During the era of the great West African empires (the 13th to the 16th century), the area that is now Togo was insignificant, being on the border of several other empires, in particular the Akan-Ashanti Empire (Ghana) in the west and the Dahomey Empire (Benin) in the east. To ther north was the Empire of Mossi (Burkina Faso). The coastal area was settled by peoples from these various empires, principally the Mina (who came from Ghana) and the Ewe (from what is now Benin and Nigeria). These two people groups comprise the majority of the southern Togolese population today.
At the height of the slave trade in West Africa, the Mina people came to the fore, purchasing slaves from northern tribes such as the Kabiye, who they delivered to the coastal fortresses of the European powers in neigbouring Ghana and Benin. The absence of natural harbours in Togo meant that there were none of these castles in Togo itself. Amazingly, some of the slaves who were transported to Brazil and were later freed returned to the coastal regions of West Africa and became involved in the slave trade themselves.
Although they had showed little interest in West Africa previously, in the mid 1800s, when slavery had all but disappeared the Germans sent a ship to Togoland and made a treaty (in 1884) with a local king in Togoville, a town on the northern shore of Lac Togo. The treaty offered "protection" of the local peoples in return for German sovereignty. By this time the main trade commodities were coffee, cacao and cotton and competition was fierce betwen the French, the British and the Germans.
Under the Germans Togoland underwent considerable economic development, becoming largely self supporting. However, the Togolese resented the German regime, which was oppressive, using forced labour, exacting taxes, and putting down any opposition by brutal military action which resulted in thousands of deaths.. Many local people left the country, migrating to neigbouring Ghana and Benin.
The first victory of the allied forces against the Germans during WWI was in Togo, when the British were welcomed with open arms by the Togolese following the German surrendered. However, in 1919 the League of Nations decided to divide the administration of Togoland between the British, who received control of the western third of the country, and the French who controlled the eastern two thirds. The boundary was arbitrary and resulted in the division of the Ewe people, as well as several other tribal groups.
Subsequently, during the French colonial period of Togo, the Mina again came to dominate the economic and political life of Togo, due to their long association with European powers. The Ewe, which is today the largest people of Togo, and the Kabiye of the north, were excluded from power.
In the years following WWII there was agitation for the re-unification of Togo. However, in a plebiscite in 1956 British Togoland voted to join Ghana, which was on the brink of independence. French Togoland meanwhile became an autonomous republic with a prime minister and 4 years later was granted complete independence with the appointment of its first president.
There followed a period of instability and uncertainty. The first president, Silvanus Olympio, an Ewe from the south, headed up a repressive government which resulted in thousands of people leaving the country. The northern Kabiye felt particularly marginalised and rebelled in a coup against him in 1963, the first coup on the African continent. Olympio himself was killed at the gates to the US Embassy where he was seeking refuge. Many Togolese, including Nicholas Grunitzky, who was put in charge, returned to Togo. However, he too was deposed, this time by a bloodless coup in 1967 led by Etienne Eyadema, a Kabiye from the north. He has remained more or less in charge ever since.
Eyadema's intitial desire was to unify the disparate tribal groups of Togo. However, his means of doing this has been through autocracy, building around himself a cult of personality. He established a one party state, and a single trade union confederation, squashing opposition. He resisted pressure from France in 1991 to return to a multipary system, using propaganda to show the people of Togo the inadequacies of democracy in other African countries. As a result there was rioting and strikes in the south among the Ewe and Mina peoples, but this was brutally repressed by the military with bullets and teargas. Many were killed and in April 1991 28 bodies were dragged out of a lagoon in Lome and dumped on the steps of the US Embassy to show the world the repressive nature of Eyadema's regime.
Under pressure from France and pro-democracy forces, Eyadema finally gave in and agreed to a national conference with opposition leaders, which resulted in the stripping of his powers so that he became president in name only, while a new prime minister was elected under Joseph Koffigoh. However, within 4 months power had been wrested back into the hands of Eyadema when the army attacked Koffigoh's residence and he was subsequently forced to form a new government made up of President Eyadema's supporters.
The next two years were characterised by the repression of all oppoosition and when presidential elections were held in 1993 Eyadema again won, although up to 90% of voters boycotted the elections. The subsequent parliamentary elections in 1994, though resulting in a majority of votes going to an opposition party, were effectively nullified when Eyadema appointed the new prime minister from a minority party, so that the prime minister became effectively a puppet of Eyadema. He then formed his government from supporters of the president.
The last election in 1998 was again won by Eyadema, though the way in which the election was conducted was condemened by both the EU and the USA. The president of the National Election Commission resigned due to intimidation and opposition supporters were suppressed on the streets of Lome with bullets and tear gas. Thus Eyadema gained power for another 5 years.
The next elections will happen in May this year. At present there is no apparent unrest on the streets of Lome, but we wait and watch with interest.