Sheku Turay or Ture; N'Ko: ߛߋߞߎ߬ ߕߎ߬ߙߋ; 9 January 1922 – 26 March 1984) was a Guinean political leader and African statesman who was the first president of Guinea from 1958 until his death in 1984.

[3] His father Alpha Touré was originally from the French Sudan (now Mali), and had migrated to the traditional gold mining town of Siguiri with his brothers.

Sékou's birth supposedly coincided with an omen - a baby elephant was brought to Faranah and presented to the French colonial authorities.

He allegedly failed the exams to enter the École normale supérieure William Ponty for refusing to write an essay critical of his ancestor Samori Toure.

[4][better source needed] He was enrolled in the Georges Poiret Technical College in Conakry in 1936 but was expelled less than a year later at the age of 15 for leading a student protest against the quality of food and quickly became involved in labor union activity.

As a result, he was elected as one of the three secretaries-general of the French Communist Party's Confédération Générale du Travail (General Confederation of Labour; CGT) in 1954.

[9] The French minister Robert Buron admitted in 1968 that it had been rigged by France to prevent Sékou Touré from winning.

They unscrewed light bulbs, removed plans for sewage pipelines in Conakry, the capital, and even burned medicines rather than leave them for the Guineans.

During his presidency, Touré's policies were strongly based on socialism, with the nationalization of foreign companies and centralized economic plans.

His approach towards his opponents caused charges to be brought from Amnesty International (as well as other human rights organizations), accusing his rule to be too oppressive.

[15] As a leader of the Pan-Africanist movement, Touré consistently spoke out against colonial powers, and befriended African American civil rights activists such as Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael, to whom he offered asylum.

[citation needed] He feared that the Central Intelligence Agency, as well as the Soviet Union, were plotting against his own regime even though he was taking economic aid from both parties.

[citation needed] Touré directed waves of arrests, detentions, and some executions of known and suspected opposition leaders in Guinea followed this military operation.

[citation needed] Guinea expelled the US Peace Corps in 1966 because of their alleged involvement in a plot to overthrow President Touré.

[17]), French university teachers Maria Candéa an Laélia Véron praise Touré for having made official eight local languages of Guinea.

[18] After an alleged Fulani plot to assassinate Touré was disclosed in May 1976, Diallo Telli, a cabinet minister and formerly the first secretary-general of the OAU, was arrested and sent to prison.

[citation needed] In 1977, protests against the regime's economic policy, which dealt harshly with unauthorized trading, led to riots in which three regional governors were killed.

Touré responded by relaxing restrictions on trading, offering amnesty to exiles (thousands of whom returned), and releasing hundreds of political prisoners.

Relations with the Soviet bloc grew cooler, as Touré sought to increase Western aid and private investment for Guinea's sagging economy.

Following the discovery of mass graves in 2002, reports of 50,000 people being killed under the regime of Touré were widely disseminated by groups such as the Camp Boiro Memorial organization.

[18] Domestically, Sékou Touré pursued socialist economic policies, including nationalizations of banks, energy and transportation; in foreign affairs, he joined the Non-Aligned Movement and developed very close relations with Mao Zedong and the People's Republic of China.

While in Washington, Touré urged for more American private investment in Guinea, and claimed that the country had "fabulous economic potential" due to its mineral reserves.

[11] It was part of his economic policy change that led him to seek Western investment in order to develop Guinea's huge mineral reserves.

[citation needed] Touré died of an apparent heart attack on 26 March 1984 while undergoing cardiac treatment in the United States, at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, for emergency heart surgery;[27][11] he had been rushed to the United States after being stricken in Saudi Arabia the previous day.

The Political Bureau of the ruling Guinea Democratic Party was due to name its choice as Touré's successor on 3 April 1984.

Under the constitution, the PDG's new leader would have been automatically elected to a seven-year term as president and confirmed in office by the voters by the end of spring.

Colonel Lansana Conté, leader of the coup, assumed the presidency on 5 April, heading the Military Committee of National Restoration (Comité Militaire de Redressement National—CMRN).