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Forum for Modern Language Studies Advance Access originally published online on August 27, 2009
Forum for Modern Language Studies 2009 45(4):455-471; doi:10.1093/fmls/cqp113
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© The Author (2009). Published by Oxford University Press for the Court of the University of St Andrews. All rights reserved. The University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland: No. SC013532.

This article appears in the following Forum for Modern Language Studies issue: SPECIAL ISSUE: Perspectives on Africa [View the issue table of contents]

Une nouvelle révolution permanente: The Making of African Modernity in Sékou Touré's Guinea

Nomi Dave

St John's College
Oxford OX1 3JP
United Kingdom

nomi.dave{at}sjc.ox.ac.uk

  Abstract

As president of the first independent country in francophone Africa, Sékou Touré articulated a particular vision of African modernity, standing in contrast to Senghor's négritude and Nkrumah's African nationalism, that is worth rescuing from oblivion. His influential programme of cultural nationalism, however autocratically imposed, produced in particular innovative forms of music that gained widespread popularity. For Touré, promotion of African art and performance was integral to rebuilding an African sense of self. Music should blend traditional forms with modern but not European styles (Cuba was an important reference). This new African music was pioneered by the Guinean dance troupe, Les Ballets Africains, and encouraged through a system of local, regional and national cultural festivals. In line with Touré's rejection of the cultural and political implications of Senghor's négritude, Guinea boycotted the 1966 Festival des Arts Nègres in Dakar, but took a leading role in the 1969 Pan-African Festival in Algiers.

Key Words: Guinea • Touré, Sékou • négritude • Senghor, Léopold • Nkrumah, Kwame • Keita, Fodéba • African music • African dance • pan-Africanism


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