Togo (capital Lomé) and neighboring states
Togo was a German colony. With World War I British and French arrived, and Togo became a League of Nation's mandate. Togo became independent and the Togolese Republic in 1960. Lt. Col. Eyadéma staged a coup in 1967. Togo is described in June 2012 as having been run "with a heavy hand" by this family for more than four decades. A coalition of groups are demonstrating for reforms.
Country Comparisons: chart
World Factbook: "The government's decade-long effort, supported by the World Bank and the IMF, to implement economic reform measures, encourage foreign investment, and bring revenues in line with expenditures has moved slowly."
Economic growth rate
2011: 3.8%
2010: 3.7%
2009: 3.2%
Labor force in agriculture
1998: 65%
Export- commodities
Reexports, cotton, phosphates, coffee, cocoa
Export/import ratio
2011: exports $0.865 billion, imports $1.460 billion
Health expenditures
2009: 5.9% of GDP
Living in an urban area:
2010: 43%
Ethnic groups
African (37 tribes; largest and most important are Ewe, Mina, and Kabre) 99%, European and Syrian-Lebanese less than 1%
Religions
Christian 29%, Muslim 20%, indigenous beliefs 51%
Literacy, (age 15 and
older can read and write)
2003: males 75.4%, females 46.9%
Western Africa, east of Ghana, west of Benin, with 56 kilometers of coastline in the south. About 100 kilometers east and west and 580 kilometers north and sout. Tropical.Capital: Lome.
Chief of state: Faure Gnassingbé (president) since 4 May 2005, Rally of the Togolese People. Head of government: Kwesi Ahoomey-Zunu (prime minister, appointed) since 23 July 2012, Patriotic Pan-African Convergence.
Togo became independent of French colonial rule in 1960, its formal name becoming the Togolese Republic. General Gnassingbe Eyadema became Togo's ruler in 1967. He gave in to popular pressure and legalized political parties in 1991. Then he won three elections, during allegations of political repression and electoral fraud.
During the 1990s the military made arbitrary arrests and committed extrajudicial killings, resulting in a withdrawal of aid by foreign donors. Eyadema died in March 2005. Eyadema's son, Faure Gnassingbe, was put in power. He ran for president that year, an election marred by hundreds of deaths. Gnassingbe won the presidency. He pursued reconciliation, and in parliamentary elections in October 2007 all opposition parties were allowed to run and all took part, for the first time in twenty years. Gnassingbe's party, the RPT, won 49 of the 81 seats. The leading opposition party, the UFC won 21 seats. A constitutional court is to hear any legal challenges to the results.
People have been migrating to the city from rural areas at a rate of 4.3 percent per year. The urban population is 2008 was counted as 42 percent of the total population. Demonstrations erupted in March, 2010, prostesting election results said to be rigged in favor of Faure Gnassingbé.
Copyright © 2009-2011 by Frank E. Smitha. All rights reserved.
