2023-11-17 20:38:25
I was at the Algiers International Book Fair when I learned of the death of Ibrahima Caba Bah (Tuesday, October 24, 2023), which explains the delay in reacting. Obviously, I suspect that few young people know who this gentleman is. In this upside-down Guinea, in this citadel of mediocracy, bequeathed to us by the bloodthirsty Sékou Touré, a man like him has no place. In this decadent country where it is tarts like Mamadi Doumbouya, Idi Amine, Dadis Camara, Thiegboro Camara, Pivi Koplan who make History, his work means nothing, his name means nothing to anyone.
He is unfortunately not the only one to suffer the ostracism in which the Guinean state keeps our valuable men. Look carefully around you: all our intellectuals, all our venerable personalities are languishing in poverty and solitude when they have not disappeared into the cesspools of Camp Boiro. It has always been like this in Guinea since 1958: it is the elites who tear down the walls and it is the riff-raff who show off.
A graduate in physical sciences from the University of Nancy, Ibrahima Caba Bah joined his country at the end of his studies in 1956 and actively campaigned for Independence. He is the first native Guinean to teach Physics and Chemistry at Donka high school. He was then appointed director of the Ecole Normale de Kindia (the famous poet David Diop came to teach there at his instigation). A member of the management of the Teachers’ Union, he was arrested with all of his colleagues and detained for 6 years following what Sékou Touré called the “plot of crazy teachers and intellectuals”.
What is it about ? On November 18, 1961, the Teachers’ Union published a memorandum to protest against the elimination of subsidies allocated to its members (housing bonus, transport bonus, etc.). Sékou Touré had illegally given these subsidies back as a thank you to his fellow CEOs who had helped him gain power; demagogue and incompetent individuals who already benefited from great advantages (positions of minister, governor, director of companies with the disastrous consequences that we know).
Middle and high school students then organized a major strike to support their arbitrarily detained teachers. A savage repression ensues. Kids aged 12 to 16 find themselves in military camps surrounded by armed guards who order them to look at the sun (I didn’t know until then that the sun was a real instrument of torture!). Schools are closed for several months.
I remember all this as if it were yesterday: I was studying at the N’Zérékoré College then. I know that November 18, 1961 is a crucial date in the history of the Republic of Guinea. It was on this day that the September 28 Man died, it was on this day that the Camp Boiro vampire was born.
Ibrahima Caba Bah and his illustrious colleagues Koumandian Keïta, Djibril Tamsir Niane, Ray Autra, Bah Mountaga, Bahi Seck, etc. were among the first victims of the repressive machine of the demon Sékou Touré. Do you know that Koumandian Keïta was the first political prisoner in the world “adopted” by Amnesty International? For me, like my entire generation, they are not simple men. They are heroes (in the good sense of the word, this time) nay, gods to whom we have boundless admiration. They were patriots, sincere democrats, who deeply loved this country. They are the ones who really decolonized us. They are the ones who gave us an African consciousness by imposing Africa as a subject of study in literature, history and geography programs.
They will not be forgotten, whatever the thieves and the falsifiers!
Tender Monenembo
#Death #Giant #Tierno #Monénembo