Ibrahima Berthe and the Fuuta-Jalon

Reacting to Peter Pham’s article, Ibrahima Berthe asked on Facebook: When Foulah Djalon has ceased to be a part of Guinea?

First, I noticed the use of the name Foulah Djalon instead of Fouta-Djalon. Was it intentional or accidental? It matters little.

Then, I answered M. Berthe’s question as follows:

Not yet!
However, please note the following points:

1. It has been 39 years since Sékou Touré unleashed his murderous Plot against Fuuta-Jalon and the Fulbe. He used it to masquerade his long-standing plan to assassinate Telli Diallo and his co-accused (Dr. Alpha Oumar Barry, Alioune Dramé, etc.)
   Take courage and time to read his three heinous speeches back in July-August, 1976
2. The so-called Professor-President, Alpha Condé, stole and usurped his accession to that office. No wonder that he has been a dismal and disastrous head of state. One paramount factor explains and — at the same time — compounds the failure of his term as first magistrate of the republic of Guinea. And that is his invocation of Sékou Touré as his role model. He went so far as to say that he would pick up the country where the Camp Boiro creator left it.
   Ever since, his cynical and stupid statement has stroke him back like a curse. Political scientists give this phenomenon the name of blow-back.
   As a result, he has been unable and unwilling to act as president by attempting to heal Guinea’s deep political cleavages and social wounds. On the contrary, he seems hell bent on exacerbating inter-community tensions in Guinea.
   He behaves as an opposition leader. Since his inauguration, he has enlisted the help of the Donsos, Maninka traditional hunters who routinely act as ethnic militia and terror squads.
   A few years back I secured two of Alpha Condé’s writings : his doctoral thesis on Mande society and his political essay Guinée, Albanie d’Afrique ou néo-colonie américaine. I published only the latter because the thesis was poorly typewritten and did not pass straight OCR scanning tests. In addition, the thesis content consists in large chunks of copy-paste from the Djibril Tamsir Niane—Djeli Mamadou Kouyaté duo, in their  landmark book Soundjata ou l’épopée mandingue (1960)  As for the book, I have sketched out here a review that I hope to complete soon.
3. When Lansana Conté placed Alpha Condé’s liberty and life  in jeopardy back in 1998, I wholeheartedly joined the online campaign to demand his safety and freedom. However, in 2010, even before becoming —dubiously— president Mr. Condé stated his intention to revert back to Sékou Touré’s ruinous policies. Ever since, I consider him an enemy of the populations of Guinea. Just like I deem his former and defunct tormentor, who has become now his reference.
4. That said, like most observers, Peter Pham was alarmed that in a recent speech in Kankan, Mr. Alpha Condé excluded  Fulbe from the ethnic components of the country.
5. Alpha Condé and his henchmen (Mansour Kaba the “would-be king of the illusory country of Manden-Jalon”, Alassane Condé, Bourema Condé, etc.) are repeating Sékou Touré’s most horrendous error and crime. And that is the intention to carry out the genocide of the Fulbe of Fuuta-Jalon.
6. He (Sékou Touré) swung that sword. But, in the end all he did, was to impale himself on it. Effectively, he committed political suicide with the “Complot Peul.” His diabolical provocations, hate speech and vitriolic language failed when the inhabitants of the other regions (Basse-Guinée, Haute-Guinée, Guinée Forestière) ignored his incitements to anti-Fulbe pogroms.
   He decided to deny otherwise deserving Fulbe students access to foreign scholarship, on the basis of their ethnicity. The discriminatory measure met negative reaction throughout Guinea.
   The following year, in 1977, the market women uprising dealt Sékou Touré an almost fatal blow, from which he never recovered.
   From 1978 to his death, six years years later, things went downhill. He tried to change course, among other things, by switching slogans: from Prêt pour la Révolution to Prêt pour la Production.… But it was too late.
   Read André Lewin’s “Sékou Touré : la mort américaine”
   and my own blog “Guinée. Permanence de la criminalité politique”. It includes the petition entitled “Jai vu : on tue des innocents en Guinée-Conakry” by the then Paris-based Comité Telli Diallo.
7. The same fate awaits Alpha Condé and his dumb policy of antagonism, hatred and repression of Guinea main ethnic population.
8. If they don’t —i,e, should they succeed in stoking communal violence and civil war —, then, the time would be ripe to end the miserable existence of the failed and oppressive state of Guinea.

