M'Balia Camara

Photo by M'Balia Camara that has been used many times
	unknown photographer , early 1950s
	Link to the picture; (please note copyrights )

M'Balia Camara (* 1929 in Posséah , French West Africa (today Guinea), † February 18, 1955 in Bembaya ) was a Guinean independence activist and national heroine of Guinea and in particular the Parti Démocratique de Guinée (Democratic Party of Guinea). Sometimes she is called a martyr .

Life

Origin and Political Activity

M'balia Camara was 1929 in Posséah (spelling variations: Poseah, Posseah ), a village in the sub-prefecture Tondon the Prefecture Dubréka , born in a peasant family. She became an activist in the Rassemblement Démocratique Africain (RDA) of Sékou Touré . He fought at the side of her husband Thierno Camara, a veteran of the Second World War, against the French colonization . The two spouses then held senior positions in the RDA subdivision in Tondon, 180 km from Conakry . While M'Balia headed the women's committee, Thierno was in charge of the subdivision.

In Guinea in 1947, the RDA gave rise to the anti-colonial Parti Démocratique de Guinée (PDG). In 1954, the RDA was defeated by Sékou Touré after clearly faked parliamentary elections. This fraud was part of an attempt to curb the rise of the anti-colonialist movement, which was gaining ground in all walks of life. In the canton of Tondon, local canton chief Almamy David Sylla probably helped rig the elections against the RDA. Against the injustice of the election manipulation , the RDA members in Tondon had built up a kind of parallel system to the canton chiefs, who were viewed as lackeys of the colonial power . To oppose the power of the latter, the RDA members decided to pay their taxes directly to the district commanders.

Punitive expedition Syllas and assassination attempt on Camara

To suppress these acts, the colonial administration arrested Thierno Camara and eight other RDA activists on charges of tax evasion . On February 8, 1955, Sylla went to the village of Bembaya to collect taxes. Since the residents had already sent them to the district commander, Sylla threatened them with physical abuse if they didn't pay again immediately. The population reacted to these threats by insulting Sylla, removing the insignia of the colonial power from him and taking him to the house of Thierno Camara. Humiliated, Sylla returned to Tondon the next day with a large armed contingent of the colonial police. To prevent this punitive expedition, the residents of the village of Bembaya threw stones at the soldiers, who took revenge on the crowd with tear gas. Sylla shot the crowd. 37 villagers were injured in the incident. Sylla then went to the Camaras' house and gained entry into the house. There he found M'Balia Camara, then at an advanced stage of pregnancy. Sylla slashed the pregnant woman's stomach with a deliberate blow with her sword. Camara was admitted to the Conakry hospital, miscarried on February 11, and died on February 18, 1955 at the age of 26.

Funeral and remembrance

Camara's death has been described as a decisive event in the history of the Guinean struggle for independence. Far from weakening the passion of the Guinean freedom fighters, this tragic death was to serve as a catalyst for their uprising, which three years later culminated in the country's independence, the first in French West Africa .

At the funeral of M'Balia, who is described by Guinean sources as a martyr in which her imprisoned husband could not attend, Sékou Touré asked the thousands of those present to bring a stone each and place it in a place for the authorities to show how many there were. The first stones of the Guinean Wall of Freedom had just been placed on the belly of the national heroine M'Balia Camara, and her supporters insisted that no one would oppose the construction of the wall.

One estimate was that over 10,000 people attended her funeral, instead of the 1,500 police claimed.

Honors

Sékou Touré himself carried the coffin of the famous deceased to the final resting place. Her remains rest today, with other heroes of the nation, in the mausoleum in the great courtyard of the Fayçal Mosque in Conakry.

Songs were written about her sacrifice and she was held up as a role model for Guinean women in the struggle against colonialism. She was such an influential part of her community that February 9th was named Guinean Women's Day in honor of herself and her efforts .

In Guinea she was a role model for the Guinean women in the fight against colonialism and she is still honored for her militant activism.

The main marketplace in Conakry bears her name. A bust of Camara stands in the courtyard of the National Museum ( Musée national de Sandervalia ) .

literature

Émile Tompapa, Thiany Yansané: M'Balia Camara n'a pas été assassinée: livre posthume . L'Harmattan, Paris 2018, ISBN 978-2-343-15950-8 .
Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong, Henry Louis Gates, Steven J. Niven: Dictionary of African Biography . OUP USA, 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5 , pp. 28 ( books.google.de ).
Elizabeth Schmidt: Cold War and Decolonization in Guinea, 1946–1958 . Ohio University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8214-1763-8 , pp. 85 ( books.google.de ).
Fred L. Hord, Jonathan Scott Lee: I Am Because We are: Readings in Black Philosophy . Univ of Massachusetts Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0-87023-965-6 , pp. 105 ( books.google.de ).

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f M'Balia Camara, martyre de l'indépendance guinéenne. In: nofi.media. 2017, accessed on January 5, 2020 (French).
^ S. Dictionary of African Biography
↑ ^a ^b Homage to M'Balia Camara !!! In: aujourdhui-en-guinee.com. web.archive.org, 2017, archived from the original on September 12, 2017 ; accessed on January 5, 2020 .
↑ Elizabeth Schmidt: Cold War and Decolonization in Guinea, 1946-1958 . Ohio University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8214-1763-8 , pp. 87 ( books.google.com ).
↑ Homage to M'balia Camara. In: tamtamguinee.com. web.archive.org, 2017, archived from the original on September 12, 2017 ; accessed on January 5, 2020 .
↑ Kathleen E. Sheldon : Historical Dictionary of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa . Scarecrow Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-8108-5331-7 , pp. 1 ( books.google.com ).

personal data
SURNAME	Camara, M'Balia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Guinean independence activist and national heroine
DATE OF BIRTH	1929
PLACE OF BIRTH	Posséah , French West Africa
DATE OF DEATH	February 18, 1955
Place of death	Bembaya , French West Africa

[nofi-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f M'Balia Camara, martyre de l'indépendance guinéenne. In: nofi.media. 2017, accessed on January 5, 2020 (French).

[2] S. Dictionary of African Biography

[aujourdhui-en-guinee-3] Homage to M'Balia Camara !!! In: aujourdhui-en-guinee.com. web.archive.org, 2017, archived from the original on September 12, 2017 ; accessed on January 5, 2020 .

[Schmidt-4] Elizabeth Schmidt: Cold War and Decolonization in Guinea, 1946-1958 . Ohio University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8214-1763-8 , pp. 87 ( books.google.com ).

[tamtamguinee-5] Homage to M'balia Camara. In: tamtamguinee.com. web.archive.org, 2017, archived from the original on September 12, 2017 ; accessed on January 5, 2020 .

[Sheldon-6] Kathleen E. Sheldon : Historical Dictionary of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa . Scarecrow Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-8108-5331-7 , pp. 1 ( books.google.com ).