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Introduction

Togo is a territory with long borders that were artificially created by European intrusion around 1884 and in 1920 through the division of the German colony between the British and the French. Although the borders were frequently used by individuals who quickly adapted to them, they eventually cut through some communities and political networks. The existing country of Togo is, in its geographical shape, the direct successor of the French colony. The region is characterized by two early precolonial settlement centers that are known as Notsie, which has mythical qualities as potentially being the early settlement of all the Ewe, and Bassar, an early iron-producing center. Both have become the object of intense archaeological efforts. Tado is a third settlement region that became important before 1600. Before the colonial period, the populations of Togo’s south were propelled into the structures of the Atlantic slave trade, although the Togolese coast had only a relative importance for that commerce. The existence of Dahomey, a strong precolonial entity since the 18th century in territories neighboring present-day Togo, seems to have contributed to migration and flight into the Plateau highlands. In the north, various communities existed as participants in the Sahel trade; by 1800 the Anufo, former mercenaries, had created their own state around the city of Sansanné-Mango and destabilized considerably the northern savannahs. In 1884 current-day Togo became part of the German colony of that name, which suffered from exploitation and massive brutalities. At the same time, or even earlier, the presence of missionaries interacted with legends of belonging among Ewe-speakers and historical experiences of flight from external threats to create a new form of community feeling in parts of southern Togo. This sentiment was of particular political importance after the Second World War, when “Ewe organizations” mobilized for an ethnic type of independence, an unprecedented challenge to colonial rule that has found much interest in historical research. This was averted only with difficulties by the French, who had become, in 1919, the rulers over the League of Nations mandate called Togo. In 1960 Togo became independent; after two military coups in 1963 and 1967, the country came under military rule. The dominance of Etienne Gnassingbe Eyadéma over the country, starting in 1967, and reshaped in 1991 under the conditions of multiparty democracy, was inherited through the presidency of Faure Gnassingbe. While the late Eyadéma and the Faure-Gnassingbe periods are still the object of a very politicized debate rather than a historical discussion, many other periods, especially those involving the precolonial south and colonial rule, have profited from profound analysis by international as well as Togolese scholars.

General Overviews

Togo is one of the postcolonial states in sub-Saharan Africa that—in spite of its limited size—has received exceptional treatment through a number of general histories of the territory. It is the topic of a volume of the historical dictionaries series by Scarecrow Press, now in its third edition (Decalo 1996). French-speaking readers has the advantage of access to two especially well-informed territorial histories by a former colonial administrator who belonged to a group of former officials with a real interest in anthropological themes (see Cornevin 1969, Cornevin 1988). Nicoué Lodjou Gayibor, Togo’s leading historian, is the author and editor of a number of studies on various regions and aspects of the history of the country. Gayibor 2011 is an outstanding national-territorial history of four volumes, which is based on contributions of many Togolese historians. Indeed, this represents for an African country an unusual platform of high-quality national scholarship. For the history, society, and culture of an ethnic community that has awakened much interest in international politics and historical analysis, the Ewe, Lawrance 2005 offers a volume of contributions by international scholars—in a way, it takes the opposite approach as compared to Gayibor 2011, which is a national history written by a national scientific community.

Cornevin, Robert. Histoire du Togo. 3d ed. Paris: Berger-Levrault, 1969.
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An early overview of Togolese history with (for the period) a strong notion of the potential of ethnographic analysis and oral information by a former colonial administrator. It still expresses colonial thought and the idea of an essential north–south divide within Togo.
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Cornevin, Robert. Le Togo: Des origines à nos jours. Paris: Académie des sciences d’Outre-mer, 1988.
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Enlarges Cornevin’s older study, including material on the evolution of local “nations” and taking into account the many unpublished scientific studies produced in Togo; apart from oral sources, offers a good knowledge of statistics and legislation.
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Decalo, Samuel. Historical Dictionary of Togo. 3d ed. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 1996.
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A solid overview of available literature, geared toward an English-speaking readership, by the political scientist and specialist of historical dictionaries for West and Central African countries.
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Gayibor, Nicoué Lodjou, ed. Histoire des Togolais: Des origines aux années 1960. 4 vols. Paris: Karthala, 2011.
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The principal reference work on Togolese history, detailed and with contributions on all periods from the relevant specialists in the country. Its use of the existing literature is sometimes a bit opaque for expert historians in West African history, but the analysis is mostly of high quality.
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Lawrance, Benjamin N., ed. A Handbook of Eweland: The Ewe of Togo and Benin. Accra, Ghana: Woeli, 2005.
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The only overview of Ewe culture in Togo. The details and depth of analysis varies between chapters, although the editor clearly is a leading scholar in Ewe ethnogenesis. The handbook as a whole treats Ewe-ness as relatively stable.
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Primary Sources

For the period before the 1880s, the historian can rely on a number of oral traditions—which, in the case of most regions with the exception of the coastal contact zone—are the principal source, together eventually with archaeological rests in some cases. Collections of oral sources sometimes come along as written versions of the oral information collected by a leading dynasty, as in the case of Guin (see Agbano II 1991); in other cases, it consists of a selection of various narratives (see Adabra 2012). Many of these sources have never been edited and appear, at best, as collections of historical-geographical articles on the various communities written by Togolese scholars. The precolonial factories of the Togolese coast are much less important than those at the coastlines of Ghana and Benin, but Little-Popo/Aného and Porto-Seguro nevertheless appear in European travel accounts. However, the most impressive written source—or transcript of written documents—is the edition of the Lawson family archives from Aného that start in 1841 and extend into the colonial period (Jones and Sebald 2006). There are a number of published reports from the phase of German colonial rule, which of course subscribe to a strong Eurocentric bias, as do those written by French residents from 1914 and various Christian missionaries. An exceptional document from a Bremen missionary is Spieth 1906, which provides a history and collection of oral traditions and presents at the same time the perspective of missionary activities in southern Togo.

Adabra, Agbalényo Kossi. Aux sources de l’histoire et des traditions evè: l’exemple de l’Avé. Lomé, Togo: Editions Saint-Augustin Afrique, 2012.
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A principal example of locally collected sources for the Ave community of Ewe-speakers; useful for an insight into the potentials of local sources, at least for the south of Togo.
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Agbano II. Histoire de Petit-Popo et du royaume guin. 3d ed. Paris: Karthala, 1991.
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An important source of Guin culture and political structures in southeastern Togo, the information having been brought together by the king of Glidji at the request of the French administration. It includes important legends of migration and details of precolonial situations of the region. Originally published in 1934. Preface and annotations by N. L. Gayibor.
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Jones, Adam, and Peter Sebald, eds. An African Family Archive: The Lawsons of Little Popo/Aneho. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
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An edition of the family archive of probably the most important intermediaries in the coastal commerce, starting in 1841 and with an extreme interest in an analysis of trade-related issues but also and especially in local politics and networks.
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Spieth, Jakob. Die Eẁe-Stämme: Material zur Kunde des Eẁe-Volkes in Deutsch-Togo. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer, 1906.
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A principal account of the culture of Ewe-speaking populations in Togo written by a Bremen missionary, which includes a number of historical legends in the Ewe transcript and a translation. It is now also available in French and English translations. English version: Jakob Spieth and W. K. Amoaku. The Ewe People: A Study of the Ewe People in German Togo, translated by Emmanuel F. Tsaku, Marcellinus Edorh, Raphael Avornyo, and Mary Esther Kropp Dakubu (Accra, Ghana: Sub-Saharan Publishers, 2011).
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Conceptual Approaches to the History of Togo

The impressive activity of Togolese historians in bringing together and participating in broad thematic edited books offers scholars two outstanding volumes that discuss Togolese experiences before the background of West African debates. Gayibor, et al. 2013 assembles a number of (West) African sources, including Togolese scholars who reflect on the importance of oral sources; for Togo, the method of interpreting such sources remains essential for the analysis of many precolonial communities in particular. Gœh-Akué and Gayibor 2010 tackles another problem that has rather to do with the challenges faced by postcolonial African states and the long-term history of communities: the importance conceded to ethnicity and regionalism. For Togo, where the particular history of the Ewe—and the debate on what an “Ewe” ultimately is—is as important as the possible privileges Kabiye populations may have had under the Eyadéma regime; such conceptual debate is especially interesting.

