appointed her as Minister of Social Affairs and a member of the Democratic Party of Guinea Politburo. After Touré's death in 1984, she was arrested along with numbers of other political leaders and detained for 13 months before being released without charge. After the failed coup attempt of Diarra Traoré in July 1985, she left Guinea, moving first to Senegal and then to the United States. In 1988, she joined the International Committee of Solidarity for Women and Children in Southern Africa. In 2004, she was a member of the International Association of Francophone Women. In 2006, U.S. President George W. Bush sent a message of congratulations on Martin Cissé's 80th birthday, acknowledging "her courage and her work". Martin Cissé's biography, Daughter of the Milo, was published in 2008. In 2014, South African President Jacob Zuma awarded Martin Cissé the Oliver Tambo Order to acknowledge her role as a leader and model in the struggle for women's rights in Africa. She has, however, been criticized for trivialising the crimes of Touré, under whose regime up to 50,000 people were killed. Awards and honors Kuumba award for "significant contributions to African people", 1974 Lenin Peace Prize, 1975 Order of the Companions of O. R. Tambo, 2014, for her "excellent contribution in denouncing apartheid on the world stage of the United Nations and her stand against injustices that were happening in South Africa during apartheid." Personal life and death In 1946, Martin Cissé married Mohamed Camara, a police inspector whom she did not know. He died in a car accident later that year when she was three months pregnant. In 1948, she married Ansoumane Touré, one of the founders of the Guinea Democratic Party. He died in Camp Boiro prison in 1971 after being arrested in the aftermath of Operation Mar Verde. Martin Cissé had six children. She lived in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Martin Cissé died on 21 February 2017. Publications References 1926 births 2017 deaths Women government ministers of Guinea People from Kankan Recipients of the Order of the Companions of O. R. Tambo Permanent Representatives of Guinea to the United Nations Democratic Party of Guinea – African Democratic Rally politicians Guinean pan-Africanists Lenin Peace Prize recipients Guinean women writers Guinean schoolteachers Guinean women diplomats Guinean women ambassadors Social affairs ministers of Guinea