Guinea: Faranah, Sekou Toure and River Niger myths

He saved me and told me I must learn to swim. And I did! Much later in life, I learnt about the histories that have been crafted along the bank and flow of the life-giving river of West Africa and I nursed the hope to travel the River Niger from source right up to its […]

He saved me and told me I must learn to swim. And I did! Much later in life, I learnt about the histories that have been crafted along the bank and flow of the life-giving river of West Africa and I nursed the hope to travel the River Niger from source right up to its flow into the Atlantic or at the very least, trace its origins to Guinea. There have been several romantic tales told around the Niger not to mention such wonderful places up river like Mopti and Nyafunke in Mali, which became part of the legend of the river because they were important cultural junctions in Malian and West African life.

Whoever knows the River Niger will also immediately connect with the myths too. There is the infamous Juju Rock in Jebba which the Nigerian writer, Cyprian Ekwensi and also a son of the River Niger at Onitsha, wrote about. My Auntie used to tell me that people who never drank the water of the Niger often end up drowning in it; and in my years of knowing the river, I saw many people from other parts of the surrounding country drown.

That seemed to confirm the myths for me as a young boy. But much later, I realized that these were unfortunate youngsters who saw much younger persons effortlessly swim in what was a big river and who felt they must be able to as well. More often than not, they did not possess swimming skills and invariably were swept away by the river. But myths are very difficult to erase and as I discovered in Guinea, the myths are as long as the course of the majestic River Niger itself!

The original intention I had for the trip to Guinea was to find the source of the River Niger. I remember that many years ago, when I reported for the BBC an intrepid reporter had done a story for the African Service and I had retained the determination to see the Niger’s source. Many other variables intervened in my trip which helped to enrich the journey, and the most important was the enthusiasm of Nigeria’s Ambassador in Guinea, Doctor Aisha Laraba Abdullahi, for the history which connects Guinea with Nigeria. She felt it was a story that must be told, and my visit became an exciting opportunity to present the narrative. Her intervention made it possible for me to get a laisser passer to be able to travel unhindered in the different places I went to and the fact that we travelled together to most of these towns, opened a diplomatic opportunity for my journalism.

So it was that we arrived in Faranah. We had been met a few kilometers earlier by the Governor of the Region; He was travelling on a trouble shooting mission but had arranged for the local administration to receive our party. We camped in the Hotel Du Niger, which had been partly burnt when bush fire jumped the fence and incinerated some of the chalets and the reception area of the hotel. The swimming pool had been taken over by toads and tadpoles but the rooms were still in very good shape while the courteous staff made every effort to make our stay in their town comfortable. Farana is the adopted home town of Guinea’s founding President, Ahmed Sekou Toure. It was the city of power in all the years that he ruled Guinea, with what many said was a dictatorial hand. Faranah suffered neglect in the hands of the military dictator, Lansana Conteh who took over when Sekou Toure died in 1984. But I seem to be jumping ahead of myself already.

The administration bureaucrats came to visit us at the hotel and I told them that one of the many reasons for my visit was to get to the source of the River Niger! It was like a bolt out of the blue for them. Faranah, I was told was the only motorable end of my trip. And to make it clear, they said Faranah was 175 kilometers to the source of the river. From Faranah to the junction at Banjan was 62 kilometers; Banjan to Janfrandou was approximately 10 kilometers and then there was Kobikoro and thereafter, Forokoniya. It was from Forokoniya that we would have to begin the climbing of the mountain in order to get to the source of the River Niger. It was simply like chasing a black goat in the night, because at the time of the year that I was visiting, the roads were said to be absolutely impassable! Vehicles cannot get there, not even our four wheel drive; we have to stop at a nearby village, thereafter we would have to walk for a very long time before the tortuous climb to the top of the mountain.

It was obvious to me, that the team of Faranah bureaucrats were doing everything possible to stop me from getting to the source. It was at that point that I mentioned the myths about the river downstream in Nigeria. The regional commissioner of police, Sekouba Camara, told me that there were even deeper myths at the source of the Niger in Guinea. “When leaders visit the source, they lose their positions”, he assured me. “There was a former minister who went to the source; soon as he returned he lost his job”. The director of cabinet, Monsieur Samba Fraternal Barry, added that the Gambia River is sourced from Labe in the Fouta Djallon, and there too, people will not be taken to the river source. He recounted an incident when the ministers of tourism of the Gambia and Guinea visited the Museum of Fouta in Labe and the Gambian minister insisted on seeing the origin of the river which gave his country a name; they did. But when each returned to his post, they lost their jobs.

