Togo History: Before Independence
Pre-independence
The Ewes moved into the area which is now Togo from the Niger
River valley between the 12th and 14th centuries. During the 15th
and 16th centuries, Portuguese explorers and traders visited the
coast. 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. In 1914, Togoland
was invaded by French and British forces and fell after brief resistance.
Following the war, Togoland 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 1957, 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.
Independence and turmoil
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 ostensibly because
of plots against the majority party government. Many opposition
members, including Grunitzky, 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 chariman 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.
Eyadéma's rule
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.
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 party--the RPT--in 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.
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, 1994, 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.
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 candidates--former minister
and Organization of African Unity Secretary General Edem Kodjo
and lawyer Yawovi Agboyibo--to 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. 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.
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.
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.
Death of Eyadéma and Gnassingbé's rise
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. According 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, 400 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".
Togo History After Independence —>
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