Yearbook 2004
Togo. Under strong EU pressure, the Togolese government promised in April a series of political reforms. The total population in Togo is 8,278,735 people in 2020. The EU interrupted virtually all assistance to Togo in the 1990s due to the regime’s authoritarian rule. Among the 22 specific reforms the government now promised in writing were to organize democratic elections under international supervision and to give the opposition fair access to the media and the opportunity to work freely. However, the government’s invitation to political reconciliation talks was boycotted by the major opposition parties, who complained about a lack of agenda and insufficient time for preparation.
A new press law passed by the parliament in August softened the definition of “offending senior officials” and lowered the penalty for such offenses from prison to fines.
Togo had in 1935 a population of 1,082,000 residents (12 per sq. km.), Made up of various black, pagan in the south and Muslim in the north. Among the first, that of the Ewe stands out; to the north it falls under the dominion of the shepherd peoples, Fulbè and Haussa.
In June 1884, the famous German traveler Gustavo Nachtigal, commissioned by his government to recognize the south-west coast of Africa for commercial purposes, reached a region, between the English colony of the Gold Coast and the French colony of Dahomey, on the which he proclaimed, in agreement with the indigenous leaders, who kept their power and their lands, the Germanic protectorate. Thus was born the colony of Togo, whose borders were fixed, in agreement with France and England, in 1889. Twenty years later the country was already self-sufficient, that is, it was the only Germanic possession in Africa that did not require an annual subsidy from the motherland. In 1914, as soon as the war in Europe broke out, the allies entered Togo from different sides, while the weak German forces withdrew towards Kamina. There, on August 27, they surrendered unconditionally. The territory was submitted to a mandate by the Inter-Allied Supreme Council (May 1919). On 20 July 1922 the colony was entrusted, by the League of Nations, in the form of a mandate, to France and England and divided, on the basis of the agreement between these two powers on 10 July 1929, according to a line that starts from the point on the Volta river where the three borders of Togo, the Gold Coast and the suppressed colony of Alto Volta met and which continues in the general direction of south-east and south ending a short distance from the port of Lomé, but in so that no point in the portion allotted to England is on the sea.
The French part has an area of 56,169 sq km. and a population of 762,000 residents (of which just over 500 Whites); Lomé is its capital (6500 residents). The main product is cocoa, the value of which usually represents more than half of the total export value; followed at a distance by palm nuts (oil palm thrives mainly in the lower Mono valley and in the Agu region), cotton (grown in the Atakpamé region), fish, palm oil and corn. The coffee and sisal crops have borne fruit throughout central Togo; in the northern part, in addition to cotton, tobacco, kapok, peanut and castor are grown profitably. The coastal region also exports coconuts and copra. In northern Togo, breeding is remarkable (35,000 cattle, 120,000 sheep, then goats and pigs). In recent years, trade has undergone a very strong contraction, decreasing the value of imports (metals and metal goods, cotton wool, beverages, gasoline and oil) from 100.9 million francs in 1931 to 41.6 million in 1933, and that of exports from 83.2 to 27.3 million francs respectively. French Togo has 428 km. of railways (Lomé-Atakpamé-Blita 275 km., Lomé-Anécho 43 km., Lomé-Palimé 110 km.) and numerous car services. In Lomé, the only well-equipped port in Togo, 350-400 ships annually call for more than one million tons. of tonnage. Anécho also has a fair amount of movement. French Togo is administered by a commissioner of the republic who is assisted by a board of directors and an economic council.
British Togo, administratively annexed to the Gold Coast, comprises 33,772 sq km. and 320,000 residents (1933), of which only about forty Bianchi. Ho (3400 residents) Is its capital. Cocoa, oil palms and cotton are grown there; the cocoa value exported corresponds more or less to 9 / 10 of the total of exports, which in 1929 was of 191 100 pounds, and in 1933 to 96,100 pounds. The value of the imports was 55,500 and 10,400 pounds respectively.
Germany still plays a large part in the trade of Togo.