Sékou Touré

Sékou Touré (1922-84), first president of Guinea (1958-84), who led his country out of the French colonial empire. Born in Faranah, the great-grandson of the resistance fighter Samory Touré, he was largely self-educated. At the age of 19, Touré became an administrator in the Post and Telecommunications Department, Conakry. An active unionist, he was named secretary general of the departmental union in 1945. Touré also became involved in the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT), the Communist-dominated French workers' federation, and was elected president of the CGT in Africa in 1956.

Having turned to politics in 1946, when he was cofounder of the African Democratic Rally, Touré was elected mayor of Conakry (1955), deputy from Guinea to the French National Assembly (1956), and vice president (prime minister) of the governmental council of Guinea (1957). He then held the presidency of Guinea from independence (1958) until his death. Socialist in economic outlook, Touré ruthlessly suppressed dissent, and after his death the government of Guinea acknowledged that numerous human rights violations had occurred under his regime.