With its palm and African mahogany trees, the site is one of Conakry’s precious few green spaces: A slightly old-fashioned haven by the sea, strikingly calm compared with the capital’s bustle once past its iron gate. Offshore, a rusted shipwreck completes the timeless panoramic view. Walking from the terrace and its worn-out swimming pool, a few steps lead to the three large huts known as “Bellevue.” For a long time, the property was one of the personal residences of Sekou Touré, the father of Guinea’s independence and the country’s first president, who held power from 1958 until his death in 1984. This was where Touré used to enjoy resting and spending time with his friends and family. It was also here that some of his foreign counterparts stayed, such as then-French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, in 1978.

The Bellevue lodges, which are considered to have been left to the state by Touré, the “Grand Syli” (“elephant” in Guinea’s Susu language), were given back to the Touré family by General Mamadi Doumbouya in December 2021, three months after he seized power in a coup. Four years later, Doumbouya, a former corporal in the French Foreign Legion, who had pledged to give power back to civilians at the end of a transition period, is now on track to be elected to the presidency for a seven-year term in office, renewable once. On December 28, he will stand as a candidate in the presidential election, which he is already heavily favored to win. His main political opponents, who have accused him of silencing all dissenting voices and imposing a climate of repression throughout the country, are set to boycott the election.

In the reception room of the Bellevue lodges, a portrait of General Doumbouya stands alongside one of Touré. Bent under the weight of her 91 years, Andrée Touré, the former president’s widow, now lives on the premises, but was too tired to receive guests or show them around. That day, the task fell to her niece, the property’s guardian, who is also named Andrée, though her last name is Camara. An official of the Parti Démocratique de Guinée (PDG), her late uncle Touré’s party, she said that she and her relatives would vote for Doumbouya on December 28. “We owe him infinite gratitude,” she said, without hesitation. “As long as he is here, we support him, because he is Sekou Touré’s political heir.”

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