As today mark the 56 anniversary of guinea since its gained her independent on October 2 1958 from France. when they declare total independent from France. happy happy. independent day. La Guine’e had been part of the community of French colonies called French West Africa along with Mali, Senegal, and Mauritania. By 1956, these former French colonies had limited internal self-government tethered to France for economic, military, and diplomatic policies. When the tide of independence swept across west Africa, French President de Gaulle in 1958 issued the infamous ”OUI ou NON” ultimatum. OUI(yes) you are for maintaining the status quo of French custodianship of your international affairs, or NON(no) you oppose such a paternalistic arrangement. Unlike other nations, this ultimatum yielded an emphatic NON from Guinea. As precursor to her “NON” decision, Sekou Toure, who was deputy-mayor of Conakry, delivered a speech to the French President which is akin to the Declaration of Independence of the 13 colonies of America, of which Georgia was the 13th state. The emphatic “NON” from Sekou Toure and Guinea would innure the wrath of France and de Gaulle ordered all French nationals to leave Guinea with all technical files and survey and logistic documents. The former French colony of Guinea declares its independence on October 2, 1958, with Sekou Toure as the new nations first leader. Guinea was the sole French West African colony to opt for complete independence, rather than membership in the French Community, and soon thereafter France withdrew all aid to the new republic. It soon became apparent that Toure would pose a problem for the United States. He was fiercely nationalistic and anti-imperialist, and much of his wrath and indignation was aimed at the United States for its alliances with colonial powers such as Great Britain and France and its refusal to openly condemn the white minority government of South Africa. More troubling for U.S. officials, however, was Guineas open courting of Soviet aid and money and signing of a military assistance agreement with the Soviet Union. By 1960, nearly half of Guineas exports were going to eastern bloc nations and the Soviets had committed millions of dollars of aid to the African republic. Toure was also intrigued by Maos communist experiments in China. Toure played the Soviet Union and the United States against one another to get the aid and trade he desired. While Guineas relations with the United States got off to a rocky start (American newspapers routinely referred to the nation as Red Guinea), matters improved during the Kennedy administration when Toure refused to accommodate Soviet aircraft wishing to refuel on their way to Cuba during the missile crisis of 1962. In 1975, Toure changed course and allowed Soviet and Cuban aircraft to use Guineas airfields during the Angolan civil war, then he again reversed position by revoking the privileges in 1977 and moving closer to France and the United States. The concerns of U.S. officials over communist influences in Guinea, and the up-and-down relationship with Guinea were but precursors of other difficulties the United States would face in postcolonial Africa. As Guinea and other former colonies achieved independence during the post-World War II period, Africa became another battleground in the U.S.-Soviet conflict.
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 08:03:18 +0000