Gayibor, Nicoué Lodjou, Juhé-Beaulaton Dominique, and Gomgnimbou Moustapha, eds. L’écriture de l’histoire en Afrique: l’oralité toujours en question. Paris: Karthala, 2013.
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An important edited book with a number of Togo-related chapters that revisit the use of oral sources for the historian working on Africa. The authors offer perspectives for methodology and analysis.
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Gœh-Akué, N’buéké Adovi, and Nicoué Lodjou Gayibor, eds. Histoires nationales et/ou identities ethniques: Un dilemme pour les historiens africains. Paris: Harmattan, 2010.
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Discusses a number of Togolese cases before the background of a broader West African debate and thereby sheds light on the pitfalls of regionalism and regionalist perspectives. It also addresses the issue of a national history and the view of Togolese historians on the issue.
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Possible Early Settlement and Archaeology

As it is often difficult to estimate how far oral traditions reach back into the past, archaeological results are an important means to complement these traditions and give an idea of the material culture of some particular places. However, at this point, excavation sites are few, although Eiwanger and Kuevi 1992 attempts a discussion of potential and first results with the broader Togolese panorama in mind. Due to the density of oral narratives, the mythical “Ewe settlement” of Notsie has received particular attention. Some findings with regard to pottery, as well as metal and stone instruments, illustrate the state of material culture in various phases for the interior of southern Togo. However, the principal study, Aguigah 1986, a PhD thesis defended in Paris under Jean Devisse (the director of a number of archaeological projects in Togo in the early 1980s), has never been published. It nevertheless needs to be consulted by the researcher interested in archaeological results on the ground. Gayibor and Aguigah 2005 gives an introduction into some of the findings concerning Notsie and the region. A second principal region of particular interest to archaeologists is Bassar, which as an early center of iron-working has produced a considerable number of objects. Dugast 2013 provides state-of-the-art archaeological research on Bassar’s early phase and its links to later developments of this settlement (discussed later).

Aguigah, Angèle. “Le site de Notse.” PhD diss., Université Paris I, 1986.
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Still the principal archaeological work on the legendary site of Ewe settlement and an important study on material remains in the interior of southern Togo.
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Dugast, Stéphan. “Des pierres pour travailler le fer: les outils lithiques des forgerons bassar du nord Togo. I. Techniques, nomenclatures et répartition des tâches.” Journal des Africanistes 83.2 (2013): 22–57.
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An overview that discusses production techniques and material life in the north of Togo, with relevance for early settlements in the precolonial period.
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Eiwanger, Josef, and Dovi Kuevi. “Recherches archéologiques au Togo: étude préliminaire.” Beiträge zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Archäologie 12 (1992): 155–175.
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Gives the overview for an appreciation of archaeological efforts in various parts of Togo, as they stood in the early 1990s.
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Gayibor, Nicoué Lodjou, and Angèle Aguigah. “Early Settlements and Archaeology of the Adja-Tado Cultural Zone.” In A Handbook of Eweland: The Ewe of Togo and Benin. Edited by Benjamin N. Lawrance, 1–13. Accra, Ghana: Woeli, 2005.
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Summarizes the archaeological situation in southern Togo and can therefore be understood as an introduction to Aguigah 1986, which is not easily available.
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Precolonial Situations: Contact and Commerce at the Togolese Coast

Coastal Togo was part of a long coastline between southwestern Ghana and southeastern Nigeria, which constituted one of the principal regions of the Atlantic slave trade. The Togolese did not have European factories of an importance similar to that of the Cape Coast and Accra region in Ghana, or those of Ouidah to the east. Even so, Little Popo/Aného was a trading point in the second half of the 18th century, whose importance becomes obvious in Strickrodt 2001. Aného and the less important port of Porto-Seguro can thereby be discussed as parts of a political and commercial system, which was in the 19th century the object of a territorial distribution process among the European powers, as Newbury 1961 discusses in detail; Strickrodt 2015 integrates the historical evolution of this coastal system and its relationship to the Atlantic trade into an analysis of more than three centuries. The neighborhood of Oyo, but especially of Dahomey, endangered the position of the trade posts on the Togolese coast, as is shown in Akinjogbin 1967. The networks between different parts of the coastline remained important into the colonial period, and the emergence of Yoruba networks and of a Yoruba diaspora in the 20th century, can be interpreted as a successor to earlier transregional relations; these are discussed in Igue 2003.

Akinjogbin, Isaac Adeagbo. Dahomey and its Neighbours 1708–1818. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1967.
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A classical study of the Dahomey kingdom, still quite relevant for the influence that this major political entity had on the communities, and the slave routes and slaving activities, of the Togolese coast.
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Igue, Ogunsola J. Yoruba en Afrique de l’ouest francophone, 1910–1980. Paris: Présence Africaine, 2003.
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Gives an impression of Yoruba networks that include (from southwest Nigeria and through Benin) the territory of Togo.
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Newbury, Colin. The Western Slave Coast and Its Rulers: European Trade and Administration among the Yoruba and Adja-Speaking Peoples of South-Western Nigeria, Southern Dahomey and Togo. Oxford: Clarendon, 1961.
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Provides an overview of the process of European colonization at the West African coast, which, although it focuses on the Lagos region and Dahomey, also gives a reliable political and economic history of the evolution at the Togolese coast (including the role of Aného and its elites).
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Strickrodt, Silke. “A Neglected Source for the History of Little Popo: The Thomas Miles Papers ca. 1789–1796.” History in Africa 28 (2001): 293–330.
DOI: 10.2307/3172219 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
A detailed analysis of a British source on the slave trade and social life in Aného, which gives a good overview as well of political power relations at the coast in the second half of the 18th century.
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Strickrodt, Silke. Afro-European Trade in the Atlantic World: The Western Slave Coast, c. 1550–c. 1885. Oxford: James Currey, 2015.
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The new standard of interpretation for the precolonial history of Togo’s coastline and its entanglement into the Atlantic slave trade, giving a highly important and useful appreciation of intermediaries and participants of the commerce and its victims.
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Precolonial Situations: Ewe-Speakers and Others in the South

In the shadow of the slave trade, a number of political centers emerged in southern Togo. They are partly linked to founding legends that seem to be essentially preserved (although modified over the centuries) in oral accounts. The Ewe-speakers and their mythical Notsie origins are an important part of this perspective; these are summarized and interpreted in Greene 2002. Amenumey 1986 is a broader history of the Ewe-speaking communities of the 19th century, which points to their eventual early solidarity. Another important discussion about a southern Togolese community involves the contested origins of the inhabitants of the Guin country and the Aného region at large, with the town and its elites acting as the central “Togolese” player in the Atlantic slave trade (see Strickrodt 2015, cited under Precolonial Situations: Contact and Commerce at the Togolese Coast). For Guin, these histories of origins are even more complicated: the idea of in-migration from the Gold Coast, through the Adangbe, is defended and discussed in Akakpo-Ahianyo 1971 and Gayibor 1990. However, a view on the Mina community in Guin country, as in Adotevi 2001, shows that the precolonial communities—and their participation in coastal slavery and the slave trade—have complex origins. Etou 2007 points out the religious structures, and the preponderance of cult institutions, in the precolonial Ewe-speaking communities of the Be in Togo’s southwest. To the north of the coastal zone, the political entity of Tado seems to have had an important influence over coastal communities before 1700 but went into decline afterward; Gayibor 2012 offers the long-term perspective for this process.

Adotevi, L. Senyon. “Contribution à l’étude de l’esclavage en pays guin (Mina) à l’époque précoloniale (XVIIe–XIXe).” In Le tricentenaire d’Aného et du pays guin. Edited by Nicoué Lodjou Gayibor, 117–134. Lomé, Togo: Presses de l’Université de Bénin, 2001.
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Sheds light on the role of slavery in Togo’s southeast during the precolonial period, attempting to link it to the region’s entanglement in the Atlantic slave trade.
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Akakpo-Ahianyo, Anani K. Histoire des Adangbe. Lomé, Togo: Institut national de la recherche scientifique, 1971.
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The classical study for the Adangbe group with its complex and contested migration history, leading eventually to its installation in the southeast of Togo.
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Amenumey, D. E. K. The Ewe in Pre-Colonial Times. Accra, Ghana: Sedco, 1986.
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A history of Ewe-speaking groups with a focus on the 19th century from the principal scholar of Ewe history. Is less categorical than Amenumey 1969 (cited under Colonial Brutality and Economic Exploitation: German Rule (1884–1914) with regard to ethnic feelings for the Ewe before the end of the 1930s. Also gives a short account of the different communities or divisions discussed as “Ewe,” although with a Ghana bias.
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Etou, Komla. “Une théocratie conservatrice: le pays des Bè-Togo du XVIIè à la fin du XIXè siècle.” Revue du CAMES, Nouvelle Série B 9.2 (2007): 305–321.
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Describes the precolonial Be society in the current-day Lomé region as based on the cult of Nyigblin and a powerful priesthood formed around the Aveto high priest. Offers thereby an interesting alternative to ethnocentric approaches to the history of the region.
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Gayibor, Nicoué Lodjou. Le Genyi: Un Royaume oublié de la Côte de Guinée au Temps de la Traite des Noirs. Lomé, Togo: HAHO, 1990.
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A structural history, based on the analysis of European sources, family archives, and oral accounts, for the Guin kingdom and the Aného region. It includes a discussion of the origins of the Guin in present-day Ghana and an account of conflicts with Fon-speakers in the Aného region in the 18th century.
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Gayibor, Nicoué Lodjou. Esquisse d’une histoire du royaume de Tado (XIIe–XIXe siècle). Lomé, Togo: Presses de l’Université de Lomé, 2012.
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A short but very important book on a political entity in the interior of southeastern Togo, with legendary origins that link it to many other communities in the broader region. Demonstrates how the Tado rulers subsequently lost importance under the impact of their neighborhood to Dahomey and how the city and precolonial state slowly became deserted.
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Greene, Sandra. “Notsie Narratives: History, Memory, and Meaning in West Africa.” South Atlantic Quarterly 101.4 (2002): 1015–1041.
DOI: 10.1215/00382876-101-4-1015 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
A discussion of Ewe migration legends and their use by a leading specialist on the Anlo-Ewe in southeastern Ghana. Very important work for an appreciation of Togo’s Ewe-speakers and their precolonial past, through their own founding myths.
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Precolonial Situations: The Plateau and Central Togo

