Tag: Guinea stamp

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Guinea 1967, A Spanish bouncer effectively imagines a struggle for fellow imaginers

The goal of bringing third worlders in via connected people grants  is for them to benefit from first world progress and for the first worlder to learn about hardships from the new arrival. What happens though when the third worlders attracted are their rich, connected and in Jose Vela Zanetti’s case not even a third worlder. Interestingly the Guggenheim fellowship that brought Zanetti to New York has been suspended indefinitely over worries over it’s efficacy. 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 offerring from The Philatelist.

This stamp displays Mankind’s Struggle for a Lasting Peace, a mural painted by Jose Vela Zanetti that sits in the hallway outside the Security Council chamber in the United Nations New York headquarters. The image on the stamp has little to do with Guinea. When your third worlders are fake and have benefited from a many year education in Tuscany, there is an advantage in that he understands as a fellow cosplayer in any real struggle what the UN wanted. An image rich in the pornography of the toiling of the third worlder with any devine purpose or hope edited out.

Todays stamp is issue AP7, a fifty franc air mail stamp issued by independent Guinea on November 11th, 1967. This was a three stamp and one souvenir sheet issue displaying the art collection of the United Nations Security Council. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents canceled to order.

Jose Vela Zanetti was born into a rich family in Burgos, Spain. He showed an interest in art and studied in Leon and Madrid. With the Spanish Civil War heating up, the family got him a scholarship to continue his studies in peaceful Florence, Italy. The victory of what Jose felt was the wrong side in 1939 left him with a conundrum over where to bounce next. Stay in an Italy gearing up for war again on the wrong side or bounce back to peaceful Spain where his politics may be a hinderance. As with several other exiled Spanish artists, Jose moved to the peaceful Dominican Republic.

Jose Vela Zanetti

Jose hit the ground running in the D. R. Within a year of his arrival he hosted his first solo art show. Giving the audience what it wanted, he impresed the D. R.’s right wing dictator Trujillo. Soon he was inundated with commissions to put his murals in many of the new public buildings going up at the time. He was also named a Professor of Art at the local university and eventually named the Dean.

There was however the problem of being a big fish in a small pond. Jose applied for and received a Latin America oriented  Guggenheim Fellowship in 1951. The idea was to bring in the Latin American artist mid career and giving him enough money to live for a few years in the hope that he or she will do their best work. This is what happened for Jose. He quickly applied for and won the commission from the UN for the mural that appears on the stamp. It is his most famous work.

In 1960, Jose inherited the estate that he grew up in. Despite Franco, he moved back to Burgos, Spain with his wife and son. His art shifted from murals to paintings and the subject matter shifted from the political to landscapes. He lived there another 39 years.

A later landscape

Well my drink is empty. I will pour another for the bouncing cosplayers, it is where the world is heading, Mr. Vela Zanetti just got there early. Come again tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Guinea 1967, 20 years of the Democratic Party of Guinea, 20 down and 17 to go

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.

A large sign covering the central part of the entrance hall to the Peoples Palace in Conakry. Three values are represented : that of work, symbolized by a woman holding a sickle, cultural tradition by a drum player and the struggle for national independence by a man armed with a torch and rifle. 

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.

Nice of the Soviet sculptors to remember to put African features on the brave Red soldier defending home and hearth

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.

The sun will come out tomorrow

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.

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French Guinea, We are just not getting rich enough on palm oil

The colonies of France in Africa were just not that profitable. The slave trade was over as far as colonials and the easy gold was no longer easy to find. Palm oil trade had many intermediaries and much competition from neighbor trade post. The obvious question is then why not just leave? 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.

These early French colonial offerings do not appeal as much to me as the equivalent British colonies. They are better than the Portuguese who usually just show the King or De Gamma’s ship, or the Germans that often just show the Kaiser’s yacht. The French stamps usually show a native scene, here fording a river. How the British did them better was to show them as part of a greater whole with a common purpose. The British were sometimes kidding themselves as to whether that was really happening, but the other colonials often didn’t even bother.

Todays stamp is issue A6, a one Cent stamp issued by the French colony of Guinea in 1913. It was part of a whopping 42 stamp issue in various denominations that lasted for many years. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents unused. The folks on the stamp weren’t fording the river to get to the post office. There is an imperforate version of this stamp worth $75.

The west African coast was littered with trading posts. Most started as Portuguese, but the end of the slave trade saw most of theirs abandoned. The word Guinea comes from the Portuguese word for black people. There are now three independant, black run countries in Africa with that name so it had real staying power. The three, now two, Guyanas in South America come from the same root word. The English, French, and Germans began to have some luck with the palm oil trade. Palm oil was an ingredient in soap, so at that level of development, the natives had no need for it themselves. Diola tribal merchants brought the palm oil to the coastal trade stations including Conakry that became the capital of the colony and later the independent country. These outposts also had to function as forts as there were often native raids from the nearby Fouta Jallon highlands that contained warlike, nomadic, and Islamic Fulani tribe.