Since his inauguration in 2010, President Alpha Condé has relied on traditional Maninka hunters (donso) to intimidate and often attack Fulbe (Fulani) citizens. This picture shows regular army soldiers celebrating with donso members in Conakry in 2011. Security forces routinely serve as backups for the donso in their rampages into Fulbe family compound following marches organized by the political opposition to demand the respect for human rights and, recently, the implementation of the normal electoral calendar. (T.S. Bah)

Ibrahima Berthe wrote back:

You like criticizing others without bringing on the table your solutions to those problems.Don’t forget that by pointing your index on someone in criticizing him you have 3 fingers of the same hand pointing on yourself.If you don’t have any solution to a problem you better shut up on less [sic! — T.S. Bah] you want expose your stupidity to the world. Ignorant.

I responded:

1. I do have a solution. You just didn’t read it. Well, It’s at the end. And it says: Get rid of the miserable state of Guinea, that you are so fond of. It has only wrought havoc, spreading misery and death in the country. When that system dies, you will no more have to wonder whether Fuuta-Jalon belongs or not.
   Got that?
2. I  do not simply point the finger of blame at the current regime. I criticize its authoritarian strategy and its divisive tactics as bluntly and harshly as I can. I denounce them to draw the attention on the wrong they are doing to Guinea. If you disagree with my views and are not pleased with them, then you have a problem. Obviously, you cannot count on my help. Because it won’t be forthcoming!
3. As for your insolent language, I am not offended a bit when you call me ignorant. At least, I know, according to you, that I don’t know anything.
   But, on the flip side what are you? Mr. Know-It-All? A genius?
   Wow! Congratulations. Your omniscience fits you well. Also, it speaks volume about your inability to debate topics that you are either hostile to or uncomfortable with. And that’s Fuuta-Jalon and Fulbe.
4. I caught you red-handed when I pointed out the real origin of the national anthem. In return, all you did was launch into an inappropriate and hyperbolic talk about “Nous peuples Maninka du Mandingue”  Big deal!
   We all have our respective historical roots and cultural identity. No need to bombastically proclaim yours. We know about it already. Visit my website dedicated to the civilization of your people
5. However, whenever someone writes something positive about the Fulbe, it irritates people of your type. And you just can’t handle it.
   Too bad! Because there is nothing you can do about it, especially in the case of Peter Pham’s article about Alpha Condé’s ethno-strategy.
6. You wish I would “shut up”, as you put it. Not in your wildest dreams will that happen. Not while Alpha Condé seeks to marginalize Fuuta-Jalon, divide its people, and murder its youth (64 — legal and peaceful opposition Fulbe — protesters killed in total impunity by his repressive forces since 2010). Therefore, it is utterly ludicrous to expect my silence while your arsonist president wants to burn Guinea down, and leave it in flames or in smoldering ashes.
   As long as you keep stealth-talking about and sneak-attacking Fuuta-Jalon (again, not Foulah Djalon, as you insinuate), you will hear from me.
   Like or not! Insults or not.
   You are forewarned.

To be continued…

Tierno S. Bah

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Author: Tierno Siradiou Bah

Founder and publisher of webAfriqa, the African content portal, comprising: webAFriqa.net, webFuuta.net, webPulaaku,net, webMande.net, webCote.net, webForet.net, webGuinee.net, WikiGuinee.net, Campboiro.org, AfriXML.net, and webAmeriqa.com.