Partly due to a lack of reliable sources, the precolonial communities of the Togo highlands have not found a prominent coverage in historical studies. It is without much doubt that the plateau was a region of refuge. Its settlement might have been influenced by slave-raiding to the east, although this is difficult to prove. In the 1990s a number of studies, published in Togo rather than internationally, tried to unearth the relevant oral sources. The Hudu, an Ewe-speaking community that subscribes to the Notsie founding legend, could have reached the highlands at the end of the 17th century; their role is discussed in Adotevi 1998. The Ife—who are said to belong to the broader “Yoruba” group—apparently coming in from Ekpo in Benin, and the Fon-Mahi, who could have been from Benin’s Savalu region, are more recent refugees. The latter are described in Adotevi 1996. The role of the plateau as a destination for refugees may have been shaped by the Dahomey kingdom as a push factor for the flight of larger groups. However, other groups, notably the Akposso, were more strongly oriented toward the plains of current-day Ghana, from where they may have migrated into the Plateau region. The historiography of the Akposso is even more limited; no progress has been made since Kuevi 1970. In the colonial period, the city of Atakpamé was turned into an important center, which retained its position as a point of attraction for the different groups in the highlands, as is pointed out by the contributions in Gbeasor 1999.

Adotevi, L. Senyon. “Les Fon-Mahi de la région d’Atakpamé des origines à 1884.” Annales de l’U.B. 16 (1996): 129–177.
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Describes the movement of the Fon-Mahi group that became especially active, probably coming from central Benin, through first foundations of settlements, in 1810. Analyzes the arrival of these settlers in the Mono River region and south of Atakpamé.
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Adotevi, L. Senyon. “Les Hudu de la région d’Atakpamé des origines à 1884.” Collection didactique 2 (1998): 1–45.
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Gives an account of the Ewe-speaking Hudu groups, which under its rulers (togbes) colonized a part of the highlands.
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Gbeasor, Tohonou, ed. Espace, culture et développement dans la région d’Atakpamé. Lomé, Togo: Presses de l’Université de Bénin, 1999.
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A number of contributions that point to the current-day importance of the urban center of Atakpamé but also its role as refugee center for Ife settlers fleeing the Dahomean armies in the late 18th or 19th century.
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Kuevi, André Dovi. Contribution à l’histoire du peuplement: traditions, histoire & organisation de la cité chez les Akposso (cas de Uviu, de Emla et de Uzitse). Lomé, Togo: Institut national de la recherche scientifique, 1970.
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One of the few historical studies of the highland population close to the current-day Ghana border, relating these groups back to their origins on Ghanaian territory and their 18th-century conflicts with the Kwahu community.
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Precolonial Situations: The North and Connections into the Sahel

Because they are part of the networks linking them to the southern Sahel, the communities of Togo’s north appear to have been strongly influenced by the Hausa-led caravan trade that connected northern Nigeria to northern Ghana. The transport of Kola nuts crossing this region remained important until the 19th century, and its importance as such has been identified in overviews as early as Froehlich, et al. 1963. The Oti River Valley constituted a principal axis within this region, attracting a number of communities that were important for the commerce. A discussion of the different communities of the river valley in historical perspective can be found in Tcham 1994. The Konkomba have been analyzed in the classical, still colonial style study Froehlich 1954. These groups came from 1800 under the domination of the Anufo/Chakoso state of Sansanné-Mango, which was in constant expansion over some decades, as analyzed in Tcham 2007. The creation of this state drove a number of refugees into the northern mountains, a process interpreted in a masterful article that has lost little of its appeal (Norris 1986). The development of Anufo group identifications has also found a sustained interest (see Rey-Hulman 1975). Interestingly, the Kabiye community further southward, reputed to have especially rigid and stable group structures and institutions, has been a favorite of anthropologists but not of historians. This is all the more interesting because the Kabiye had such an important role in the Togolese state after 1966, as they were especially protected under the Eyadéma regime. On the contrary, the Kotokoli—sometimes also called “Tem”—are a group that has been intensely studied through anthropological-historical research such as Alexandre 1963 and Barbier 1983.

Alexandre, Pierre. “Organisation politique des Kotokoli du Nord-Togo.” Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines 4.14 (1963): 228–274.
DOI: 10.3406/cea.1963.3719 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
A historical-ethnographic account of a principal historical entity in the Sokode region, including a long study of their duguri family and sedɛ community structures. Although historical dynamics are not the focus of this article, it offers valuable descriptions of the development of rule and the introduction of Islam.
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Barbier, Jean-Claude. L’histoire présente, exemple du royaume Kotokoli au Togo. Talence, France: Centre d’étude d’Afrique noire, Institut d’études politiques de Bordeaux, 1983.
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A short monograph that points out the historical evolution of political structures among the Kotokoli, starting with acephaleousness and ending up with a relatively stratified system. It also takes into account the role of Sokode as a new Kotokoli center.
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Froehlich, Jean-Claude. La tribu Konkomba du Nord-Togo. Dakar, Senegal: IFAN, 1954.
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This study of a colonial administrator turned ethnographer characterizes the Konkomba as an acephaleous, unstructured group. Offers nevertheless a number of observations that are useful for the reconstruction of the group’s history. Needs to be used with an awareness of the author’s colonial biases.
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Froehlich, Jean-Claude, Pierre Alexandre, and Robert Cornevin. Les populations du Nord-Togo. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1963.
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An ethnographic study about the Kotokoli, Bassari, Kabiye, and other groups of Togo’s north, which gives a number of basic historical details.
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Norris, Graham. “Atakora Mountain Refuges: Systems of Exploitation in Northern Togo.” Anthropos 81.1–3 (1986): 109–136.
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A leading article of the Chakosi/Anufo conquest and ethnogenesis, including the perspective of their victims. Combines in a convincing way oral testimony and German archival sources and questions established migration legends through a new reading of the process.
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Rey-Hulman, Diana. “Signification sociale d’un rituel féminin: le kurubi chez les Tyokossi du Nord Togo.” Journal de la Société des Africanistes 45 (1975): 19–36.
DOI: 10.3406/jafr.1975.1762 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
A discussion of the Anufo populations and their historical transformation into the Chakosi, through anthropological research on a particular ritual and its historical implications.
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Tcham, Badjow. “Les populations du basin de l’Oti du XVIIIème au début du XXème siècle.” Cahiers du CRA 8 (1994): 169–193.
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Follows earlier, colonial accounts and offers a discussion of political rule in the north, based, in large part, on an appreciation of the role of the slave and kola trades, through a synthesis on various communities.
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Tcham, Badjow. Le royaume anoufo de Sansanné-Mango: de 1800 à 1897. Lomé, Togo: Presses de l’Université de Lomé, 2007.
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The principal account of the Anufo, a community that could have immigrated into northern Togo from the west and includes Mande influences. Shows how the Anufo, former mercenaries in the region, created a kingdom in Koundjogo, now known as Sansanné-Mango, and colonized pockets of the region before the German conquest.
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Precolonial Situations: The Bassar–Material Culture and Structures of Power

In northern Togo, the region of Bassar is, perhaps unexpectedly, an exception with regard to the amount of analysis of its precolonial structures. The Bassar were indeed the principal producers of iron objects on Togolese ground and as such were highly important in regional production processes. This may explain their early discussion in Cornevin 1962. However, the exceptional quality of knowledge we have on the precolonial community mainly is due to de Barros 1986, de Barros 2001, and de Barros 2012. This archaeologist offers an impressive interpretation of Bassar social history, in which the centralization of this community can be explained by needs arising from Bassar’s involvement in the trade with its iron goods. Dugast 1988 challenges this view, pointing to the fact that Bassar’s export of iron objects was mainly restricted to Kabiye buyers from the neighborhood and claiming that the development of rule rather had to do with modifications in principal rites and cults.

