Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964.
Initially few people in Guinea shared the interterritorial RDA's disapproval for 'opportunism' 1 of the regional associations uniting 'chiefs' and their educated allies. Most Guinean Ponty graduates sought to benefit immediately from the introduction of elections in Guinea, and so kept out of the RDA. They held the top civil service posts, and had the most to lose from official opposition to the RDA. This had been clear since the Bamako congress, and became clearer during the official repression between 1949 and 1951. The PDG in Guinea remained tiny, and for the most part simply marked time. Sékou Touré's article in the RDA newspaper, Réveil, 'Guinea Stirs' on 14 November 1949, was more wish than reality:
It stirs due to the push of the RDA …After the disastrous failure of all the racist groups which want to keep a perpetual and sterile division, our country understands that the RDA alone merits its confidence and support …2
A PDG conference in 1951 selected Sékou Touré as candidate for the parliamentary elections. When Mamba Sano won, the RDA claimed there was official pressure. The PDG was then a seed; and in Toure's words, 'if a seed is to grow, it must be put in favourable conditions'. 3
1. From typescript of report by an interterritorial RDA mission to Guinea, spring 1947.
2. Cited by Abdoulaye Ly. Publications du P.R.A.-Sénégal sur le nationalisme dans l'ouest africain no. 1, Dakar, 9 August 1959, p. 24.
3. Sékou Touré. 'Rapport de doctrine et de politique générale', in Le Cinquième Congrès National du Parti Démocratique de Cuinée(RDA) tenu à Conakry les 14, 15, 16, et septembre 1959, tome iv, République de Guinée, Conakry, Imprimerie Nationale, p. 44.
