Guinea's Political Prisoners

Colonial Models, Postcolonial Innovation

Bibliographic Data

ID2108732
AuthorsMairi S Macdonald, Mairi MacDonald (University of Toronto, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume54
Issue4
Pages890-913
Publication date2012-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueComparative Studies in Society and History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0010-4175 • E-ISSN: 1475-2999
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s001041751200045x
OpenAlexW2097254961
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited21

Much postcolonial theory assumes a continuity of both behavior and representation between colonial rule and what has succeeded it across sub-Saharan Africa. The maltreatment of political prisoners in Guinea in the wake of its brief invasion by Portuguese troops in November 1970 provides a challenging but ultimately fruitful empirical record against which to test this theory. I use an analytical approach informed by history, law, anthropology, and communications theory to explore continuities between the legal practices of French colonial and contemporary revolutionary regimes, on one hand, and Guinea's pursuit of supposed traitors, on the other. Though there is more discontinuity than direct inheritance in the administration of justice, the article argues that the representation of Guinea's colonial heritage was a central part of how President Sékou Touré legitimized his state and his own rule. I suggest that the colonial legacy operated more as a benchmark of what behavior might be acceptable in a postcolonial revolutionary state such as Guinea than as a linear precedent from French colonial rule to the Guinean revolution. The regime's representation of its colonial legacy also helps to explain the form, medium, and content of the political prisoners' broadcast confessions

Colonialism · Economic Justice · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Representation (politics · Sociology · State (computer science · African history and culture studies · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Law · North African History and Literature

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