Using my experience working in the Regional Archives of Labé (Guinea), this essay examines the importance of using local archives to write political histories of postcolonial Africa. In doing so, I argue that the fractured and fragmentary nature of the postcolonial holdings of archives -often cited as a hurdle to writing histories of Africa after independence -is in fact the product of the states that (sometimes inadequately) maintain these repositories. As such, these "imperfect" archives should be approached as an opportunity to examine the local practice of statehood in postcolonial Africa.Résumé : Sur la base de mon travail dans les archives régionales de Labé (Guinée-Conakry) je suggère dans cet essai l'importance cruciale des dépôts provinciaux pour écrire une histoire véritablement plurielle du politique en Afrique postcoloniale. Je soutiens que la nature fragmentaire de ces dépôts -souvent invoquée comme un obstacle à l'histoire de l'Afrique après les indépendances -offre une perspective unique sur les instances étatiques locales et sur leur techniques (parfois inaptes) de classement et de conservation documentaire. Il est donc important d'approcher ces archives "imparfaites" comme une opportunité permettant d'explorer les pratiques institutionnelles locales de l'Afrique postcoloniale.

This article examines how contestation between political parties, politicians, and their supporters shaped Guinea's decolonization from 1945 to 1961. The last region to resist the rise of Sékou Touré's PDG, the Fulbe-dominated Futa Jallon – as both a political space and representation of Fulbe culture – was at the center of strategic and intellectual struggles over the shape of the postcolonial Guinean state and society. What resulted from contestation was the general belief that the Fulbe and the Futa Jallon were divergent from the rest of Guinea, a fragment in the making.

Following independence in 1958, hundreds of Guinean soldiers, students, and politicians fled their home country in order to build an opposition to President Sékou Touré in exile. This article examines how these exiles built regional and global networks in order to effect political change. In turn, West African states sought to manage exiles in order to apply political pressure on regional rivals. Despite their liminality in a region increasingly dominated by national politics and international organizations, exiles were at the centre of political contestations surrounding citizenship, sovereignty, and human rights that emerged in the three decades following decolonization. Their history underscores the importance of regional frameworks in shaping the post-colonial order in West Africa.

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