The Guinean officials do not want to lose their jobs by taking me on a very difficult journey to the river’s source. Furthermore, there was usually a sacrifice which needed to be performed to be able to go to the source: a cow has to be slaughtered. They added further that if a Head of State visited and the sacrifice was performed, then nobody could overthrow him! I then asked whether Africa’s sit-tight dictators have been coming to Faranah and everybody laughed. There is a guardian of the source who comes from a particular family; unfortunately, there was no time to make contacts in order to make the necessary sacrifice for my trip in search of the source of our great river. Another member of the government party told me that the source of the Niger is an incredible anti-climax and a source of wonderment! It is very narrow and small. But no one can jump across it. He added that when the sacrifice was performed, either a fish or a crab would jump out of the water. A fish meant the acceptance of the sacrifice while a crab signified its rejection!

I also asked whether the myths surrounding the Niger’s source were responsible for the terrible state of the road which leads to the source. The cabinet director said that as part of the anti-poverty strategy, the government was trying to open up the road for the possible development of tourism potentials and the source of the River Niger. But given the strength of their acceptance of the mythology around the river, he did not sound very convincing. I had to suppress my disappointment that I was not going to see the source of the River Niger; at least not during this visit. It seemed obvious that I have to find other things to excite me; I found them in the meeting with the family of the late President Ahmed Sekou Toure and the long trip to his place of birth, Sidakoro. Let me confess that as a young man, I saw only the heroic side to Ahmed Sekou Toure; afterall, wasn’t he one of the founding fathers of African independence? He gave French colonialism a bloody nose by rejecting the elaborate platform of neo-colonialism which De Gaulle had presented to the African colonies. Sekou Toure preferred poverty in independence to the wealth of neo-colonialism. That was his selling point for me, along with his support for the struggle in Guinea Bissau.

But he was a very controversial figure. Sekou Toure had very humble origins and was a very insecure personality. He did not seem able to share the limelight with other, often highly educated and very capable individuals, like Diallo Telli, the famous Guinean diplomat and first Secretary General of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). His very high international profile became unacceptable to Toure. He was accused of sundry crimes and eliminated in the same manner that several other individuals were tortured and killed by an increasingly paranoid Sekou Toure. Guinea is one of the richest countries in Africa, but the years of independence have largely been wasted as the resources have not worked for the people.  When Sekou Toure died, his opponents went on a revenge mission against his family. His house in Faranah was seized while his highly influential brother, Amara Toure was first detained by the Lansana Conteh dictatorship and subsequently executed for an alleged coup attempt.

Members of Amara Toure’s family are still bitter at the treatment they received when Sekou Toure died. “They took many things from us: gold, money, many things”, said Amara’s first wife. “The family’s store was looted and money from the bank was seized. Tractors and vehicles were taken, six of them. But we are alive.  We did not do anything to anybody. Sekou Toure did not do anything to anybody”. Ahmed Sekou Toure, is Amara’s son and was named for his uncle. He said that they were unhappy about the imprisonment of Sekou Toure’s sisters. “They were imprisoned. They killed the brothers. There was no trial before these actions. In Sekou Toure’s case, all the people killed or imprisoned were tried by popular justice”. Ahmed however believed that things have taken a turn for the better. “Before Lansana died, he started returning things seized to the family, but they are in bad shape”. He added almost defiantly that “we are proud of Sekou Toure because he fought for Guinea’s independence”.

Sekou Toure’s village of birth is called Sidakoro. It is about 50 kilometers from Faranah and is located within a very rich agricultural belt; we drove past relays of women carry baskets of produce to the market in Faranah. Okro is very popular here and they are giant-sized and range in colour from light green to purple/burgundy. The village is also located within the precincts of a national park, the HAUT-NIGER PARK NATIONALE. The road was very atrocious in most places as we were visiting during the rainy season and so bad was the road that it took us over two hours to do the fifty kilometer journey. We arrived in time for the jumat service and the entire community went to pray. Seventy Five years old Dantoma Conde is the Deputy District chairman; he said that Sekou Toure was born in Sidakoro but never returned to the village before he died. When he came, he stopped at Faranah but he remembered that Sekou Toure’s brother returned to make a sacrifice there. “He killed two cows”. Manken Traore was Sekou Toure’s childhood friend, saying they were born at the same time. At that time there was not much in terms of health care.

Manken Traore recalled that it was during colonialism, and Sekou Toure used to say that he represented the commandant of Dabola while he, Manken would retort that he was of Faranah. He said people did not know date of birth in those days. Sekou Toure entered school together with a friend called Saranda but Manken did not. According to Manken, the chief of Faranah at that time was Doutou Mamourou and after that Kalagban Oulare became chief. He said the period saw a regime of forced labour. Manken Traore said that since they separated as children he never had the opportunity to see Sekou Toure again. He took power and there was no opportunity to meet with him again. Villagers also remembered his father as a relatively rich man who kept livestock. In those days, people trekked all the way to Conakry to bring salt and palm oil; their return is was usually a cause for celebration. Manken Traore told me that he once had a dream which scared him. He saw something white appearing in that dream and was really afraid. Not long after, Sekou Toure died. It was from the humble setting of a village, Sidakoro, that Sekou Toure would become the leader of an independent Guinea, with all the controversies which would ensue; he was also to become one of the outstanding figures of modern African history.