When Guinea gained independence from
France on October 2, 1958, the country came under
the rule of Ahmed Sekou Toure, a Malinke, and
his Guinean Democratic Party, which was largely
made up of people from the Malinke ethnic
group. During the almost 30 years that Sekou
Toure ruled, the Malinke ethnic group enjoyed a
prominent position in the political and social life
of the country to the chagrin of the Susu and other
ethnic groups. But for the political dexterity and
sometimes repressive rule of Toure, the resentment
between the other ethnic groups and the Malinke
could easily have led to war.
However, the situation has changed in the past
2 decades in favor of the Susu people. In 1984,
Colonel Lasagna Conte, a Susu, seized power in a
bloodless coup soon after the death of Sekou
Toure and later became the president through
a disputed general election. Conte’s more than
22-year rule has undoubtedly given the Susu
prominence in the Guinean society. In addition to
the fact that the ruling party, the Unity and
Progress Party, is dominated by Susus, many of
the top political, civil service, and military posi-
tions are held by persons from the Susu ethnic
group. In general, most Susu are economically and
socially better off than persons from other ethnic
groups because they face no economic or cultural
discrimination.
Moses Ohene BineySee alsoAncestors
Further Readings
O’Toole, T. (1987).Historical Dictionary of Guinea.
Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.
Tuttle, K. (1999). Soso. In K. A. Appiah & H. L. Gates
(Eds.),Africana:The Encyclopedia of the African and
African American Experience(p. 1754). New York:
Basic Civitas Books.
SWAHILI
The Swahili or Waswahili are a community of people
who were originally merchants and traders along the
coastal regions of East Africa in countries such as
Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Somalia. These
historically African people subscribed to a variety of
traditional African religions, values, customs, and
beliefs. Scholars suggest that, as the Swahili commu-
nity evolved, they intermarried and developed close
relationships with a variety of other ethnic groups,
also traders and merchants, who were mainly
Persians and Arabs as well as members of other
African communities. Because this indigenous
African community exchanged goods with Persians,
Arabs, and members of other ethnic groups, there
was a reciprocal sharing of culture. As in many eth-
nically diverse communities, this cultural sharing
produced distinct artifacts, foods, and music partic-
ular to the East African indigenous communities
along the coast, later called Swahili. Moreover,
scholars argue that the Swahili are one of the oldest
African civilizations. There are several accounts of
travelers who specifically wrote about the indigenous
people of the East African coast, the most common
being the account of Periplus of the Erytharaean Sea
written by a Greek traveler in the 1st century.
Over time, through marriage, business, and
other social relationships, the indigenous commu-
nities, the Swahili people, converted to Islam
while still maintaining significant aspects of their
African religion and other Africanisms. As a
result, today the Swahili people are mostly Muslim,
followers of the Prophet Muhammad with a
monotheist belief in one God. The Swahili people,
like many other African peoples, had a prosperous
and flourishing civilization long before the arrival
of Europeans. Details about the intricacies of that
indigenous population and their daily inner work-
ings are still being uncovered. The evolving
Swahili people moved to various places through-
out East Africa, and Swahili culture remained
intact except with some varying differences,
mainly in the dialects. Some scholars argue that
the Swahili people have a much longer and intri-
cate history than was once believed. Unlike a great
majority of other African people who come from
oral traditions, the Swahili have an old writing
tradition, which was considerably influenced by
Arab settlers. However, even with Arab influence,
the Swahili people are distinctly African, having
close ties to a variety of other ethnic groups.
There have been numerous debates regarding
the origins of the Swahili and their authentic iden-
tity. Today, scholars are revealing that the Swahili640 Swahili