing plant in Conakry, built with Communist bloc aid, ca. 1962 175 6.8 Four African leaders arrive at Casablanca airport for a summit of independent African states, January 1961; left to right: Modibo Kéïta (Mali), Sékou Touré (Guinea), King Mohammed V (Morocco), Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana) 177 Conclusion Sékou Touré dwarfed by his own portrait, January 1, 1958 185 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and...