To avoid war between Europeans, A congress in Berlin in 1884 mapped out Africa as to which country had rights in which area. The tragedy of it was the spheres of influence extended far beyond existing trading posts. France had been in an anti colonial mood after reverses in the French colony in Indo-China. If the trading posts continued to not create wealth the posts would likely have been abandoned as with the Portuguese. The colony up to then was not even called Guinea but Southern Rivers showing that they were just trading posts at the mouth of rivers. Instead the French sent expeditions inland to bypass the Diola merchants and conquer Fouta Jallon. The last Imamate of Fouta Jallon leader, Boko Biro was defeated by the French at the Battle of Poredaka in 1896. Boko Biro escaped but was then captured by a Fulani rival and beheaded. Apparently no love for the loser.

Needless to say all this did not make the colony more profitable. In the late 1950s, the French tried to find a face saving way out and offered the African colonies a vote on staying in the French community with ever more self rule. Guinea was the only country that voted for the clean break and the French duly left. Interestingly, with France gone the trading post cities did not die with natives returning to the highlands. Even has the first President for life styled himself Touré’ after an earlier African anti colonial. There is no meaningful trade any more but the country relies on food aid which is more easily accessible on the coastal cities. Conakry had 60,000 people when independence came in 1958, the city now has more than two million. That is an estimate, how would you count?

Well my drink is empty. So sad. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Guinea 1959, work, justice, solidarity, but really poverty, exile, and no elephants

France mismanaged their colonies. In 1958 a new French republic was formed to deal with it. Part of that was an option of a vote in the colonies whether to continue a relationship with France. Only one colony, Guinea opted to end the French relationship immediately. It did not go well for them. 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.

The first issues or a new country coming out of colony status are often the best. The issues are not yet the farm out topicals that always come later but show the country and it’s leaders at a time when there is still hope for a better future. In addition to nature scenes, this issue of stamps showed cultural objects and hard working Guineans working for a better future. Stamp issuance in Guinea seems to have stopped but among their last known issues honored the anniversary of Elvis’s death. I like Elvis as much as anybody, but what does he have to do with Guinea.

Todays stamp is issue A14 a 25 Guinean Franc stamp issued by Guinea in 1959. It was part of a 8 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $2.25. This seems to be one of the most valuable stamp issues from the country, so lucky me.

Ahmed Sekou Toure was born to subsistence farmers and his education ended at age 15. He however was the great grandson of the last African ruler of the area in the 1890s. He was literate enough to get hired by the French colonial postal service and become involved in trade union organizing and had contact with a major French communist trade union. He was quite anti French but that did not prevent him from being appointed the mayor of Conarky, the capital. He organized a successful strike in 1957. France was tiring of its Empire and the new Fifth Republic President Charles De Gaulle proposed the colonies vote on a new constitution that granted self rule leading to independence in a decade with continued French aid and assistance. A no vote meaned immediate independence with the French washing their hands of the area voting that way. Toure campaigned for a no vote and Guinea voted that way 86% and was immediately granted independence with Toure as the first President. Toure indeed had no relations with France but accepted aid from the East and West. Progress and stability did not come fast enough and Toure banned all politics but his own and set up a brutal prison called Camp Boiro run by his brother. This did not prevent close relations with Ghana President for life until coup Nkume and American civil rights leaders Stokey Carmichael and Malcolm X.

President Toure in 1983 on a visit to the USA

Toure also supported anti government forces in neighboring Portuguese Guinee and held several Portuguese POWs at Camp Boiro. In 1970, the Poruguese Army raided Conarky and freed their prisoners but could not find Toure. After they left, Toure claimed a military victory over them and sent many of his staff to Camp Boiro as disloyal collaborators where many were starved tortured and killed. As many as 50,000 died at Camp Boiro and another 500,000 went into exile. Toure was elected with no opposition to 4 seven year terms as President but died at Cleveland Clinic after a heart attack in 1984. His successor fell to a coup a few months later.

Loffo Camarra, Health Minister and member of Guinea’s Politburo. In 1971 she was starved to death at Camp Boiro

Guinea has still failed to prosper after Toure. There is a large deposit of iron ore that the Chinese, an American hedge fund, and Australian mineral giant Rio Tinto have competed to develop. The competition seems to be bribing government officials for rights to proceed but nothing ever happening. Surprisingly, Guinea has never moved to change it’s colonial name as many African countries did post independence. Guinea comes from Portuguese and referred to any black person from below the Senegal River. The Arabic Berbers from north of the Senegal river were referred by the Portuguese as tawnys. Guinea no longer has elephants or any other large animals in it’s nature preserves left over from the French

Well my drink is empty and President Toure doesn’t get a toast. Instead I will toast De Gaulle for allowing Guinea a vote and then immediately leaving them alone when that was what they wanted. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.