Cinema in Togo began with German colonial filmmakers visiting Togoland. The French attempted to suppress cinema in French Togoland. After the Togolese Republic gained independence in 1960, Togo's national government encouraged cinema, though government support for cinema lapsed when French funding was withdrawn in the 1990s. More recently, however, the film industry is once again growing in Togo.
The amateur filmmaker Carl Müller filmed Lomé in 1906, [1] touring Germany with his films on his return. More systematic encouragement to colonial filming of Togoland was provided by the explorer Adolf Friedrich, [2] colonial governor of Togoland from 1912 to 1914. Wilhelm Solf's 1913 visit to the colony was filmed and distributed in Europe. [3] Hans Schomburgk first visited Togo in 1913–14, working with the British cameraman James S. Hodgson and the actress Meg Gehrts. Though the outbreak of World War I led to most of their material being confiscated and lost, Schomburgk had enough material to release a series of short films in 1916–17. Schomburgk's Im Deutschen Sudan (In the German Sudan) was a feature-length 1917 documentary, used for colonial propaganda. [4]
French colonial law did not initially regulate film production and distribution. In 1932 the French colonial administrator Robert de Guise complained that Africans in French Togoland, such as Albert John Mensah in Lomé, were turning their homes and businesses into illicit cinemas. As a result, the Laval Decree established censorship to control the authorship, content and distribution of films. [5]
The 1970s were "a great period for Togolese cinema", according to cultural administrator Komi Ati: the post-independence government encouraged cinema, establishing the Service du Cinéma et des Actualités Audiovisuelles (CINEATO) in 1976 to make newsreels and documentaries. However, Togolese cinema suffered a setback in 1993, when the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie withdrew all their funding for ten years. Cinemas and distribution companies closed down. [6]
The Togolese film sector is relatively small and undeveloped, and struggles with postcolonial dilemmas of representation. However, it has recently started to grow in self-confidence. [7] Anne-Laure Folly, making documentaries since the early 1990s, is a Togolese filmmaker who has gained an international reputation. In 2009 Christelle Aquéréburu established ECRAN, [8] a film school in Togo which has taught over 100 students and produced 20 films and documentaries. The work of one ECRAN student, Essi Névamé Akpandza, was nominated in the School Films category at the 2013 FESPACO. [7] A new film and animated code has been established to boost the film industry in Togo. In 2018 the Togolese Minister of Culture, Guy Madje Lorenzo, opened a government-sponsored cinema week, screening over sixty films and organizing a scriptwriting residency. New filmmakers include Gilbert Bararmna and the award-winning Joël Tchédré. [9]
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".
Sylvanus Épiphanio Olympio was a Togolese politician who served as prime minister, and then president, of Togo from 1958 until his assassination in 1963. He came from the important Olympio family, which included his uncle Octaviano Olympio, one of the richest people in Togo in the early 1900s.
Togoland was a German Empire protectorate in West Africa from 1884 to 1914, encompassing what is now the nation of Togo and most of what is now the Volta Region of Ghana, approximately 90,400 km2 in size. During the period known as the "Scramble for Africa", the colony was established in 1884 and was gradually extended inland.
Atakpamé is the fifth largest city in Togo by population, located in the Plateaux Region of Togo. It is an industrial centre and lies on the main north-south highway, 161 km north of the capital Lomé. It is also a regional commercial centre for produce and cloth.
French Togoland was a French colonial League of Nations mandate from 1916 to 1960 in French West Africa. In 1960 it became the independent Togolese Republic, and the present day nation of Togo.
The coat of arms of Togo was adopted on 14 March 1962. Since this Togolese national symbol does not follows the rules of heraldry for a traditional coat of arms, then it could be considered a national emblem instead.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Togo.
The Togoland Campaign was a French and British invasion of the German colony of Togoland in West Africa, which began the West African Campaign of the First World War. German colonial forces withdrew from the capital Lomé and the coastal province to fight delaying actions on the route north to Kamina, where the Kamina Funkstation linked the government in Berlin to Togoland, the Atlantic and South America.
The Affair of Agbeluvoe (Agbéluvhoé, Beleaguer or the Battle of Tsewie, was fought during the First World War between invading British Empire soldiers of the West African Rifles and German Polizeitruppen in German Togoland on 15 August 1914. British troops occupying the Togolese capital of Lomé on the coast, had advanced towards a wireless station at Kamina, 100 mi inland on hills near Atakpamé. The only routes inland were by the railway and road, which had been built through dense and almost impassable jungle.
The Affair of Khra [Chra] was fought by British and French troops against German Polizeitruppen in the village of Khra, near the Khra River on 22 August 1914, during the Togoland Campaign of the First World War. The German defenders mined the approaches to the river, blew the bridges and dug in around the village on the far bank, ready to defend the crossing with rifles and three concealed machine-guns. The British-French attack was repulsed and then a German counter-attack was ordered but many troops refused the order and the attack was not delivered.
Prostitution in Togo is legal and commonplace. Related activities such as solicitation, living off the earnings of prostitution or procuring are prohibited. Punishment is up to 10 years imprisonment if minors or violence is involved.
Rail transport in Togo began in 1905.
Kamina Funkstation was a wireless transmitter in the German-occupied colony of Togoland in West Africa. The wireless station was built by Telefunken near the village of Kamina, in Togoland, where the nearest large settlement was Atakpamé. The transmitter was built by Telefunken, on behalf of the German government from 1911 to 1914. The station was designed as a node and switching point for other German colonial radio stations. Shortly after the beginning of the First World War, Togoland was invaded by British and French forces from the neighbouring colonies of Gold Coast (Ghana) to the west and French Dahomey (Benin) to the east. The station was destroyed by the operators to prevent it from coming under British and French control.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Lomé, Togo.
Karl Weule was a German geographer, ethnologist and museum director.
Jan Vermeulen, the Miller of Flanders is a 1917 German silent war drama film directed by Georg Jacoby. It was made as a propaganda film by the German film agency BUFA, which generally specialised in making documentaries but also made feature films such as this and Dr. Hart's Diary.
Christelle Aquéréburu is a Togolese filmmaker. She is founder-director of the film school Ecole de cinéma au Togo (ECRAN), and director of the audio-visual production company African Dreams.
The Ghana–Togo border is 1,098 km in length and runs from the tripoint with Burkina Faso in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in the south.
Togolese nationality law is regulated by the Constitution of Togo, as amended; the Togolese Nationality Code, and its revisions; the Code of Persons and Family; the Children's Code; and various international agreements to which the country is a signatory. These laws determine who is, or is eligible to be, a national of Togo. The legal means to acquire nationality, formal legal membership in a nation, differ from the domestic relationship of rights and obligations between a national and the nation, known as citizenship. Nationality describes the relationship of an individual to the state under international law, whereas citizenship is the domestic relationship of an individual within the nation. Togolese nationality is typically obtained under the principal of jus sanguinis, i.e. by birth in Togo or abroad to parents with Togolese nationality. It can be granted to persons with an affiliation to the country, or to a permanent resident who has lived in the country for a given period of time through naturalization.