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Mort de Amadou Diallo à New York City

Susan Sachs
In Guinea, Mourning for Man Shot by Police Is ‘National Affair’

New York Times — February 17, 1999

Conakry, Guinea — Sunlight sifted through the dusty air and the sweet voice of the muezzin calling Muslims to prayer washed over the worshipers from a loudspeaker near the vaulted ceiling. In twos and threes, women dressed in gowns of blue, yellow, copper and purple, their hair bound in bolts of matching cotton, knelt by Kadidiatou Diallo, kissed her on each cheek and pressed her hand

Mrs. Diallo was the center of attention in Guinea's main mosque Tuesday just as she was in New York City after her son Amadou's death at the hands of four police officers. She was home, no longer swallowed up by throngs of strangers but cradled in the embrace of a huge extended family that includes some of the country's top officials.

Diallo, a 22-year-old street vendor, was shot to death on Feb. 4 by four police officers who fired 41 times as he stood, unarmed, at the entrance to his Bronx apartment building.

While the shooting provoked fierce protests in New York and calls for the immediate arrest of the police officers involved, the response in Guinea has been more muted but still tangible.

« The 41 bullets — that's what made this a distinct case, even in the United States itself, » said the Foreign Minister, Lamine Kamara, who attended the prayer service at the Faycal Mosque in central Conakry, the capital.

« Guinea decided this was not just a family affair but a national affair. » The Government has put a fleet of cars and officials at the Diallo family's disposal and arranged motorcades and formal ceremonies that rival the arrangements usually made for heads of state. Guinean state television and radio have interviewed the family; Government ministers and members of the parliament met them at the airport on Monday night. Guineans have been exhorted by radio to turn out on the street when Diallo's coffin passes by on its way to Hollande Bouru, a village about 300 miles from Conakry, for burial Wednesday.

Throughout it all, the rallies in New York and the public ceremonies in Guinea, Mrs. Diallo has appeared to adapt with steely serenity to being thrust into the spotlight.

« Leadership is not something I can impose on myself, but sacrificing myself and being an example would be very good — to change bad into good, » Mrs. Diallo said.

In New York, she has become a spokeswoman for a cause that black leaders, like the Rev. Al Sharpton, have defined as a fight for racial justice. Back home, in this country of seven million people linked by tribal and family ties, she has taken on another kind of public role, representing, in her dignified grief, the fears of many Guinean families with relatives abroad.

« We all know that in this or that family there is a cousin or a brother who is in America," said Fanta Kouyate, a Foreign Ministry official who lived in New York City for several years as a child when her father was the Guinean ambassador to the United Nations. « So we think that what happened to this family could happen to any family here. »

Mrs. Diallo herself spent many years outside Guinea. She married Saikou Amadou Diallo at the age of 17 and moved with him to neighboring Liberia, where he was a trader in agricultural products and other commodities. It was there, she said, that she learned English in a private college.

The couple had four children — Amadou was the eldest — and eventually moved to Thailand and Singapore, where Mrs. Diallo helped her husband set up and run a business importing gemstones until they divorced in 1994. With her second husband, Boubacar Sankarela Diallo, who is not related to her first husband, Mrs. Diallo now runs a gem trading company in Conakry. Her three younger children — Laouratou, 20; Ibrahima, 17; and Abdul Sallam, 16 — live with them.

Mrs. Diallo grew up in a family that considered itself « an intellectual family, » said Fifi Diallo, one of her older sisters. Their father, who was a manager in Guinea's timber industry, insisted that all his nine children, including the five girls, get a good education. Two sisters now are accountants. One is a midwife. Another is getting a degree in finance. All of Mrs. Diallo's siblings live in Guinea, except for a brother who lives in New York City.

Her extended family of cousins, aunts, nieces and in-laws joined Mrs. Diallo in the central mosque of Conakry today for a prayer service and tribute to Amadou Diallo that was organized by the Government.

One of Mrs. Diallo's sisters, Halimatou Diallo, said, « Amadou was a boy of 22 years and he's treated like a head of state today. »

After the service, Mrs. Diallo said: « I didn't want to be a public person. I agree that my son died, but I want him to live, as a symbol of youth, of all the innocent people who are victims of police brutality. »