Guinea in this period was a one party state with the leader Touré reelected unanimously every 5 years. Such success must have put Guinea on top of the world. Well that is what this stamp issue expresses and was early enough that some still might have believed. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
This stamp issue celebrates 20 years of the Democratic political party and also the opening of the “People’s Palace” in the capital Conakry. The Democratic party had been the only legal party since 1960 so was hardly democratic. The peoples palace was of course for the use of President Touré. The Palace was built with eastern bloc aid, it must have been strange for them to be in the palace building game.
Todays stamp is issue A63, a 30 Franc stamp issued by Guinea on September 28th, 1967. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations the top value being airmail. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents canceled to order.
Sekou Touré was born a peasant farmer in a small village in then French Guinea. He claimed to be the great grandson of King Touré of the precolonial Wassoulou Empire. The claim was enough to get him enrolled in French schools in Guinea until he was expelled at age 15 for protesting the quality of the food the French were providing. Apparently we are to believe before he left school he made a deep study of Marx and Lenin. After school he pursued his true calling as a labor organizer. Getting somebody to get people working would be quite the novelty in an African country, but no he was a strike guy. Strikes are probably hard to pull off in Africa as who could tell the difference. That stuff doesn’t pay the bills so Touré was also a postal clerk. He had to take a test for that job so that probably proves he could read. He was a founding member of the Democratic Party that wanted complete independence from France.
In 1958, Touré had his shot and took it. The new French 5th Republic allowed a fairly sudden vote in the colonies whether to remain in the French community or get snap independence. Guinea was the only African colony to chose independence and got it in 1958 with Touré as President. Telling the French to go away was very popular throughout Black Africa and the Black community in the USA. Seeing his in depth study of Communism, the Soviets and the Chinese were very forthcoming with aid. As was more lefty forces in the west like the Peace Corps.
They say image is everything but not always. Askari soldiers in the service of Portuguese Guinea raided Guinea finding no opposition but also not finding Touré. They had hoped to instill a national uprising but found the radio station inoperative so they couldn’t get the word out. After they left, Touré portrayed it as a great victory and had the Soviets cast him another statue. The truth showed as the new High Command executed much of the Army and government officials as traitors.
In 1977, it became impossible to claim that communism was working economically. Female merchants in Conakry’s main Medena Market rioted saying that the government set prices were too low. The government stopped trying to enforce those rules. Finally in 1984 Touré died of a heart attack at the Cleveland Clinic in the USA when he did not trust the hospitals in Guinea.
So what was the results of Touré and the Democratic Party’s 26 year rule with ample foreign aid. The worker’s average income was $140 a year, literacy was below 10 percent, and life expectancy in Guinea was 41 years.
Well my drink is empty and no I will leave the toasting of Touré to his still many fans. Come again tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.