Word: guinea
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...military takeover in Guinea...
Economically, Guinea fared little better under Toure. Despite its vast resources of bauxite (used to make aluminum), diamonds and iron, Guinea remains a desperately poor nation. Annual per capita income is $290, life expectancy is less than 40 years, and the infant mortality rate is tragically high. In the rundown capital of Conakry, there has been little new construction in 25 years. Businesses must provide their own services, even such basic ones as electricity and water. Malnourished children play listlessly in the streets...
...struggles preceding independence, Toure allied himself with the movement for African nationalism. He was instrumental in abolishing Guinea's tribal chieftaincies, which he considered corrupt, and in establishing more than 4,000 elected village councils. When the nation's first election was held in 1958, he was swept into office. "revolutionary socialism" to industrialize the economy, and he turned to the Soviet Union for assistance. But Guinea remained beset by chronic underproduction, inflation and black-marketeering. In the mid-'70s, Toure made a bow toward the West...
...last week. He died on the operating table after undergoing 5½ hours of surgery for a heart condition. Reactions to his death understandably differed. Zimbabwe Prime Minister Robert Mugabe called Toure a "true patriot" and a "loss to the entire African continent." Elsewhere, in the nearby Ivory Coast, Guinea's jubilant exiles downed champagne...
DIED. Ahmed Sékou Touré, 62, President of Guinea; during emergency heart surgery; in Cleveland (see WORLD...