Bond's trip to Guinea broadened his perspective on African-U.S. black relations
Guinea sought self-rule during the era of African decolonization. Bond recalls the ebullience of the Guinese government and populace to establish the country's independence. Movement activists' journey to Guinea opened their eyes to a Pan-African struggle.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Julian Bond, November 1 and 22, 1999. Interview R-0345. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- JULIAN BOND:
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I had never ever seen that anywhere before. It's fairly
common now. But she got her hair corn-rowed in an African village.
"Wow, oo, look at that." So it was just a wonderful
experience. It was my first trip to Africa, and it was a real eye
opener. To go to a country that had said no to France. When France
released its colonies, they gave them a choice. They could stay within
the French Commonwealth like the British Commonwealth, and every colony
except Guinea said, yes. Guinea said, "No. We want to be
independent. We want to stand on our own." The president of
Guinea would come and have dinner with us in our place. He told us that
when he was a boy. He said, "I knew more about French history
than I knew about the history of my own country. I knew about
Charlemagne. I knew all the princes and kings of France, but I knew
nothing about [Guinean] history. So we wanted to break away. And, when
the French left, they took everything with them. They took the
telephones. They took the telephone lines. They took the toilet paper.
They took everything." So this poor country was sort of
starting all over again. But it was a wonderful place. It was a great
trip.
- ELIZABETH GRITTER:
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You were guests of the government?
- JULIAN BOND:
-
Yes, we were the guests of the government, so we were driven around and
taken on tours.
- ELIZABETH GRITTER:
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How did that make you feel about the United States because here you are
guests? What effect did that have?
- JULIAN BOND:
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Well, the United States was hostile to Guinea because Guinea had left
the French Commonwealth. Guinea was an independent nation. Guinea
wasn't following the United States line. I think we felt good
because we didn't think the United States line was the good
line. We thought these African countries have to assert some
independence. If they think something's right for them, they
have to be able to say so. So, and it was exciting to see the president,
whose name was Sekou Toure, who was an intelligent man and just want to
think—. You grow up in this country and you get an image of
Africans running around in loincloths hunting animals, cannibals, eating
each other, voodoo. These are intelligent, sophisticated people, not at
all what we had been taught they were. I was just a real eye opener. It
was a fabulous trip. On my way back with two other guys—Bill
Hansen was there, Matthew Jones was there too—we stopped off
and spent a long week in Paris on the way back. It was my first time in
Paris. It was exciting. Oo la la.