ABSTRACT
A third leader to emerge in this era of independence was Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea, who had helped HouphouëtBoigny found the RDA. In 1958, the French under Charles de Gaulle sponsored a referendum in which the territories of French West Africa could choose to become to become autonomous republics within the French community. Seven of the eight territories voted for the referendum, but Guinea, under Sékou Touré’s leadership, did not. A poet like Senghor, Sékou Touré famously told French president de Gaulle, “We prefer poverty in liberty to riches in slavery.” Within two years, all of the nations of French West Africa had followed Sékou Touré’s lead and gained their independence from France.