Cornevin, Robert. Les Bassari du Nord-Togo. Paris: Berger-Levrault, 1962.
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An anthropological account, with colonial roots, of the Bassar activities and their integration into trade networks.
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de Barros, Philip. “Bassar: A Quantified, Chronologically Controlled, Regional Approach to a Traditional Iron Production Centre in West Africa.” Africa 56.2 (1986): 148–174.
DOI: 10.2307/1160630 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Provides the 1980s state-of-the-art archaeological work on Bassar, with a focus on method and the interpretation of findings.
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de Barros, Philip. “The Effect of the Slave Trade on the Bassar Ironworking Society.” In West Africa During the Atlantic Slave Trade: Archaeological Perspectives. Edited by Christopher R. de Corse, 59–80. London: Leicester University Press, 2001.
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Puts the results of Bassar iron tool production in a relationship to trade relations with the Dagomba, then with the Chakosi, with regard to the slave trade.
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de Barros, Philip. “The Rise of the Bassar Chiefdom in the Context of Africa’s Internal Frontier.” In Power and Landscape in Atlantic West Africa: Archaeological Perspectives. Edited by J. Cameron Monroe and Akinwumi Ogundiran, 255–277. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511921032 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Contextualizes archaeological results in a broader debate on power and rulership in the Bassar community.
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Dugast, Stéphan. “Déterminations économiques versus fondements symboliques: la chefferie de Bassar.” Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines 28.110 (1988): 265–280.
DOI: 10.3406/cea.1988.1676 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Uses oral sources to come to an interpretation of Bassar society that links its development in the two centuries before colonial rule, and the establishment of centralized rule, to rituals and internal religious decisions instead of economic constraints.
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Colonial Brutality and Economic Exploitation: German Rule (1884–1914)

Only in 1884 was the future territory of Togo propelled into the competition between European governments and states for control of African possessions. German engagement started in an unspectacular manner, interfering in coastal regions such as Aného, where British and French activities with regard to neighboring Dahomey had already made clear that European involvement could be expected. However, between 1884 and the late 1890s, the German administration extended its zone of effective control: the instrument of this enlargement of rule was police forces, mainly constituted of Hausa mercenaries, who brutally brought the territory under their sway. Ad hoc impositions of forced labor were normal, and the German colonizers were exclusively concerned with the economic exploitation of the region. Already Amenumey 1969 pointed out that the idea of a “model colony” was nothing more than colonial propaganda. Sebald 1988 and Sebald 2013 follow this line and offer sufficient proof for the manifold brutalities that characterized German rule in particular, brutalities that have been eclipsed in Togolese memory by a positive and unrealistic image of the first colonial power. Erbar 1991 and Zurstrassen 2008 deliver a detailed description of colonial administration but in which the Togolese themselves barely appear; the same was already true for the principal study of this period in English, Knoll 1978. The economic interests in cotton production, as one potential export crop and with its global implications, are interpreted in Zimmerman 2010. Laumann 2003 offers an analytical overview of the historiography on the “model colony” and its deconstruction. Overall, the period belongs very much into German history, lately even in a global history variant, with so far insufficient interest in the experience of the Togolese subjects within the system.

Amenumey, D. E. K. “German Administration in Southern Togo.” Journal of African History 10.4 (1969): 623–639.
DOI: 10.1017/S0021853700009749 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
An early article that (rightly) challenges the idea of a model colony, pointing to the incursions of police troops into the Togolese interior and the various experiences of corporal punishment, forced labor, and other atrocities.
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Erbar, Ralph. Ein “Platz an der Sonne”?: die Verwaltungs- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte der deutschen Kolonie Togo 1884–1914. Stuttgart: Steiner, 1991.
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Gives a description of the various services that constituted German administration in the colony. The focus of the book is strongly on administrative structures, without much discussion of the experiences of the Togolese.
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Knoll, Arthur J. Togo under Imperial Germany, 1884–1914: A Case Study in Colonial Rule. Stanford, CA: Hoover, 1978.
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A classical study of German structures of rule, which takes into account the necessary alliances on the ground that German administration and economic interests had to craft. It does not discuss very much the perspective of the colonized populations.
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Laumann, Dennis. “A Historiography of German Togoland, or the Rise and Fall of a ‘Model Colony.’” History in Africa 30 (2003): 195–211.
DOI: 10.1017/S0361541300003211 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Revisits the historiographical debate on the “model colony.” The author not only makes clear that it does not correspond to empirical facts but also points out the different interpretations that German and international scholarship has given to the question.
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Sebald, Peter. Togo 1884–1914. Eine Geschichte der deutschen “Musterkolonie” auf der Grundlage amtlicher Quellen. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1988.
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An interpretation of German rule and atrocities, written by the principal scholar of Togo in the German Democratic Republic. This study profited in its time from unequaled access to German Colonial Ministry archives, but its author could not use other archival sources, due to the effects of the iron curtain.
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Sebald, Peter. Die deutsche Kolonie Togo 1884–1914: Auswirkungen einer Fremdherrschaft. Berlin: Christoph Links Verlag, 2013.
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Sebald’s up-to-date version of his studies on Togo, intensified after 1990 and profiting from interpretation of the German files of the Togolese national archives. Remains strongly geared toward the analysis of colonial brutalities without, however, detailing the impact of colonial rule on specific Togolese communities.
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Zimmerman, Andrew. Alabama in Africa: Booker T. Washington, the German Empire, and the Globalization of the New South. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010.
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A real pioneer study in global history. Attempts to link the experiences of cotton production in the southern United States with German attempts to introduce useful export crops in the West African colony. Also has the potential to show the effects of the practices on local populations.
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Zurstrassen, Bettina. “Ein Stück deutscher Erde schaffen”: koloniale Beamte in Togo 1884–1914. Frankfurt: Campus, 2008.
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Provides a structural discussion of colonial rule and the contradictions within the small group of German residents in Togo. While the book gives a useful picture of German settler society, the impact on the Togolese populations is much reduced as a subject of discussion.
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Identity-Crafting: Christian Churches and Sociocultural Change (Late 19th Century–1930s)

Beginning in 1850, the Togolese territory was subject to various religious influences that brought upon social change and the creation of new identifications. The impact of the two Christian missions active on Togolese soil was, however, exceptional within this broader panorama, as discussed in Debrunner 1965. Although there is a certain risk to take a point of view that is too much centered on Christian and Ewe-speakers’ experiences of change (thus producing biased histories), these trends need to be underlined. Alsheimer 2007 describes the process as a “Christian ethnogenesis,” and Azamede 2010 convincingly points out the role of Togolese missionary staff that had had experiences in Europe. These perspectives also join with Meyer 2002, which discusses the cultural impact of the mission as “locking” the Ewe-speakers into a particular universe. The historical context of conflict between the goals and policies of the mission and that of the colonial state is discussed in the broader context of education policy in Adick 1981 and Adja 2009 and of language policy in Lawrance 2000. This particular creation of identification continued to have an impact beyond the end of German colonial rule in 1914. Kakou 2007 offers an interpretation of a different case of identity-building: that of the Kabiye, which is useful to compare to the Ewe experience.

Adick, Christel. Bildung und Kolonialismus in Togo: Eine Studie zu den Entstehungszusammenhängen eines europäisch geprägten Bildungswesens in Afrika am Beispiel Togo (1850–1914). Weinheim, Germany: Berletz, 1981.
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Older study that discusses the bases of the mission-run education system in German Togo.
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Adja, Jules Kouassi. Evangélisation et colonisation au Togo: conflits et compromissions. Paris: Harmattan, 2009.
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Highlights the complicated policy context for the Catholic mission in Togo and the experience of their disciples, who had to operate under the outspoken distrust of the German administration.
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Alsheimer, Rainer. Zwischen Sklaverei und christlicher Ethnogenese: Die vorkoloniale Missionierung der Ewe in Westafrika (1847–ca. 1890). Münster, Germany: Waxmann, 2007.
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Discusses the establishment of the Bremen Mission, its battle against slavery, and its contribution to the creation of an ethnic group feeling among Ewe-speakers. Thereby the missionary work is regarded by the author as transcending Christian education and leading to new identifications.
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Azamede, Kokou. Transkulturationen? Ewe-Christen zwischen Deutschland und Westafrika, 1884–1939. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2010.
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This extraordinary study follows the career of Ewe-speaking mission employees and priests between Togo and Germany. Explains the contribution of these individuals to the definition of elite identifications around 1900.
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Debrunner, Hans. A Church between Colonial Powers: A Study of the Church in Togo. London: Lutterworth, 1965.
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Points out the establishment of the special position of the Bremen Mission and the Catholic Mission of Steyl in a period of various religious challenges in the broader region, such as expressed in cults within states like Dahomey and Asante.
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Kakou, Courrier Noël. Conquêtes coloniales et intégration des peuples: le cas des Kabiyè au Togo (1898–1940). Paris: Harmattan, 2007.
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Discusses the effects of colonial conquest by the Germans, and of French colonial rule, on regional identities and regional group cohesion of the Kabiye. It offers a welcome contrast to Ewe-centered interpretations of the colonial period.
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Lawrance, Benjamin N. “Most Obedient Servants: The Politics of Language in German Colonial Togo.” Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines 40.159 (2000): 489–524.
DOI: 10.4000/etudesafricaines.27 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Provides the background of German linguistic policies. Official positions clashed with the attitude of the missions in Togo, but the impact of the mission led in fact to the formation of a new group of German-educated clerks and intellectuals.
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Meyer, Birgit. “Christianity and the Ewe Nation: German Pietist Missionaries, Ewe Converts and the Politics of Culture.” Journal of Religion in Africa 32.2 (2002): 167–199.
DOI: 10.1163/157006602320292906 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Analysis based on an impressive hypothesis, according to which the author holds that the Bremen missionaries “locked” the Ewe-speaking converts into their group identification. Instead of offering them a “Western” identity, they forced upon them an Ewe perspective of religion and the world.
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Quasi-Colony: The French Mandate, Repression, and Challenges from the Interwar Period (1914–1960)

