2023-04-15 16:33:02
I will never repeat it enough: tribalism and religious fundamentalism are not structural causes, they are the consequences of bad governance. Two edifying examples in terms of tribalism, at least: Côte d’Ivoire and Somalia! Ivory Coast, under the reign of Houphouët-Boigny sheltered all the ethnic groups of West Africa. It has known no ethnic war. On the contrary, it has produced the best economy in the region! Somalia, where the citizens are 100% ethnic Somali, speak the same 100% Somali language and practice the same 100% Muslim religion has split into five factions that are desperately trying to mend each other, due to the extreme lack of intelligence on the part of its leaders.
When the president is good, everything is good. When it is bad, the mother and the child no longer speak to each other, the twins tear each other apart, and the honey takes on a taste of castor bean. Behind any ethnic, racial or religious crisis, hides a political manipulation. This is even more true in Guinea where the leaders are not content to be bad but horrible but stinky but catastrophic!
The very low level of political and intellectual debate raging in our country leads us to believe that Guinea is on the verge of explosion, that from one moment to another, our tribes will throw themselves on each other. It is not so. Because our history is rich and our company, as intelligent as our leaders are idiots. In truth, tribalism is not a problem with us, it is the biggest of our false problems. Never in all of its history has our society functioned on a tribal basis. The Peuls are founding members of the Mali Empire and the Malinkés, founding members of the theocratic kingdom of Fouta-Djalon. In the 1950s, Conakry, Mamou and Macenta were the strongholds of Sékou Touré; Kankan and Forécariah, those of Barry Diawadou. Even today, despite the stinking atmosphere inherited from Sékou Touré, Lansana Conté, Dadis Camara, Sékouba Konaté, Alpha Condé and Mamadi Doumbouya, tribalism is confined to the state level, it has not yet reached the heart of the society.
In our country, inter-ethnic mixing is so strong that it has so far saved us from the hateful and irresponsible speeches of our leaders. Sékou Touré declared war on the Fulani, there was no civil war. Ismaël Touré said that a Forestier will never lead Guinea, there was no civil war. Lansna Conté said “Wo Fataara”, there was no civil war. Anywhere else, the country would have burned.
That said, the “tribalization” of the state is indeed there. You have noticed that as soon as an individual comes to power, all the juicy ministries go to people of his ethnic group, the others having to be content with small fry. This bad practice has become so common that it has become a kind of custom well anchored in people’s minds. This ethnic state has a date of birth: 1967; and an author: Sékou Touré. I know something…
The 1964-65 school year, in building T of the Donka high school, I made friends with a young man named Boubacar Keïta, known as “General”. One day, at the famous “Terrain Rouge”, he pointed out to me a gentleman who was passing in a car: “He’s my brother, he has just finished his studies in Switzerland”. A year or two later, this brother in the gray Taunus will be my philosophy teacher. His name was Mamadi Keïta. In 1967, armed with his privilege of brother-in-law of the Head of State when no statute of the PDG provided for such a function, he was bombarded with “permanent secretary of the National Political Bureau”. It is the gateway to Saïdou Keïta, Siaka Touré and others! It is the advent of the “Angbassanlé” clan!
Since then, the Guinean state has ceased to be an institution to become a little tribal thing that knows how to manage nothing but okra business and sex stories.
Tender Monenembo
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