Table Of ContentCold War and Decolonization in
Guinea, 1946 1958
–
Western African Studies
Lineages of State Fragility West African Challenge to Empire
Rural Civil Society in Guinea-Bissau Culture and History in the Volta-Bani
joshua b. forrest Anticolonial War
mahir ¢aul and patrick royer
Willing Migrants
Soninke Labor Diasporas, 1848–1960 ‘Civil Disorder is the Disease of Ibadan’
franÁois manchuelle Chieftaincy & Civic Culture in a Yoruba City
ruth watson
El Dorado in West Africa
The Gold-Mining Frontier, African Labor, and Smugglers, Secessionists, and Loyal Citizens on the
Colonial Capitalism in the Gold Coast, Ghana-Togo Frontier
1875–1900 The Lie of the Borderlands since 1914
RAYMONDE. DUMETT paul nugent
Nkrumah & the Chiefs Eurafricans in Western Africa
The Politics of Chieftaincy in Ghana, 1951–60 Commerce, Social Status, Gender, and Religious
RICHARDRATHBONE Observance from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth
Century
Ghanaian Popular Fiction george e. brooks
‘Thrilling Discoveries in Conjugal Life’ & Other
Tales ‘Kola is God’s Gift’
stephanie newell
Agricultural Production, Export Initiatives & the
Kola Industry in Asante & the Gold Coast,
Paths of Accommodation
c. 1820–1950
Muslim Societies and French Colonial Authorities edmund abaka
in Senegal and Mauritania, 1880–1920
david robinson
Fighting the Slave Trade
West African Strategies
Slavery and Reform in West Africa sylviane a. diouf
Toward Emancipation in Nineteenth-Century
Senegal and the Gold Coast Themes in West Africa’s History
trevor r. getz emmanuel kwaku akyeampong
Ouidah Cold War and Decolonization in Guinea,
The Social History of a West African Slaving 1946–1958
“Port,” 1727–1892 Elizabeth Schmidt
robin law
Between the Sea & the Lagoon
An Eco-social History of the Anlo of Southeastern
Ghana, c. 1850 to Recent Times
emmanuel kwaku akyeampong
Cold War and
Decolonization in
Guinea, 1946–1958
{}
Elizabeth Schmidt
Ohio University Press
ATHENS
I am indebted to Cambridge University Press for permission to reproduce
extracts from my article “Cold War in Guinea: The Rassemblement
Démocratique Africain and the Struggle over Communism, 1950–1958,”
Journal of African History 48, no. 1 (March 2007): 95–121.
Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701
www.ohio.edu/oupress
© 2007 by Ohio University Press
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved
Ohio University Press books are printed on acid-free paper ™
14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Schmidt, Elizabeth, 1955–
Cold War and decolonization in Guinea, 1946–1958 / Elizabeth Schmidt.
p. cm. — (Western African studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8214-1763-8 (hc : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8214-1763-0 (hc : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8214-1764-5 (pb : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8214-1764-9 (pb : alk. paper)
1. Decolonization—Guinea. 2. Guinea—History—Autonomy and
independence movements. 3. Rassemblement démocratique africain.
4. Guinea—Politics and government. I. Title.
DT543.75.S35 2007
966.52'03—dc22
2007030265
For my son
Jann Albert Grovogui,
who made this book a labor of love
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Abbreviations xi
French Colonial Officials, 1944–59 xiii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1
ReformedImperialismandtheOnsetof
theColdWar,1945–50 8
Chapter 2
TheBreakwiththePCFandDissension
withintheRanks,1950–53 45
Chapter 3
TheFraudulentElectionsof1954and
theResurgenceoftheRDA,1954–55 68
Chapter 4
TheRDA’sRisetoPowerand
LocalSelf-Government,1956–57 97
Chapter 5
TheRenaissanceoftheLeft:FromAutonomy
toIndependence,1956–58 125
Chapter 6
DefianceandRetribution:TheReferendumand
ItsAftermath,1958–60 157
ConclusionandPostscript 180
Acknowledgments 187
Notes 191
Bibliography 283
Index 293
vii
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, photo-
graphs once housed in the privately run Centre de Recherche et de Documentation Af-
ricaine (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
ix
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
