History of Togo
Little is known about the history of
Togo before the late 15th century, when
Portuguese explorers arrived.
Various tribes moved into the country from all sides - the
Ewe from
Nigeria and
Benin, and the
Mina and the
Guin from
Ghana. These three groups settled along the coast. When the slave trade began in earnest in the 16th century, the Mina benefited the most. They became ruthless agents for the European slave-traders and would travel north to buy slaves from the Kabye and other northern tribes. Europeans built forts in neighboring Ghana (at
Elmina) and Benin (at
Ouidah), but not in Togo, which had no natural harbours. For the next 200 years, the coastal region was a major raiding center for Europeans in search of slaves, earning Togo and the surrounding region the name "The Slave Coast." In an
1884 treaty signed at
Togoville,
Germany declared a protectorate over a stretch of territory along the coast and gradually extended its control inland. Because it became Germany's only self-supporting colony,
Togoland was known as its model possession. On
August 26 1914, Togoland was invaded by
French and
British forces and fell after five days of brief resistance. In
1916, Togoland was divided into French and British administrative zones. Following the war, Togoland formally became a
League of Nations mandate divided for administrative purposes between France and the United Kingdom.
After
World War II, the mandate became a
UN trust territory administered by the United Kingdom and France. During the mandate and trusteeship periods, western Togo was administered as part of the
British Gold Coast. In December
1956, the residents of
British Togoland voted to join the Gold Coast as part of the new independent nation of
Ghana.
By statute in
1955,
French Togoland became an autonomous republic within the French union, although it retained its UN trusteeship status. A legislative assembly elected by universal adult suffrage had considerable power over internal affairs, with an elected executive body headed by a prime minister responsible to the legislature. These changes were embodied in a constitution approved in a
1956 referendum. On
September 10, 1956,
Nicolas Grunitzky became prime minister of the Republic of Togo. However, due to irregularities in the plebiscite, an unsupervised general election was held in
1958 and won by
Sylvanus Olympio. On
April 27,
1960, in a smooth transition, Togo severed its constitutional ties with France, shed its UN trusteeship status, and became fully independent under a provisional constitution with Olympio as president.
A new constitution in
1961 established an executive president, elected for 7 years by universal suffrage and a weak National Assembly. The president was empowered to appoint ministers and dissolve the assembly, holding a monopoly of executive power. In elections that year, from which Grunitzky's party was disqualified, Olympio's party won 90% of the vote and all 51 National Assembly seats, and he became Togo's first elected president.
During this period, four principal political parties existed in Togo: the leftist
Juvento (Togolese youth movement); the
Union Démocratique des Populations Togolaises (IDPT); the
Parti Togolais du Progrès (PTP), founded by Grunitzky but having limited support; and the
Unité Togolaise (UT), the party of President Olympio. Rivalries between elements of these parties had begun as early as the 1940s, and they came to a head with Olympio dissolving the opposition parties in January
1962 because of alleged plots against the majority party government. The reign of Mr Olympio was marked by the terror of his militia, the Ablode Sodjas. Many opposition members, including Grunitzky and Meatchi, were jailed or fled to avoid arrest.
On
January 13,
1963, President Olympio was assassinated in an uprising of army non-commissioned officers dissatisfied with conditions following their discharge from the French army. Grunitzky returned from exile 2 days later to head a provisional government with the title of prime minister. On
May 5, 1963, the Togolese adopted a new constitution which reinstated a multi-party system, chose deputies from all political parties for the National Assembly, and elected Grunitzky as president and
Antoine Meatchi as vice president. Nine days later, President Grunitzky formed a government in which all parties were represented.
During the next several years, the Grunitzky government's power became insecure. On
November 21,
1966, an attempt to overthrow Grunitzky, inspired principally by civilian political opponents in the UT party, was unsuccessful. Grunitzky then tried to lessen his reliance on the army, but on
January 13,
1967, a coup led by Lt. Col.
Étienne Eyadéma (later Gen. Gnassingbé Eyadéma) and
Kléber Dadjo ousted President Grunitzky in a bloodless military coup. Political parties were banned, and all constitutional processes were suspended. Dadjo became the chairman of the "committee of national reconciliation", which ruled the country until
April 14, when Eyadéma assumed the presidency. In late
1969, a single national political party, the
Rally of the Togolese People (RPT), was created, and President Eyadéma was elected party president on
November 29, 1969. In
1972, a national referendum, in which Eyadéma ran unopposed, confirmed his role as the country's president.
