Ahmed Sékou Touré, the first President of the independent Republic of the Guinea Conakry from 1958 to 1984, imposed a Marxist-inspired and pan-Africanist policy. He believes that Africa has lost so much during colonisation and that it should retaliate by cutting ties with former colonial countries. As a figure of the pan-Africanist movement, he still attacks the former colonial powers, and befriends African-American activists such as Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael. Sékou Touré is awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1961.