history of Togo

Early years and coups

After the 1961 elections, which established a presidential form of government, Olympio became the first president. He maintained economic cooperation with France. Togo became a member of the Organization of African Unity (OAU, now the African Union) in 1963 and in 1965 subscribed to the renewed Joint African and Malagasy Organization, which provided for economic, political, and social cooperation among French-speaking African states.

Ghanaian pressure for the integration of Togo with Ghana was resisted by the Togolese and led to strained relations between the two republics, including a trade embargo imposed by Ghana. Olympio’s increasingly harsh rule and policy of fiscal austerity came to an end on January 13, 1963. Having rejected petitions to integrate into the national army the Togolese noncommissioned officers recently demobilized from France’s colonial armies, Olympio was shot at the gates of the U.S. embassy (while seeking sanctuary) by a group of them that included Sgt. Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma (later called Gnassingbé Eyadéma).

Grunitzky was invited to return from exile and assume the presidency, and he was confirmed in office in subsequent elections that also created a new constitution and legislature. Most of the noncommissioned officers were integrated into an expanded army—many as commissioned officers.

Cabinet infighting, aggravated in the south by Ewe feelings that with Olympio’s assassination they had lost power to Grunitzky’s largely pro-northern administration, led to chronic instability. On January 13, 1967, Eyadéma, then a lieutenant colonel and chief of staff, once again seized power and dissolved all political parties.

Togo under Étienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma

Though relying primarily on the support of his kinsmen in the north and the largely northern-staffed army, Eyadéma’s rule was stabilized by a number of other factors. Phosphate exports dramatically improved the economic picture, allowing the regime to satisfy regional and ethnic interests and to begin the first serious effort at transforming the countryside. Meticulous ethnic balancing of the cabinet and an open-door economic policy further attracted support from prospering traders (and smugglers into Ghana), and by 1972 Eyadéma felt secure enough to seek popular legitimation via a presidential plebiscite. In 1974 the phosphate industry was nationalized, generating increased state revenues. On December 30, 1979, the first legislative elections since 1967 were held under a new constitution that formally placed Togo under civilian one-party rule headed by President Eyadéma and the Rally of the Togolese People (Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais; RPT). Legislative elections were held again in 1985.

Eyadéma’s power was overtly challenged on September 23, 1986, when a group of armed dissidents entered the country from Ghana. The ensuing violent confrontation between the dissidents and Togolese authorities, largely centred in Lomé, ended after several hours and resulted in the deaths or arrests of most dissidents. Later that year Eyadéma was elected to a second seven-year term with almost 100 percent of the vote. A commission was established in 1990 to draft a new constitution, which prompted the legalization of political parties in 1991 and the adoption of a democratic constitution in 1992. However, in the first multiparty elections in August 1993, Eyadéma was reelected president amid allegations of electoral fraud, and the same charges were leveled in 1998. Protests over the 1998 elections continued into 1999, affecting the legislative elections held that year, and instigated an independent inquiry by the UN and the OAU. Their joint report, issued in 2001, found that the government had systematically violated human rights during the 1998 presidential election. Eyadéma’s reelection in 2003 was again clouded by accusations of fraud; however, these claims were refuted by international observers.

Despite his long tenure, Eyadéma’s regime was not without its opponents. Most of these were Ewe from the south (including the self-exiled sons of Olympio) rebelling against the northerner Eyadéma and the cult of personality that progressively surrounded him. The opposition sponsored conspiracies to topple Eyadéma and was held responsible for a number of bombings in Lomé. Civil unrest, in the form of strikes and sometimes-violent demonstrations, plagued Eyadéma as well. The regime’s patronage base—and, by extension, its stability—was also undermined in the 1980s and ’90s by an economic downturn. Falling global prices for phosphates led to sharply lower state revenues, while growing corruption and massive expenditures on the bloated civil service and inefficient public enterprises strained the fiscal resources of the state. Togo’s costly government-owned industries were dismantled or privatized, and the country’s heavy national debt was often rescheduled. In 2004 the European Union agreed to resume the flow of monetary aid to Togo, which had been halted in 1993 as a protest against the poor governance and lack of democracy in the country, if Togo met specified criteria addressing such issues as election reform and the repeal of controversial press laws.

Faure Gnassingbé’s presidency

After Eyadéma’s unexpected death in February 2005, his son, Faure Gnassingbé, was hastily installed as president by the military—an action critics characterized as a coup. After weeks of international condemnation, Gnassingbé stepped down and a presidential election was held in April. He was declared the winner of that election, which was initially certified by some international observers as free and fair but later was marred as reports of considerable fraud emerged. The opposition refused to immediately concede defeat, and hundreds of people were killed and thousands fled from the country in the violent post-election aftermath.

