Question 2.30

2.30 How did your country react to the death of Sékou Touré?

In fact, I think that the military forces were unprepared to assume the highest responsibilities of the State, which is not their job anyway. They were unable to reform the country so as to restart the economy and fight poverty. Public freedoms improved, but the political opposition was unfairly persecuted. We went from a Marxist regime to a military junta. Certainly, the country was less cut off from the world than it could ever have been under Sékou Touré. But, in fact, the framework of the country had not changed. The same rusty machine continued to run. How was it possible to put the new wine of truth and freedom into the old wineskins of the revolution?

As for me, even though I got along cordially at first with the new president, our relations quickly became strained because I continued to speak very freely. One day, I publicly protested against the fact that Guinea was the water reservoir of Africa, while its capital, Conakry, had practically no access to electricity and drinkable water was scarce.