Togo, officially the Togolese Republic, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its capital, Lomé, is located. It covers about 57,000 square kilometres with a population of approximately 8 million, and has a width of less than 115 km (71 mi) between Ghana and its eastern neighbor Benin.
The history of Togo can be traced to archaeological finds which indicate that ancient local tribes were able to produce pottery and process tin. During the period from the 11th century to the 16th century, the Ewé, the Mina, the Gun, and various other tribes entered the region. Most of them settled in coastal areas. The Portuguese arrived in the late 15th century, followed by other European powers. Until the 19th century, the coastal region was a major slave trade centre, earning Togo and the surrounding region the name "The Slave Coast".
The flag of Togo is the national flag, ensign, and naval jack of Togo. It has five equal horizontal bands of green alternating with yellow. There is a white five-pointed star on a red square in the upper hoist-side corner. It uses the pan-African colors of Ethiopia, but the design resembles the flag of Liberia, which itself echoes the flag of the United States, making it part of both the pan-African and Stars and Stripes flag families.
Elections in Togo take place within the framework of a presidential system. Both the President and the National Assembly are directly elected by voters. Togo is a one party dominant state with the Union for the Republic in power.
Édouard Kodjovi "Edem" Kodjo, was a Togolese politician and diplomat. He was Secretary-General of the Organisation of African Unity from 1978 to 1983; later, in Togo, he was a prominent opposition leader after the introduction of multi-party politics. He served as Prime Minister from 1994 to 1996 and again from 2005 to 2006. Kodjo was President of the Patriotic Pan-African Convergence (CPP). Kodjo died on April 11, 2020, in Paris.
Fambaré Ouattara Natchaba was a Togolese politician. He was the President of the National Assembly of Togo from September 2000 to February 2005. He was a prominent member of the ruling Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) and a member of the Pan-African Parliament representing Togo.
Tavio Ayao Tobias Amorin was a Togolese socialist politician. He led the Pan-African Socialist Party, the ideology of which was influenced by such figures as Marcus Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah and Cheikh Anta Diop.
The Pan-African Patriotic Convergence is a political party in Togo. Former Prime Minister Edem Kodjo is the President of the CPP as of 2007.
Togo has very diverse and rich traditions in music and dance, which is in part reflected by Togo's regional hip hop scene. Hip-hop togo is the style of Old school hip hop of America mixing with the traditional music of Togo.
The Pan-African National Party is a political party in Togo. The party participated in the October 2007 parliamentary election, but did not win any seats. In 2013 legislative election, Sambrini Targone won the party single seat in the Denkpen prefecture.
General elections were held in Togo on 5 May 1963, alongside a constitutional referendum. It followed a military coup earlier in the year which had ousted President Sylvanus Olympio, who had dissolved all political parties except his own Party of Togolese Unity in 1961. Nicolas Grunitzky, who had served as Prime Minister since shortly after the coup was elected president unopposed, whilst in the National Assembly election, a single list of candidates containing members of the Party of Togolese Unity, Juvento, the Democratic Union of the Togolese People and the Togolese People's Movement was put forward under the name "Reconciliation and National Union". It was approved by 98.6% of voters. Voter turnout was 91.1%.
Parliamentary elections were held in Togo on 21 March 1999. They were boycotted by the eight opposition parties, who been rebuffed in their insistence that talks following the controversial presidential elections the previous year must be completed prior to the parliamentary elections. As a result only three parties ran in the elections, the ruling Rally of the Togolese People (RPT), together with two small parties allied with it; the Coordination of New Forces and the Pan African Environmentalist Party. In addition, twelve independent candidates also ran.
Togolese cuisine is the cuisine of the Togolese Republic, a country in Western Africa. Staple foods in Togolese cuisine include maize, rice, millet, cassava, yam, plantain and beans. Maize is the most commonly consumed food in the Togolese Republic. Fish is a significant source of protein. People in Togo tend to eat at home, but there are also restaurants and food stalls.
Sambrini Targone is a deputy of the opposition party PDP (Democratic Pan-African Party in Togo's National Assembly. He was elected in the Dankpen prefecture as part of the rainbow coalition during the 2013 Togolese parliamentary election. Deputy Targone name came out of the shadow in Togo after his infamous June 2014 arrest for crime the togolese government claims he committed 5 years earlier. Opposition parties consider the arrest as politically motivated and a way to silence a deputy who had taken a seat from the regime's stronghold and increasingly criticism the president in the region. “We fear for tomorrow, for the future of our country. We have been told the head of state is a man of peace, but his actions have nothing to do with peace” said Mr Paul Dodji Apevon, leader of CAR in reaction to Mr Targone arrest. As term of the deputy bail, a Lomé court banned him from traveling to his circonscription in Dankpen prefecture.
The Rainbow Alliance is a political alliance in Togo.
The Togolese Party of Progress was a political party in Togo.
The Togolese Union for Democracy was a political party in Togo.
The 2017–18 Togolese protests were a significant representation of civil unrest in Togo and against the 50 year rule of the father-son combination of Gnassingbé Eyadéma and Faure Gnassingbé. The protesters demanded that the president honour the 1992 constitution, and demanding that he step down immediately. Gnassingbé offered the protesters the option of enacting the two-term limit set in the constitution effective from 2018, thus ensuring that he could stay in power until 2030. This has been rejected by the opposition. However, on 8 May 2019 the Togolese Parliament voted unanimously to accept this amendment and imposed this non-retroactive term limit on the president's office.
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