The British and French conquest of the German colony of Togo in 1914 led to a partition of the territory, modified in 1920, when Lomé changed hands from British to French control, much to the chagrin of the urban elites of the city. French Togo, officially a mandate territory of the League of Nations, became nevertheless a quasi-colony between 1919 and 1945, where the colonial power renounced at investment in most of its regions. The most important of the French proconsuls in the interwar period has become a special subject of analysis (see D’Almeida and Gbedemah 1982), but the same is true for the principal elite family of Lomé, the Olympio family that had a central role in Togolese politics from the early 20th century to independence. The Olympio are studied in Amos 2001. A social history of Togolese communities is very much absent for the mandate period; the principal revolt in Lomé, of January 1933, is interpreted, however, in Aduayom 1984 and Lawrance 2003, and Assima-Kpatcha 2014 demonstrates that a strong interest continues to exist for understanding the more popular methods of resistance. The debates about the mandate and the French attempts to safeguard their control over Togo after the Second World War can be found in Michel 1986. The historical discussion of the mandate period is not only relatively weak in terms of analytical substance (with the exception of “Ewe mobilization”) but suffers also from a southern bias. Tcham 2007 therefore is a welcome view on processes in the north of the territory under colonial rule. A pioneer study in the analysis of social groups on Togolese ground, with regard to the emergence of the police forces and their esprit de corps, is Glasman 2014.

Aduayom, Messan Adimado. “Un prélude au nationalisme togolais: la révolte de Lomé, 24–25 janvier 1933.” Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines 24.93 (1984): 39–50.
DOI: 10.3406/cea.1984.2226 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Early interpretation of the January 1933 revolt in the urban center of Lomé that seeks to understand this rebellion as a precursor for mobilization of Togolese parties after 1945 and thus as an incident of proto-nationalism.
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Amos, Alcione M. “Afro-Brazilians in Togo: The Case of the Olympio Family, 1882–1945.” Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines 41.162 (2001): 293–314.
DOI: 10.4000/etudesafricaines.88 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Sheds light on the evolution of the Olympio family and its Afro-Brazilian background. Discusses its role as major challengers of the French colonial system in the interwar period, both in the period of Octaviano Olympio and in that of Sylvanus Olympio.
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Assima-Kpatcha, Essoham. Akpadjaka: un mouvement anticolonial au Togo français. Paris: Harmattan, 2014.
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Follows a hypothesis of interpreting banditry in Togo under the French mandate, as exemplified by one specific individual, as a practice of anticolonial resistance.
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D’Almeida, Silivi K., and Séti Y. G. Gbedemah. Le gouverneur Bonnecarrère au Togo. Lomé, Togo: Nouvelles Editions Africaines, 1982.
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Revisits the mandate of nine years by Paul Bonnecarrère, which had an enormous impact on the evolution of Togolese society and its economy under the mandate.
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Glasman, Joël. “Unruly Agents: Police Reform, Bureaucratization and Policemen’s Agency in Interwar Togo.” Journal of African History 55.1 (2014): 79−100.
DOI: 10.1017/S0021853713000832 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
An insightful new study of the creation of an esprit de corps and a feeling of social belonging in the context of French Togo in the interwar period.
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Lawrance, Benjamin N. “La Révolte des Femmes: Economic Upheaval and the Gender of Political Authority in Lomé, Togo, 1931–33.” African Studies Review 46.1 (2003): 43–67.
DOI: 10.2307/1514980 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
A principal study of the revolt that shook the urban center of Lomé on 24 and 25 August 1933. The analysis offers a multicentered perspective that especially takes into account the factor of gender in social upheavals in the southern Togolese context.
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Michel, Marc. “Le Togo dans les relations internationales au lendemain de la Guerre: prodrome de la décolonisation ou ‘petite mésentente cordiale’? (1945–1951).” In Les Chemins de la Décolonisation de l’Empire Colonial Français. Edited by the Institut de l’Histoire du Temps Présent, 95–107. Paris: CNRS Editions, 1986.
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Contextualization of the problems between the mandate powers of Great Britain and France with regard to the Togolese question, important for the background of late colonial rule in the territory.
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Tcham, Badow. Le Nord-Togo sous administration française. Lomé, Togo: Presses de l’Université de Lomé, 2007.
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The indispensable study by the principal Togolese historian of northern Togo, which counterbalances the omnipresent bias of studies on the colonial period with a “southern perspective.”
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Ewe-Ness: A Focal Point of Ethnic Mobilization and its Aftermath

The Ewe-speakers of Togo, a dominant sociolinguistic group of southern Togo, have a strong common founding myth—the Notsie legend—and claim nowadays that this relies on an ancient group identity. This is, obviously, difficult to prove. What can be taken into account is the liveliness of traditional histories with regard to the Agokoli myth (Ewe-speakers claim to have escaped from a mythical kingdom) but also the function of missionaries as intermediaries for this group. The German missionaries of the Bremen (Norddeutsche) Mission and the Catholic Mission of Steyl had a principal role in creating relative language homogeneity among Ewe-speakers and an important function in furthering a feeling of mutual belonging. But the case of the Ewe is so spectacular because they managed to start a protest campaign for a common Ewe state (including Ewe speakers from Gold Coast and British Togoland, both in current-day Ghana) before the United Nations after the Second World War. This campaign enjoyed successes in its first years, although it was brought to a halt by the end of the decade. Its very particular nature provoked many analytical interpretations, starting with Pauvert 1960 and Hodder 1968. Amenumey 1969 and Amenumey 1989 insist that this mobilization reflected a common Ewe identity and similar goals that had been important from the early 20th century on. Other scholars have approached Ewe-ness through the peri-urban organization of Ewe-speaking settlements around Lomé (see Lawrance 2006), through the impact of the border (see Nugent 2002), or for religious and mythical identifications (see Greene 1996). Ewe mobilization based on ethnic claims is now also interpreted through a comparative historical perspective, from West African experiences under colonialism (see Nugent 2008).

Amenumey, D. E. K. “The Pre-1947 Background to the Ewe Unification Question: A Preliminary Sketch.” Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana 10 (1969): 65–85.
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Formulates a hypothesis that relies on ancient political solidarities between Ewe-speakers and very old ethnic group feelings.
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Amenumey, D. E. K. The Ewe Unification Movement: A Political History. Accra: Ghana University Press, 1989.
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The principal early study on the Ewe movement. Gives an excellent overview of the available published sources. Regards Ewe mobilization of the 1940s as a consequence of an earlier mobilization by the Peki ruler before the First World War. Does not use any Togolese and little Ghanaian archival documentation.
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Greene, Sandra E. Gender, Ethnicity, and Social Change on the Upper Slave Coast: A History of the Anlo-Ewe. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1996.
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An impressive analysis of Ewe-speakers and their history at the Keta Lagoon neighboring Togo, highly important for any study of connections and mobilization at the coast.
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Hodder, B. W. “The Ewe Problem: A Reassessment.” In Essays in Political Geography. Edited by Charles A. Fisher, 271–283. London: Methuen, 1968.
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An important early article that points to the many shifts and blurred borders of Ewe-ness, especially in its relationship with other language and cultural labels (Guin, Aja, Mina).
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Lawrance, Benjamin N. Locality, Mobility, and “Nation”: Periurban Colonialism in Togo’s Eweland 1900–1960. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2006.
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A study that attempts to discuss Ewe mobilization through the unusually dense and efficient net of communication between Lomé and Togo’s south, characterized as “peri-urban” by this author.
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Nugent, Paul. Smugglers, Secessionists & Loyal Citizens on the Ghana-Togo Frontier: The Lie of the Borderlands since 1914. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2002.
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The masterpiece and founding study of historical borderlands analysis in Africa. Focuses more on Likpe and Buem, which are not zones of Ewe-speakers and not in current-day Togo but in Ghana; important for historians of Togo nevertheless.
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Nugent, Paul. “Putting the History Back into Ethnicity: Enslavement, Religion, and Cultural Brokerage in the Construction of Mandinka/Jola and Ewe/Agotime Identities in West Africa, c. 1650–1930.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 50.4 (2008): 920–948.
DOI: 10.1017/S001041750800039X Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
As opposed to Nugent 2002, in which Ewe-ness is not a core variable, this comparative study approaches the relationship between Ewe-speakers and the Adangme-speaking Agotime close to the Ghana–Togo border.
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Pauvert, Jean-Claude. “L’évolution politique des Ewe.” Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines 1.2 (1960): 161–192.
DOI: 10.3406/cea.1960.3672 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
An analytical—historical and political—sketch of the situation of Ewe-ness since independence; highly informative.
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Independence and the Way into the One-Party State (1960–1990)

