2024-04-06 15:02:03
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(January 9, 1922 – March 26, 1984) – The man of destiny that I heard so much about in the village during the struggle for independence, I saw him for the first time on May 12, 1965 when he visited the capital of our district. I still remember the part of the welcome speech given by the regional governor, Mr. Moussa Sanguiana Camara who saluted in himself, the man of September 28, 1958, which unleashed thunderous applause. His white handkerchief and the cheering crowd around him still float between the folds of my memory. It was magical and captivating. He was the man to draw crowds across Africa and the world.
I saw him several times over the following years in popular gatherings such as at the party cadre school. In the company of Dr. Kwame N’Krumah, Josip Broz Tito, Ahmadou Ahidjo, Yakubu Gowon, Houari Boumediene, Fidel Castro and many other illustrious personalities of the time. An exceptional opportunity to see him up close and to interact with him occurred for me when he received a few comrades and me in his office at the presidency of the republic on Saturday September 15, 1973. He was both majestic and simple, cordial and imperial, meticulous and understanding. This exceptional experience is still fresh in my memory, but is not enough to describe it. People more cultured than me have camped, each in their own way and brilliantly, with this outstanding man. Aimé Césaire described him as “the decisive African man” of the decolonization period. Léopold Sédar Senghor recognized in him a “tyrannical love for Africa”. Above all, a white friend of Guinea, who came from afar, described it with the most poignant words I have ever read. It’s up to you to enjoy the words of Professor Imre Marton from Hungary who taught generations of executives at the Gamal Abdel Nasser University in Conakry: “I was a few meters from him, while he was giving an impromptu speech at a meeting. He placed his hand on the microphone like a teenager on the bare shoulder of a young girl. With the same restraint and shyness, with the same passion and contraction. At first, he spoke his words slowly, like a sculptor who meditates in front of a block of stone on which he draws with his gaze the lines and shapes that he will carve. And his being, all tense, suddenly releases itself in anger, in indictment, in curses and denunciations against the enemies of the People. During the speech, the proud, luminous, comforting and exhilarating, vengeful and stimulating statue of the hopes of its People and their passionate love for Africa emerges. » Imre Marton.
Ahmed Sékou Touré, the man who liberated Africa! Against all odds, he restored dignity to the Black People before leaving us forty years ago.
That the earth may be light for him!
March 26, 2024
Dr. Mamadou Touré