The third republic
 |
Gnassingbé Eyadéma |
In late
1979, Eyadéma declared a third republic and a transition to greater civilian rule with a mixed civilian and military cabinet. He garnered 99.97% of the vote in uncontested presidential elections held in late 1979 and early
1980. A new constitution also provided for a national assembly to serve primarily as a consultative body. Eyadéma was reelected to a third consecutive 7-year term in December
1986 with 99.5% of the vote in an uncontested election. On
September 23, 1986, a group of some 70 armed Togolese dissidents crossed into
Lomé from
Ghana in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the Eyadéma government.
The Opposition
In
1989 and
1990, Togo, like many other countries, was affected by the winds of democratic change sweeping Eastern Europe and the
Soviet Union. On
October 5, 1990, the trial of students who handed out antigovernment tracts sparked riots in Lomé. Antigovernment demonstrations and violent clashes with the security forces marked the months that followed. In April
1991, the government began negotiations with newly formed opposition groups and agreed to a general amnesty that permitted exiled political opponents to return to Togo. After a general strike and further demonstrations, the government and opposition signed an agreement to hold a "national forum" on
June 12, 1991.
The national forum, dominated by opponents of President Eyadéma, opened in July 1991 and immediately declared itself to be a sovereign "National Conference." Although subjected to severe harassment from the government, the conference drafted an interim constitution calling for a 1-year transitional regime tasked with organizing free elections for a new government. The conference selected
Joseph Kokou Koffigoh, a lawyer and human rights group head, as transitional prime minister but kept President Eyadéma as chief of state for the transition, although with limited powers.
A test of wills between the president and his opponents followed over the next 3 years during which President Eyadéma gradually gained the upper hand. Frequent political paralysis and intermittent violence marked this period. Following a vote by the transitional legislature (High Council of the Republic) to dissolve the President's political partyin November 1991, the army attacked the prime minister's office on
December 3 and captured the prime minister. Koffigoh then formed a second transition government in January
1992 with substantial participation by ministers from the President's party. Opposition leader
Gilchrist Olympio, son of the slain president Sylvanus Olympio, was ambushed and seriously wounded apparently by soldiers on
May 5, 1992.
In July and August 1992, a commission composed of presidential and opposition representatives negotiated a new political agreement. On
September 27, the public overwhelmingly approved the text of a new, democratic constitution, formally initiating Togo's fourth republic.
Powerless legislature and political violence
The democratic process was set back in October 1992, when elements of the army held the interim legislature hostage for 24 hours. This effectively put an end to the interim legislature. In retaliation, on
November 16, opposition political parties and labor unions declared a general strike intended to force President Eyadéma to agree to satisfactory conditions for elections. The general strike largely shut down Lomé for months and resulted in severe damage to the economy.
In January
1993, President Eyadéma declared the transition at an end and reappointed Koffigoh as prime minister under Eyadéma's authority. This set off public demonstrations, and, on
January 25, members of the security forces fired on peaceful demonstrators, killing at least 19. In the ensuing days, several security force members were waylaid and injured or killed by civilian oppositionists. On
January 30,
1993, elements of the military went on an 8-hour rampage throughout Lomé, firing indiscriminately and killing at least 12 people. This incident provoked more than 300,000 Togolese to flee Lomé for
Benin, Ghana, or the interior of Togo. Although most had returned by early
1996, some still remain abroad.
On
March 25, 1993, armed Togolese dissident commandos based in Ghana attacked Lomé's main military camp and tried unsuccessfully to kill President Eyadéma. They inflicted significant casualties, however, which set off lethal reprisals by the military against soldiers thought to be associated with the attackers.
Negotiating with the Opposition
Under substantial domestic and foreign pressure and the burden of the general strike, the presidential faction entered negotiations with the opposition in early 1993. Four rounds of talks led to the
July 11 Ouagadougou agreement setting forth conditions for upcoming presidential and legislative elections and ending the general strike as of
August 3, 1993. The presidential elections were set for
August 25, but hasty and inadequate technical preparations, concerns about fraud, and the lack of effective campaign organization by the opposition led the chief opposition candidatesto drop out of the race before election day and to call for a boycott. President Eyadéma won the elections by a 96.42% vote against token opposition. About 36% of the voters went to the polls; the others boycotted.
Ghana-based armed dissidents launched a new commando attack on military sites in Lomé in January 1994. President Eyadéma was unhurt, and the attack and subsequent reaction by the Togolese armed forces resulted in hundreds of deaths, mostly civilian. The government went ahead with legislative elections on
February 6 and
February 20, 1994. In generally free and fair polls as witnessed by international observers, the allied opposition parties UTD and CAR together won a narrow majority in the National Assembly.
Edem Kodjo named as Prime Minister
On April 22, President Eyadéma named Edem Kodjo, the head of the smaller opposition party, the UTD, as prime minister instead of Yawovi Agboyibo, whose CAR party had far more seats. Kodjo's acceptance of the post of prime minister provoked the CAR to break the opposition alliance and refuse to join the Kodjo government.