Togo became an independent country in 1960, inheriting administrative and legal structures that are traced back into colonial rule in the overview in Schuerkens 2001. Although Sylvanus Olympio, as first president of the independent state, challenged the attempts of the former colonial power to maintain its control over its former empire, seeking pan-African cooperation, as pointed out in Aziadouvo 2013 (cited under the Postcolonial Economy and Economic History), he did not manage to bring these plans into effect. As is discussed in Keese 2008, Togo remained in the French neocolonial orbit: Olympio was assassinated in 1963; his successor, Nicolas Grunitzky, became another victim of a coup d’état three years later. The social history of the transition, for example of the police forces, is meticulously analyzed in Glasman 2015. The takeover by the military, represented by authoritarian ruler Etienne Gnassingbe Eyadéma, led to decades of a one-party state, whose electoral bases are interpreted in Barbier 1987. The tentative support given by the Eyadéma regime to northern, especially Kabiye populations of the Kara region left the Ewe-speakers in a complicated situation and eventually, like in neighboring Ghana, as scapegoats for all kinds of suspicions, as discussed in Brown 1983. The tensions around the Ghana–Togo border were another element of conflict during much of the period before the 1980s and even beyond, as is clear from Bening 1983 and Skinner 2015 (see also Nugent 2002, cited under Ewe-Ness: A Focal Point of Ethnic Mobilization and its Aftermath, pp. 201–230). Finally, while the reputation of the Eyadéma regime was to finish with “traditional” intermediary authorities, such as the chefs de canton (chiefs), Nieuwaal 2000 demonstrates that these chiefs were coopted into the Eyadéma state rather than being removed.

Barbier, Jean-Claude. “Jalons pour une sociologie électorale du Togo: 1958, 1985.” Politique Africaine 27 (1987): 6–18.
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A sociologist’s attempt to contextualize the relatively free elections of 1958 (immediately before independence) and those of 1985 (during the last part of the Eyadéma one-party regime), through an approach that focuses on ethnic groups.
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Bening, R. Bagulo. “The Ghana-Togo Boundary, 1914–1982.” Africa Spectrum 18.2 (1983): 191–209.
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Explains the dynamics of a problematic border and is especially relevant for presenting this border as a hotspot of political conflict between two postcolonial countries and their elites after the end of colonialism.
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Brown, David. “Sieges and Scapegoats: The Politics of Pluralism in Ghana and Togo.” Journal of Modern African Studies 21.3 (1983): 431–460.
DOI: 10.1017/S0022278X00023508 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Compares the policies of anti-Ewe activities in Ghana and Togo, pointing to the anticonspiracy rhetoric and measures used by the Eyadéma government against principal Ewe-speakers.
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Glasman, Joël. Les corps habillés au Togo: Genèse coloniale des métiers de police. Paris: Karthala, 2015.
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A new study that interprets the transfer of power as social history, through the example of the emergence of the postcolonial police forces. Can be understood as a model for studies on particular social groups to come.
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Keese, Alexander. “Building a New Image of Africa: ‘Dissident States’ and the Emergence of French Neo-Colonialism in the Aftermath of Decolonisation.” Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines 191 (2008): 513–530.
DOI: 10.4000/etudesafricaines.12092 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Offers an interpretation—in a comparison with Guinea-Conakry—of entanglements and secret alliances between the Togolese and the (neocolonial) French for the late colonial and the early postcolonial years.
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Nieuwaal, E. Adriaan B. van Rouveroy van. L’Etat en Afrique face à la chefferie: le cas du Togo. Paris: Karthala, 2000.
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An important evaluation of the role of chieftaincy under the Eyadéma regime; goes against the trend of regarding Togo as a country where chieftaincy lost its importance after the end of colonialism.
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Schuerkens, Ulrike. Du Togo allemand aux Togo et Ghana indépendants: Changement social sous régime colonial. Paris: Harmattan, 2001.
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Historical overview by a sociologist based on published sources. Gives an idea of the legal and structural processes accompanying Ewe mobilization and the independence of Togo.
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Skinner, Kate. The Fruits of Freedom in British Togoland: Literacy, Politics and Nationalism, 1914 –2014. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139870573 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
A new attempt to write a history from below of anticolonial activism, mainly focusing on Ghana’s current Volta region (former British Togoland), but interesting for scholars of current-day Togo through its border-crossing dimensions and interests.
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Multiparty Democracy and the Entrenchment of the Eyadéma-Gnassingbe Regime (1990–2015)

The historiography on the most recent history of Togo, after the official reinstallation of multiparty democracy in the early 1990s, is very much a mirror of political positions and opinions and lacks analysis in many cases. Publications by French publishers are strongly dominated by members of the Togolese opposition. The transition from Gnassingbe Eyadéma to Faure Gnassingbe has done little to change this trend. A principal evaluation of political and social trends and changes from independence to 2010 is offered in Gayibor 2012. The historical perspective used by a political scientist in Heilbrunn 1993 is useful to understand the context of the national conferences and reconciliation efforts in the early 1990s. Attisso 2012 and, less polemical perhaps, Tété-Adjalogo 2012 offer the perspective of the opposition. A biography of Gilchrist Olympio, an erstwhile principal opposition member, is presented in Amouzou 2010 and that of Edem Kodjo in Konan 2012. Interesting for the historian are the ways in which Sylvanus Olympio, as a founding father of the nation, is now reinterpreted, such as in Agbobli 2007 and Tété-Adjalogo 2008.

Agbobli, Atsutsé Kokouvi. Sylvanus Olympio: père de l’indépendance togolaise. Lomé, Togo: Editions Graines de Pensées, 2007.
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A biography of the first president by a minister of the 1990s and leading opposition member, interesting for a view of the image of Olympio by the post-1990 opposition.
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Amouzou, Essè. Gilchrist Olympio et la lutte pour la libération du Togo. Paris: Harmattan, 2010.
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Biography of the opposition leader and son of Sylvanus Olympio, the main opposition figure from the 1990s, based on interviews by the author.
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Attisso, Fulbert Sassou. Le Togo sous la dynastie des Gnassingbé. Paris: Harmattan, 2012.
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History of recent events in Togo written by a journalist and opposition politician with a clear bias against the Eyadéma regime.
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Gayibor, Nicoué Lodjou, ed. Cinquante ans d’indépendance en Afrique subsaharienne et au Togo. Paris: Harmattan, 2012.
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A principal edited book revisiting the evolution of Togolese society and especially politics for all principal domains after 1960, with some examples of comparison within West Africa.
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Heilbrunn, John R. “Social Origins of National Conferences in Togo and Benin.” Journal of Modern African Studies 31.2 (1993): 277–299.
DOI: 10.1017/S0022278X00011939 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
An important study of the transition toward multiparty democracy, which also highlights the relative failure of the Togolese process if compared to the retreat from power of the Kérékou regime in neighboring Benin.
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Konan, Venance. Edem Kodjo, un homme, un destin: ou le parcours politique d’un intellectuel africain. Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire: NEI-CEDA, 2012.
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A biographical sketch of another leading politician and former minister.
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Tété-Adjalogo, Têtêvi G. Sylvanus Olympio: père de la nation togolaise. Paris: Harmattan, 2008.
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A biography of Sylvanus Olympio by the historian and opposition politician, interesting for the use of the first president as symbol. Is particularly valuable through its reliance on information from unpublished Togolese master’s and PhD theses.
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Tété-Adjalogo, Têtêvi G. Histoire du Togo: le coup de force permanent (2006–2011). Paris: Harmattan, 2012.
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An autopsy of the turbulent attempts at a transition in Togo in the second half of the 2000s.
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The Postcolonial Economy and Economic History

While the integration of southern Togo into precolonial trade networks has been studied in relative abundance, little has been done so far in terms of analyzing Togo’s postcolonial economy. Studies with a historical perspective of Togo’s economic development are even rarer. The titles that can be mentioned as being of interest for the historian are thus limited–much research still needs to be done. Certainly the city of Lomé has become a symbol of tentative West African economic integration from the presidency of Sylvanus Olympio on, and Togolese governments have continuously played a role in these attempts, as is pointed out in Aziadouvo 2013. Questions of transport, smuggling, and child labor (the latter two in a transnational perspective) have been addressed by researchers in recent years.

