Alpha Yaya Diallo

Alpha Yaya Diallo (1830 – 1912) was the ruler of Labé, one of the nine provinces of the Imamate of Futa Jallon in present-day Guinea; the French article describes him as a Fula warrior known as the "king" of Labé, and the English article names him Alfa Yaya Diallo Maudo. ^{1 2} He extended his power over much of the Islamic confederation of Futa Jallon by coming to terms with the advancing French, died in exile at Port-Étienne in 1912, and became a national symbol in independent Guinea: its national anthem is adapted from a song composed in his honour around 1903, and its principal military camp bears his name. ¹

The English article gives no year for his birth, saying only that he was born in the mid-19th century in the village of Fulamori, Guinea; his father was Alfa Ibrahima Diallo, then leader of Labé and a central figure during the siege of Kansala, capital of the kingdom of Kaabu. ² The French article and Wikidata date his birth to 1830. ^{1 3} His name carries the title "Alfa", the Fula clerical title borne by his father before him.

Alfa Yaya rose to power as the French began pushing into the interior of Guinea, adopting a favourable stance toward them and using them to enhance his own power. ² After the French defeated Futa Jallon in 1896, he signed an accord with them on 10 February 1897; his domains remained theoretically part of Futa Jallon, but he could contact the French authorities about them without the Almami's permission, so they became effectively independent from the rest of the federation. ² His relationship with the French went downhill in 1904, when France ceded part of Labé to Portuguese Guinea, taking away part of his territory. ² The government of French Guinea arrested him the following year and deported him to the colony of Dahomey in 1905. ² The French article adds that he was exiled on an accusation of fomenting a rising against French colonial authority, that on his return from forced exile (1905–1910) he was arrested again at Conakry, condemned to final deportation and imprisoned in the dry penal colony of Port-Étienne (today Nouadhibou, Mauritania), where he died in 1912. ¹ The English article adds that he was released in 1910, arrested again in 1911 and taken to Port Etienne, where he died of scurvy the following year, on 10 August 1912; that his remains were returned to Guinea in 1968 and his tomb is at the Camayenne Mausoleum within the gardens of the Conakry Grand Mosque; and that he had been succeeded as head of a much-reduced Labé province in January 1906 by Alfa Alimou. ²

This section is read as a presentation of positions reported from the sources, not as a verdict of the museum.

The sources disagree on his death date, and the museum states the disagreement rather than merging it: the French article and Wikidata give 10 October 1912, the English article gives 10 August 1912, while all agree on Port-Étienne as the place and on the setting of his second arrest and final deportation. ^{1 3 2} They also differ on his birth: 1830 in the French article and Wikidata, only "the mid-19th century" in the English article. ^{1 2} His image in the sources is double by nature: a ruler who built his effective independence by agreement with the rising colonial power, then was crushed by that same power when their interests collided over land; independent Guinea's commemoration of him — in the anthem, the military camp, and his portrait as a prisoner on the fifty-franc notes at the creation of its currency on 1 March 1960 — reads him as a symbol of late resistance rather than of collaboration, and the museum reports that reading without adopting it. ^{1 2} His faith is recorded as unknown in his data record, because no source read attributes a madhhab or a tariqa to him by name; the Islam of the Futa Jallon state whose province he ruled is a political fact, and the clerical title "Alfa" was inherited from his father — neither stands in for an attestation of the man's own school. ^{2 1}

• The defined sources cited above, registered in data/source/.
• Later translations and edits of this article need periodic review with clear update dates.