Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964.
In Guinea the PRA branch was born in May 1958 of a union between DSG and BAG. Then in July at Cotonou, the interterritorial congress of the PRA called for immediate independence. If they ignored this, Touré and his associates knew they were vulnerable to attack from left and right, within Guinea and outside. Yet, for some months, though their speeches were sharply critical of France, 1 the position of the PDG leaders towards the 1958 constitution was uncertain. When General de Gaulle came to Conakry on 25 August, he was received by a huge demonstration and a sharply worded speech by President Toure 2. On 27 August in Dakar the UGTAN announced for a NO in the referendum. On 11 September Bakary Djibo, union and party leader from Niger, said No. On 7 September Ouezzin Coulibaly died in Paris. It was he who had kept the interterritorial RDA together in spite of internal differences. The break in the RDA remained. On 12 September Sékou Touré broke discipline with the interterritorial RDA, disregarded President Houphouet's orders for a YES, and demanded independence. 'We prefer poverty in liberty to riches in slavery' 3. Once the NO decision was taken there was remarkable unity within Guinea. Barry III and Barry Diawadou joined the reorganized PDG government which took over the newly independent state. Their parties dissolved and members became integrated within the PDG.
The French government was not really prepared for the NO, and the first reaction was one of anger. French civil servants withdrew but made no provision to transfer files, and French administrators, judges, doctors, and other civil servants left confusion behind. For some months the terms of Guinea's relationship to France remained undefined. Only when the Guinea government made clear that it recognized the Provisional Govermnent of the Republic of Algeria during the Monrovia Conference on 6 August 1959 was the break between Ciuinea and France final.
The uncertainty surrounding the departure of French officials and soldiers added to the problems of the PDG leaders as they became fully responsible. Guinea became a state before it was fully a nation 4. Only the party was truly a national institution, and held people together with the theme of 'a common misery and a common destiny' 5.
People expected great things of independence. There was a call for modernization even though there were few modernizers, more justice even though few judges, more administration even though few clerks, more maternities even though few doctors, more roads even though few engineers, more schools even though few teachers. Sergeants became majors, clerks became senior administrators, union leaders became ambassadors as Guinea became the first former French-speaking West African state to become a member of the United Nations.
1. See Paris-Dakar, 16 April 1958.
2. Touré. L'Action politique du PDG…, tome
i, op. cit., pp. 73 f.
3. Ibid., op.cit., p.94.
4. Touré. La Lutte du PDG…, tome vi,
op. cit., p. 429.
5. Touré. L'Action politique du PDG…, tome
i, op. cit., p. 14.