Aziadouvo, Zeus Komi. Sylvanus Olympio: Panafricaniste et pionnier de la CEDEAO. Paris: Harmattan, 2013.
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A positive appreciation of Olympio’s role and the pan-Africanist direction of his activities, namely in the sense of economic cooperation, by a journalist interested in historical interpretations.
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Golub, Stephen S. “Entrepôt Trade and Smuggling in West Africa: Benin, Togo and Nigeria.” World Economy 35.9 (2012): 1139–1161.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9701.2012.01469.x Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Based on statistics and memoranda, this author attempts to understand the role of trade (including especially illicit trade) between Nigeria and Togo, showing Togo’s relative weakness in this commerce.
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Guézéré, Assogba. “Territoires des taxis-motos: de la pratique quotidienne à la recomposition des espaces urbains et des liens sociaux.” Géographie, Economie, Société 14.1 (2012): 53–72.
DOI: 10.3166/ges.14.53-72 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
This article highlights the development of motorbike transport in the urban area over the past two decades, discussing the drivers in different social roles, both as important figures in the everyday economy and as disharmonious elements from the perspective of the security forces.
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Ndembi, Denise Landria. Le travail des enfants en Afrique subsaharienne: le cas du Bénin, du Gabon et du Togo. Paris: Harmattan, 2006.
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Togo is one of the country case studies in this comparative analysis engaging with contemporary situations of child labor and child trafficking, which are condemned for their negative effects on social relations.
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Ethnology and Sociology

While historical studies of northern and central Togo are relatively rare, some of the communities of the region have been extremely popular in anthropological research. These studies can be, especially if scanned for descriptions of past processes, of good value to historians. The Kabiye have especially fascinated anthropologists: frequently, what was regarded as their uncompromising and rigid social traditions have provoked interest, starting with Enjalbert 1956 and Verdier 1982. Processes of change within Kabiye communities find more engaged discussion in Kao 2008 but especially Piot 1999. Lallemand 1994 discusses from a similar perspective the Kotokoli community further south. Kreamer 1995, on the Moba Gurma in Togo’s north, focuses on initiation rites into a secret society. Barbier, et al. 1995 presents a sociological overview with some historical elements of the city of Sokode. On the contrary, the south of Togo is the principal focus of sociolinguistic approaches, of which most are older; examples are Capo 1983 and Medeiros 1985. Finally, Ellis 1993 discusses the factor of rumors as a social and political phenomenon over all of postcolonial Togolese society, in an approach that, unfortunately, has not found any successor studies.

Barbier, Jean-Claude, Bernard Klein, Emile Le Bris, Pierre Peltre, and Nicoué Lodjou Gayibor. Sokodé, ville multicentrée du Nord-Togo: petit atlas urbain. Paris: ORSTOM Editions, 1995.
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A sociological study of a principal city of northern Togo, useful for a discussion of urban life away from the capital, Lomé.
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Capo, Hounkpatin C. “Le Gbe est une langue unique.” Africa 53.2 (1983): 47–57.
DOI: 10.2307/1160558 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
An impressive, thought-provoking attempt at discussing the languages of southeastern Ghana, southern Togo, southern Benin, and southwestern Nigeria as belonging to one family. Controversial but readable for the nonlinguist.
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Ellis, Stephen. “Rumour and Power in Togo.” Africa 63.4 (1993): 462–476.
DOI: 10.2307/1161002 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
A groundbreaking exercise in the sociology of political and cultural strategies of (de)mobilization for the Togolese context.
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Enjalbert, Henri. “Paysans noirs: le Kabré du Nord-Togo.” Cahiers d’Outre-Mer 34 (1956): 137–180.
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Classical approach to the ethnographic characteristics of a group, not much inspired by colonial criteria.
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Kao, Wiyao Blanzoua. Anthropologie de la parenté kabiye: la valeur archéologique de l’intronisation du kondo. Lomé, Togo: Imprimerie SAKOM, 2008.
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Underlines the factor of community organization of the Kabiye, which has remained a particularly fascinating element for anthropologists of northern Togo.
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Kreamer, Christine Mullen. “Transformation and Power in Moba (Northern Togo) Initiation Rites.” Africa 65.1 (1995): 58–78.
DOI: 10.2307/1160907 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
A study of the voluntary Kondi society and the ways of appropriating knowledge about power and the wilderness.
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Lallemand, Suzanne. Adoption et mariage: Les Kotokoli du centre du Togo. Paris: Harmattan, 1994.
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A leading study of the organization of the Kotokoli family, through adoption and marriage techniques, from a leading anthropologist’s point of view.
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Medeiros, François de, ed. Peuples du golfe du Bénin—aja-éwé: colloque de Cotonou. Paris: Karthala, 1985.
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An overview of communities in Togo’s south from a sociolinguistic basis.
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Piot, Charles. Remotely Global: Village Modernity in West Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.
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Interprets the mechanisms of stable structures in exemplary parts of Kabiye society and the ways in which these structures react on external influences.
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Verdier, Raymond. Les pays Kabiyè, cité des dieux, cité des hommes. Paris: Karthala, 1982.
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An anthropological study that emphasizes the concept of conviviality between different clans, the rigid respect for “traditional” forms of family organization, and heritage rules.
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Social Change and Migration

As opposed to other questions of group migration, which are so central in the oral legends that are often a leading source for precolonial histories in Togo, the study of migration from 1884, from sociological and historical perspectives, has remained remarkably weak. Lomé as point of attraction is studied in its historical roots in Marguerat 1994; the broader context of migration between rural zones and villages is discussed in Ahakpo-Ahianyo 1974. An exemplary interpretation for the Moba Gurma in the capital can be found in Pilon and Vignikin 2009. The important Muslim migrant community in the urban Zongos, the merchant quarters, appears in Agier 1983. De Haan 1993 proposes a regional economic and social, including migratory, system for Togo’s Sahel region; the point of the regional migration process is made in Beauchemin and Bocquier 2004.

Agier, Michel. Les négociants soudanais du quartier zongo de Lomé (Togo). Paris: Editions de l’ORSTOM, 1983.
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Discusses the important Muslim diaspora from the Sahel and its social role in the Muslim trading quarter of Lomé, the Zongo.
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Ahakpo-Ahianyo, Anani. “L’impact de la migration sur la société villageoise: l’approche sociologique (exemple Togo–Ghana).” In Modern Migrations in Western Africa: Studies Presented and Discussed at the Eleventh International African Seminar, Dakar, April 1972. Edited by Samir Amin, 156–169. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974.
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An older approach toward migration between village societies and the new urban centers.
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Beauchemin, Cris, and Philippe Bocquier. “Migration and Urbanisation in Francophone West Africa: An Overview of the Recent Empirical Evidence.” Urban Studies 41.11 (2004): 2245–2274.
DOI: 10.1080/0042098042000268447 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
A study of the broader region that challenges the idea of postcolonial mass migration into West African cities, including Lomé.
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De Haan, Leo. La région des Savanes au Togo: l’Etat, les paysans et l’intégration régionale, 1885–1985. Paris: Karthala, 1993.
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A macro approach to social effects of economic links in Togo’s northern Region, including the longer historical perspective.
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Marguerat, Yves. “La naissance d’une capitale africaine: Lomé.” Revue Française de l’Histoire d’Outre-Mer 81.302 (1994): 71–95.
DOI: 10.3406/outre.1994.3177 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
The historical background of the emergence of Togo’s capital, which also provides the background for one of the principal points of attraction for migratory flows.
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Pilon, Marc, and Kokou Vignikin. “L’histoire récente des ménages Moba-Gurma de Lomé (1970–1990).” In Du genre et de l’Afrique: hommage à Thérèse Locoh. Edited by Jacques Vallin, 247–264. Paris: INED, 2009.
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An exceptional study of regional migration and the integration of a northern Togolese group in the urban environment of Lomé from the perspective of sociological analysis.
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Religion

The impact of the Christian mission, as a factor implying ethnogenesis and group-building, has been discussed elsewhere. This does not necessarily mean that such efforts are of a different quality when compared to other religious trends, but they are strongly contextualized in their historical dimension, which is less the case for the other religious communities and practices. Delval 1981 analyzes Muslim communities in northern Togo; Issifou and Lallemand 1967 offers a debate on rituals in Togo’s north that combine Islamic and other thought. Sewane 2003 follows a similar thought pattern. Geomancy among coastal Ewe-speakers is the object of Surgy 1981; ancestor cults in southwest Togo are discussed in Agbetiafa 1985. Unsurprisingly, so-called Voodoo practices have found a particular interest in the study of religion in Togo’s coastal communities: Rosenthal 1998 and Lovell 2002 discuss the elements of religious practice, including possession, in these cults; Hamberger 2011 points to their functions as instruments of social order.