Dialogue between the government and the opposition—which had lapsed following the death of Eyadéma the previous year—resumed in 2006 and led, with opposition participation, to the formation of a transitional government. Legislative elections late the following year, in which the ruling party was victorious, were characterized as free and fair by international observers. Presidential elections held on March 4, 2010, were also deemed largely free and fair by international observers, although some procedural problems were noted. Gnassingbé, again standing as the candidate of the longtime ruling party, the RPT, was said to be the winner by a large margin over his closest opponent, but the main opposition group, Union of Forces of Change (Union des Forces du Changement; UFC), disputed the outcome. In May a new cabinet was announced; it included seven UFC members, among them, veteran opposition leader Gilchrist Olympio, the son of Togo’s first president. The UFC was fiercely divided over whether its members should participate in the new government, eventually leading UFC’s presidential candidate, Jean-Pierre Fabre, to split from the UFC with his followers and form his own party, the National Alliance for Change (Alliance Nationale pour le Changement; ANC), later in the year.

Meanwhile, Togo had established a Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission in 2009 to investigate the political violence that occurred in the country from 1958 and 2005. The group released its final report in 2012, which included numerous recommendations, such as reforming the electoral system, the judiciary, and military and security forces. Also that year the long-ruling RPT was dissolved. Gnassingbé quickly created a new party, the Union for the Republic (Union pour la République; UNIR), which included many RPT members and, like the RPT, dominated Togolese politics. Fabre headed a coalition of opposition groups under the banner of Let’s Save Togo (Collectif Sauvons le Togo; CST), which led demonstrations in 2012 and 2013 calling for electoral reforms and for delayed legislative elections to be held, which finally took place in July 2013. The UNIR won a majority of the seats, more than three-fifths, followed by the CST, which won about one-fifth of the body’s seats. A series of electoral reforms that had been called for by the opposition were rejected by the UNIR-dominated National Assembly in June 2014.

New parties and alliances were formed prior to the 2015 presidential election, including the Togolese Party (Parti des Togolais; PT), formed by Alberto Olympio, nephew of Gilchrist Olympio, and a new alliance of opposition parties, Combat for Political Change 2015 (Combat pour l’Alternance Politique en 2015; CAP 2015), headed by Fabre and which included his ANC. The election, held on April 25, 2015, was characterized by international observers as being free and transparent. Gnassingbé was reelected with almost 59 percent of the vote, while his nearest challenger, Fabre, garnered almost 35 percent.

Togo was rocked by an unprecedented level of unrest beginning in August 2017, when demonstrations started to be held regularly by several opposition groups that would come to be known as the Coalition of 14 (C14). Primary among the protestors’ demands were the reinstatement of presidential term limits (limiting the president to two terms), for the limits to be retroactive, and the introduction of a two-round presidential election system. Some also called for Gnassingbé to step down. The government responded by agreeing to hold a referendum on presidential term limits, but it also partially banned demonstrations. Nonetheless, demonstrations continued, in part because the government’s term limits proposal would not be retroactive, thus allowing Gnassingbé to potentially serve two more terms. Demonstrations also continued in protest of the ongoing detention of some opposition members and because promised talks with the government had failed to materialize. Ghanian Pres. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Guinean Pres. Alpha Condé led mediation efforts that continued into 2018. In July 2018 the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional organization lauded the efforts of Akufo-Addo and Condé and, building on their work, introduced a road map with recommendations for the opposition and the government to solve the crisis; it included some of the protestors’ original demands. In the months that followed, however, little progress was made with implementing the recommendations.

Legislative elections held on December 20, 2018, were boycotted by most opposition groups. As such, the UNIR won the majority of the seats. The next year the National Assembly, now dominated by the UNIR and its allies, had the requisite four-fifths majority necessary to pass constitutional amendments without a referendum and did so in May. One change provided for the reinstatement of the limit of two terms for the president—but without the retroactive clause that protestors had demanded. Other changes included the adoption of a two-round majority election system and a guarantee of immunity from prosecution to all former presidents for acts committed during their time in office.

The next presidential election was held on February 22, 2020, with seven candidates slated to run. Gnassingbé was again standing for the UNIR. Among his strongest challengers were Fabre, again representing the ANC, and Agbeyome Kodjo, a former prime minister who had the backing of a new coalition of opposition parties. Gnassingbé was declared the winner with more than 70 percent of the vote; he was followed by Kodjo, who won about 19 percent. Citing allegations of electoral fraud, Kodjo contested the results with the Constitutional Court, but the court upheld Gnassingbé’s victory.

In April 2022 the Togolese government announced that the country would apply for membership in the Commonwealth association of countries. Membership was granted, and Togo joined the Commonwealth in June 2022.