Ahmed Sekou Toure

Ahmed Sékou Touré , 1922-84, Guinean political leader, president (1958-84) of the republic of Guinea. From a poor family, Touré was labor union activist, becoming general secretary of the postal workers' union (1945). He organized the Union Générale des Travailleurs d'Afrique Noir in 1956. Touré was politically active beginning in 1946 when, with other African nationalist leaders, he was a founder of the Rassemblement Démocratique Africain. In 1956 he was elected Guinea's deputy to the French national assembly and mayor of Conakry. Winning the referendum for independence, he led Guinea out of the French Community (1958) becoming Guinea's president and an example to the rest of Africa. A Marxist, he sought aid from the Soviet bloc. In 1978 he abandoned Marxism, led economic liberalization, and reestablished trade with the West. Running unopposed, Touré was reelected in 1982.

Touré, Ahmed Sékou (b. 9 Jan. 1922, d. 26 Mar. 1984). President of Guinea 1958–84 Born in Faranah, he briefly attended a teacher's college before being expelled in 1937. He subsequently became active in the trade-union movement, and in 1946 helped found the Rassemblement Démocratique Africain (RDA), together with Houphouët-Boigny and other African leaders. As secretary-general of the Guinean branch of the RDA, he became vice-president of the government council of Guinea. He was at odds with the RDA over membership of the French Community. In a referendum of 28 September 1958, the majority of the population followed his leadership and rejected links with France, whereupon he became Guinea's first President. With the support of the USSR, he established an authoritarian one-party state often described as the ‘Tropical Gulag’. The political system did not survive his death and was replaced by a military dictatorship.