Word: guinea
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...House of Representatives, is falling apart as more and more of its own Representatives climb on the Kenyatta bandwagon, lured by government jobs and patronage. As a result, Kenya will probably become a typically African one-party state, but probably not in so virulent a form as Ghana or Guinea. No one can ignore the difficulties ahead-the uneasiness of the remaining white settlers, the fears of the Asians who control most of the nation's commerce, the age-old tribal rivalries that could explode into separatism or tribal...
...African statesman," allows Guinea's President Sekou Touré, "is not a naked boy begging from rich capitalists." On the contrary, many of his country's well-dressed officials own sumptuous villas and cars, favor French food, American cigarettes and Scotch whisky (at $18 a bottle). Conakry, Guinea's sweltering capital, has plans for two new luxury hotels-one to be built by the U.S., the other by the Russians. But 'Guinea (pop. 3,300,000), once one of French West Africa's richest countries, after five years of independence has become...
Sears, with Credit. Despite diversified agriculture and abundant natural resources (notably, bauxite, iron, diamonds), Strongman Touré's blend of xenophobia and socialism saddled the country with severe food shortages, inflation and gaping trade deficits. The trouble, as one Western visitor puts it, is that Guinea's government has long viewed foreign aid as "one big Sears, Roebuck store, with unlimited credit...
Alone among France's black African territories, Guinea chose total independence rather than Charles de Gaulle's offer of continued "association." When French aid was cut off, Toure turned instinctively to the Soviet bloc, whose economic embrace rapidly made Guinea a kind of cold-war Erewhon. In re turn for its prized pineapples, bananas and other produce, Moscow sent tropical Guinea overpriced, superannuated snowplows, prefabricated housing units that its workmen cannot assemble, and a plant to produce shaved ice, which melts instantly in Conakry's savage heat...
...more astute aidmanship gambits, he later snubbed Moscow by strengthening his ties with Peking, whose technicians have already built a match factory and a cigarette plant. But Russian-dictated "reforms" and Touré's own policies persisted. On Moscow's urging, Touré had divorced Guinea's currency from France's monetary system, flooded the country with new paper francs embellished with his portrait, which were almost valueless outside Guinea. As a result, cattle, coffee and bananas -and U.S. Food for Peace supplies-were smuggled into neighboring countries to be sold for hard currency. Toure also...