Until Mohamed Sarah Jalloh organized the Guinea Association of America in 1997, New York City immigrants from his West African homeland were often split by political and tribal rivalries.

"I've been working very hard to get everybody together," Jalloh said yesterday.

The fatal police shooting of Ahmed Diallo made the job a lot easier.

"Everybody is very angry over this," said Jalloh after a meeting of Guinean community leaders at the country's United Nations Mission in Manhattan. "We are united."

In a sense, Diallo's story is the saga of many immigrants in the local Guinean community, estimated at 1,000 to 4,000 members and growing.

Like him, most come from the Fula tribe, the largest group in their French-speaking homeland of roughly 7 million.

Like him, many work the bone-wearying long hours that are the immigrant's lot, often driving livery cabs or selling T-shirts and other goods on city sidewalks.

And like Diallo, who lived in the Bronx' Soundview section, most settled in small enclaves in the South Bronx, Harlem, Flatbush and Crown Heights, Brooklyn, or LeFrak City in Queens.

They come, in part, seeking freedom from the political factionalism behind the recent bulldozing of some homes in Conakry, Guinea's capital. "The owners were from a party critical of the government," explained Jalloh.