Kodjo was then forced to form a governing coalition with the RPT. Kodjo's government emphasized economic recovery, building democratic institutions and the rule of law and the return of Togolese refugees abroad. In early
1995, the government made slow progress toward its goals, aided by the CAR's August 1995 decision to end a 9-month boycott of the National Assembly. However, Kodjo was forced to reshuffle his government in late 1995, strengthening the representation by Eyadéma's RPT party, and he resigned in August 1996. Since then, Eyadéma has reemerged with a sure grip on power, controlling most aspects of government.
In the June
1998 presidential election, the government prevented citizens from effectively exercising the right to vote. The Interior Ministry declared Eyadéma the winner with 52% of the vote in the 1998 election; however, serious irregularities in the government's conduct of the election strongly favored the incumbent and appear to have affected the outcome materially. Although the government did not obstruct the functioning of political opponents openly, the President used the strength of the military and his government allies to intimidate and harass citizens and opposition groups. The government and the state remained highly centralized: President Eyadéma's national government appointed the officials and controlled the budgets of all subnational government entities, including prefectures and municipalities, and influenced the selection of traditional chiefs.
National Assembly elections
The second multi-party legislative elections of Eyadéma's 33-year rule were held on
March 21,
1999. However, the opposition boycotted the election, in which the ruling party won 79 of the 81 seats in the National Assembly. Those two seats went to candidates from little-known independent parties. Procedural problems and significant fraud, particularly misrepresentation of voter turnout marred the legislative elections.
|
Eyadema addresses the U.N. Millennium Summit in New York in 2000. |
After the legislative election, the government announced that it would continue to pursue dialog with the opposition. In June 1999, the RPT and opposition parties met in Paris, in the presence of facilitators representing France, Germany, the
European Union, and
La Francophonie (an international organization of French-speaking countries), to agree on security measures for formal negotiations in Lomé. In July 1999, the government and the opposition began discussions, and on
July 29, 1999, all sides signed an accord called the "
Lomé Framework Agreement," which included a pledge by President Eyadéma that he would respect the constitution and not seek another term as president after his current one expires in
2003. The accord also called for the negotiation of a legal status for opposition leaders, as well as for former heads of state (such as their immunity from prosecution for acts in office). In addition, the accord addressed the rights and duties of political parties and the media, the safe return of refugees, and the security of all citizens. The accord also contained a provision for compensating victims of political violence. The President also agreed to dissolve the National Assembly in March and hold new legislative elections, which would be supervised by an independent national election commission (
CENI) and which would use the single-ballot method to protect against some of the abuses of past elections. However, the March
2000 date passed without presidential action, and new legislative elections were ultimately rescheduled for October
2001. Because of funding problems and disagreements between the government and opposition, the elections were again delayed, this time until March
2002.
In May 2002 the government scrapped CENI, blaming the opposition for its inability to function. In its stead, the government appointed seven magistrates to oversee preparations for legislative elections. Not surprisingly, the opposition announced it would boycott them. Held in October, as a result of the opposition's boycott the government party won more than two-thirds of the seats in the National Assembly. In December 2002, Eyadéma's government used this rubber-stamp parliament to amend Togo's constitution, allowing President Eyadéma to run for an "unlimited" number of terms. A further amendment stated that candidates must reside in the country for at least 12 months before an election, a provision that barred the participation in the upcoming presidential election of popular
Union des Forces du Progrès (UFC) candidate, Gilchrist Olympio, who had been in exile since 1992. The presidential election was held
June 1. President Eyadéma was re-elected with 57% of the votes, amid allegations of widespread vote rigging.
 |
Faure Gnassingbé |
President Eyadéma died on
February 5,
2005 while onboard an airplane en route to France for treatment for a heart attack. His son
Faure Gnassingbé, the country's former minister of public works, mines, and telecommunications, was named President by Togo's military following the announcement of his father's death. Under international pressure from the
African Union and the
United Nations however, who both denounced the transfer of power from father to son as a
coup, Gnassingbé was forced to step down on
February 25,
2005, shortly after accepting the nomination to run for elections in April. Deputy Speaker
Bonfoh Abbass was appointed interim president until the inauguration of the
April 24 election winner. As to official results, the winner of the
election was Gnassingbé who garnered 60% of the vote. Opposition leader
Emmanuel Bob-Akitani however disputed the election and declared himself to be the winner with 70% of the vote. After the announcement of the results, tensions flared up and to date, 100 people have been killed. On
May 3,
2005, Gnassingbé was sworn in and vowed to concentrate on "the promotion of development, the common good, peace and national unity".
*
History of Africa*
History of West AfricaMost of the information here is derived from the U.S. Department of State website on Togo [
1].
