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History
Kwa tribal people from Volta lake region were occupying the land we
call Togo today, in the early 15th Century.
They were gradually joined by the
Ewe people from Nigerian area in the next two hundred years. Ane people from Ghana and Ivory Coast joined
them later on. In the
early 18th century
Danish colonialists occupied the coastal regions and developed farming
using slave labor.
Germans captured this
land from Danes in the 1900s only to be removed by an Anglo- French joined force in the
First World War. In due course, they bifurcated the captured territory; western parts of the regions came under the
British and the other portion for the French.
After a
UN-sponsored referendum in 1956, the British sector merged with the
neighboring colony of Gold Coast to form Ghana, while the French part
chose later in the year to become the autonomous Republic of Togo. It
was granted full independence in 1960.
As in the case of many an African country, the civilian government was
short lived. In a coup in 1967, the
military overthrew the civilian government. The
military leader, Eyadema is still in office; the
longest serving Head of State in
Africa.
Eyadema had formed
Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais (
RPT ) , the sole political party in Togo for his support base. The authoritarian style of the military ruler
was opposed by several sections of the people and at last the
government had to permit multiparty elections. The
elections were rigged; opponents were intimidated and
in certain cases the opposition parties boycotted the elections in
protests; whatever be the reasons, the leader Eyadema never allowed any
one to remove him from the seat of power.
In 2002, Eyadema completed his second and final term in
office as per the constitution of 1993. But
he began to exert pressure for another term in office.
When the opposition parties
boycotted the election, his government won the election by default. The opposition groups naturally could not
accept this. The country is in this
political turmoil.
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