Agbetiafa, Komla. Les ancêtres et nous, analyse de la pensée religieuse des Bê de la commune de Lomé. Lomé, Togo: Nouvelles Editions Africaines, 1985.
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A discussion of divinities and priesthood in southwest Togo’s regions as a key to a particular system of thought.
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Delval, Raymond. Les Musulmans au Togo. Paris: Publications orientalistes de France, 1981.
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A discussion of Muslim communities on Togolese ground that revisits both the communities in the north of the country and immigration into Lomé in the 1970s.
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Hamberger, Klaus. La parenté vodou: organization sociale et logique symbolique en pays ouatchi (Togo). Paris: CNRS Editions, 2011.
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Demonstrates the importance of Voodoo religious thought for community organization, which profits from artificial family links expressed through cult elements.
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Issifou, H. Aboudou, and Suzanne Lallemand. “Un rite agraire chez les Kotokoli du Nord-Togo: la fête suwa.” Journal de la Société des Africanistes 37.1 (1967): 73–86.
DOI: 10.3406/jafr.1967.1418 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Points to mixed elements between Islamic religious thought and other regional religions in Kotokoli agrarian rites.
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Lovell, Nadia. Cord of BLOOD: Possession and the Making of Voodoo. London: Pluto, 2002.
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An attempt to engage with the complex (and popular) issue of Voodoo especially among Togo’s Watchi-speakers in the Southern part.
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Rosenthal, Judy. Possession, Ecstasy, and Law in Ewe Voodoo. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1998.
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Highlights the techniques and expressions in Voodoo cults of Ewe-speakers and explains how they contribute to social stabilization through a proper form of law-making.
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Sewane, Dominique. Le soufflé du mort: les Batãmmariba (Togo, Bénin). Paris: Plon, 2003.
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Gives an ethnographic account of funerary rites and religious beliefs in the northern Togolese community.
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Surgy, Albert de. La géomancie et le culte d’Afa chez les Evhé du littoral. Paris: Publications orientalistes de France, 1981.
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Explains Afa divination as an old practice—rather than one imported from Dahomey or the Yoruba region—that has an impact on local life through its symbolisms and figures.
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Memory Culture

The field of commemorations and memory studies is still relatively new for Togo; even so, the perspectives are quite encouraging. Gayibor, et al. 1998 offers a discussion of Lomé that includes its symbolic role as site of memory. A more systematic study of sites of memory in the country is attempted in Vallat 2013.

Gayibor, Nicoué Lodjou, Yves Marguerat, and Gabriel K. Nyassogbo, eds. Le Centenaire de Lomé, Capitale du Togo (1897–1997): Actes du colloque de Lomé (3–6 mars 1997). Lomé, Togo: Presses de l’Université du Bénin, 1998.
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Discusses, apart from historical overviews of Lomé’s role, the importance of the city as symbol and element of memory of the nation.
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Vallat, Jean-Pierre, ed. Le Togo: lieux de mémoire et sites de conscience. Paris: Harmattan, 2013.
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Attempts to use the classical concept of memory sites for the former colony of Togo; includes the idea of places of conscience with regard to violence experienced, especially under colonial rule but also beyond.
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Gender Roles in the Postcolonial Society

Although the role of women in some particular periods and at some key moments of Togolese history—in the coastal trade networks of the precolonial period or during the 1933 revolt in Lomé, for example—have been studied, we are still far from any more systematic discussion of gender roles in Togolese communities and postcolonial Togolese society at large. Historical approaches are not very typical for the 20th and 21st centuries. A number of studies on social settings, and the role of gender therein, may nevertheless be useful. INADES 2000a and INADES 2000b are compilations of gender-related proverbs and legends that give a background to attitudes within the society. Abotchi 2004 offers an introduction into female roles in postcolonial agriculture (in southern Togo); Poitou, et al. 1992 analyzes the position of female traders (compared to other West African countries); Kreamer 2000 revisits artisan pottery (for a region in northern Togo) and female livelihoods related to it; and Kola 2012 points out female patterns of migration (in the Plateau region). Djonoukou 2005 is probably the first to inquire from an anthropological perspective into the gender effects with regard to HIV in the Togolese capital. All of these approaches are entirely without links; a future study of Togolese gender roles and their history has not yet begun.

Abotchi, Kodjo. Technologie de production et genre dans les systèmes d’exploitation agricole au sud du Togo: cas de la traction animale. Antwerp, Belgium: Institut de politique et de gestion du développement, 2004.
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A small monograph that offers a discussion of the factor of gender within household agriculture in southern Togo.
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Djonoukou, Kossi T. “Contribution à une anthropologie du genre et sida au Togo: Etude de cas à Lomé.” Journal de la Recherche Scientifique de l’Université de Lomé 7.2 (2005).
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A pioneering anthropological study of the propagation of AIDS in Lomé, interpreted through a gender perspective.
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INADES. Adages et mythes porteurs du genre en Kabiye. Lomé, Togo: INADES-Formation, 2000a.
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A small monograph that engages with stereotypes of gender as presented in proverbs and myths for the speakers of Kabiye. Includes texts in the original language.
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INADES. Adages et mythes porteurs du genre en Ewe et Mina. Lomé, Togo: INADES-Formation, 2000b.
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A small monograph that engages with stereotypes of gender as presented in proverbs and myths for the two southern Togolese language groups. Includes texts in the original language.
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Kola, Edinam. “Genre, migration international et développement local: Quelques implications socio-spatiales de l’émigration internationale des populations dans l’ouest de la région des plateaux au Togo.” Journal de la Recherche Scientifique de l’Université de Lomé 14.1 (2012): 105–122.
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A sociological study that addresses differences between migrating women and men from the Plateau region in the past few decades.
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Kreamer, Christine Mullen. “Money, Power and Gender: Some Social and Economic Factors in Moba Male and Female Pottery Traditions (Northern Togo).” In Clay and Fire: Pottery in Africa. Edited by Christopher D. Roy, 189–212. Iowa City: University of Iowa, 2000.
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A discussion of Moba pottery that introduces social and economic strategies having to do with gender roles in this northern Togolese community.
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Poitou, D., Agnés Lambert de Frondeville, and C. M. Toulabor. “Femmes, commerce, état: une analyse en termes de relations de genre à partir de trois cas ouest-africains.” In Relations de genre et développement: femmes et sociétés. Edited by Jeanne Bisilliat, Florence Pinton, and Mireille Lecarme, 277–293. Paris: ORSTOM, 1992.
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An edited book that analyzes the role of female merchants in various West African cases, including Togo, and the public campaign against female tissue sellers in Lomé in the early 1980s. A start in the comparative appreciation of women’s roles in local commerce.
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Togo
by
Alexander Keese
LAST MODIFIED: 21 January 2016
DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199846733-0025

Introduction

General Overviews

Primary Sources

Conceptual Approaches to the History of Togo

Possible Early Settlement and Archaeology

Precolonial Situations: Contact and Commerce at the Togolese Coast

Precolonial Situations: Ewe-Speakers and Others in the South

Precolonial Situations: The Plateau and Central Togo

Precolonial Situations: The North and Connections into the Sahel

Precolonial Situations: The Bassar–Material Culture and Structures of Power

Colonial Brutality and Economic Exploitation: German Rule (1884–1914)

Identity-Crafting: Christian Churches and Sociocultural Change (Late 19th Century–1930s)

Quasi-Colony: The French Mandate, Repression, and Challenges from the Interwar Period (1914–1960)

Ewe-Ness: A Focal Point of Ethnic Mobilization and its Aftermath

Independence and the Way into the One-Party State (1960–1990)

Multiparty Democracy and the Entrenchment of the Eyadéma-Gnassingbe Regime (1990–2015)

The Postcolonial Economy and Economic History

Ethnology and Sociology

Social Change and Migration

Religion

Memory Culture

Gender Roles in the Postcolonial Society

African Studies

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Togo byAlexander KeeseLAST MODIFIED: 21 January 2016DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199846733-0025

Introduction

General Overviews

Primary Sources

Conceptual Approaches to the History of Togo

Possible Early Settlement and Archaeology

Precolonial Situations: Contact and Commerce at the Togolese Coast

Precolonial Situations: Ewe-Speakers and Others in the South

Precolonial Situations: The Plateau and Central Togo

Precolonial Situations: The North and Connections into the Sahel

Precolonial Situations: The Bassar–Material Culture and Structures of Power

Colonial Brutality and Economic Exploitation: German Rule (1884–1914)

Identity-Crafting: Christian Churches and Sociocultural Change (Late 19th Century–1930s)

Quasi-Colony: The French Mandate, Repression, and Challenges from the Interwar Period (1914–1960)

Ewe-Ness: A Focal Point of Ethnic Mobilization and its Aftermath

Independence and the Way into the One-Party State (1960–1990)

Multiparty Democracy and the Entrenchment of the Eyadéma-Gnassingbe Regime (1990–2015)

The Postcolonial Economy and Economic History

Ethnology and Sociology

Social Change and Migration

Religion

Memory Culture

Gender Roles in the Postcolonial Society

African Studies

Article

Related Articles Expand or collapse the "related articles" section about

Togo
by
Alexander Keese
LAST MODIFIED: 21 January 2016
DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199846733-0025