“You will be met at the airport” I had been told. As such, I was slightly worried when on arrival at the Gnassingbe Eyadema International Airport (Aéroport International Gnassingbé Eyadéma – AIGE), Lome that balmy afternoon, I discovered that none of the masked faces that milled around the arrival hall had come for me. Matters were not helped by the immigration official who bombarded me with a torrent of questions in French, a language I was still trying to properly master.
“Je ne parle pas francais,” I told him, thinking that my confession as a non- French speaker would make him switch to English. However, the young man ignored my alibi and just increased the velocity of his francophone inquisition.
“Quelle est votre mission au Togo?” He asked.
I replied in my ‘High School’ French that I came to Togo for a meeting; “Je suis venu pour une reunion,” I struggled to reply.
As the officer pored over the Covid-19 Certificate which I had been issued after a test in my Accra, Ghana base, I tried my phone again for the umpteenth time and finally succeeded in reaching a member of the Togolese Writers Association who is bilingual in French and English. The writer informed me that the President of the Writers Association had been waiting for me all the while at the Airport’s VIP Lounge.
Despite her facemask, I recognized Prof Koumealo Anate, the President of the Togolese Writers Association from the photographs in our previous correspondence. She apologized profusely for the communication gap and quickly supervised the remaining airport formalities which included another Covid Test. Moments later, we were out of the airport. That was when Madam Anate formally welcomed me to Togo; “Bienvenue au Togo” she said, as we made our way in her posh chauffeur driven car to Lome’s city centre.
It was my first official visit to a National Writers Association in my position as the Secretary General of the Pan African Writers Association (PAWA) and I was eager to make the best of the visit. I therefore used the opportunity of the short drive to my hotel to quickly go through the itinerary of my two- day visit with my hostess. A meeting later that day with members of the Togolese Writers Association would be followed with a visit to the country’s Minister of Culture the following day with more meetings, a sight -seeing of the city of Lome and a farewell dinner before my departure back to my Accra base.

Outside the limousine’s tinted window, it was obvious that Lome, with some of its streets bulldozed and littered with an array of earthmoving equipment, was undergoing a major reconstruction. With its beautiful palm-lined beaches and multistory Grand Marché bazaar, the city appeared like a black and white version of an old French city in the fast-approaching twilight. In addition to the Grand Marche (Big Market), I also planned to visit the Conference Centre, the Assemble Nationale as well as the long and lovely serpentine beach that beautifully curled round the blue and sedate Atlantic.
Togo, officially the Togolese Republic (French: République Togolaise), is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. The country extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its capital Lomé is located. Togo covers 57,000 square kilometers (22,008 square miles), making it one of the smallest countries in Africa, with a population of approximately 8 million, as well as one of the narrowest countries in the world with a width of less than 115 km (71 mi) between Ghana and its slightly larger eastern neighbor, Benin.
However, what Togo lacks in physical size, it made up for in political history. The country has the unenviable record of having organized the first successful military coup in Africa. This was on January 13 1963 when the country’s first President, the charismatic Sylvanius Olympio was violently removed from office during a Military coup. The coup was also the first time that a country’s leader had been assassinated during a coup d’état. That act by the Togolese soldiers proved to be the beginning of a tidal wave with an average of 25 coup d’états taking place on African soil every decade from the 60s to the 90s. In fact, of the 32 countries who signed the OAU charter in 1963, 26 had experienced military coups by the end of the 90s, most of them more than once.

In addition to this, Togo also recorded another significant political record when on February 5 2015, the Togolese military declared the son of the recently demised President Eyadema’s, Faure Gnassingbe as the country’s new President over and above the constitutionally approved President of the Parliament, Fambare Natchaba. The 2015 event which some political analysts described as a combination of Military, Constitutional and Parliamentary Coups in just 24 hours further gave credence to Togo’s reputation as the ‘Laboratory of African Politics’
The following day, after my official visit to the Hon Minister for Culture and Tourism, Dr Kossi G. Lamadokou, I commenced my sight -seeing of the capital city beginning with a visit to part of the country’s 32-mile (51-km) coastline on the Gulf of Guinea. I was informed that the lovely highway beside the coast line which extends from the Benin border to Aflao at the Ghana border was the third highway to be constructed after the first two highways had been washed away by the Atlantic Ocean. Some of the buildings on the coastline included, the Hotel Palm Beach, the old President’s office (The Old Palace) as well as former VIP Guest House which had now been converted into a Presidential VIP Guest House.
Even though the beach had been officially closed to the public due to the Covid 19 Pandemic, there were still pockets of people relaxing on the white sands during my visit. Although previously lined with coconut palms, I met a significant part of the extensive and beautiful beach unsheltered as some of the coconut trees had been cut for sale by unknown individuals. “In its bid to protect the beach, the government has commenced a program of replanting the coconut trees,” my guide said.
At the Ghana border, I discovered that there were two Aflaos; one each on the Togo and Ghana borders. It was also at the border that I was introduced to the matter of ‘two Togolands’. According to history, during World War I, France and Britain occupied the protectorate near the Gulf of Guinea. The land was formally divided in 1922 under a League of Nations mandate. Two-thirds of the land and people, including Lomé, became French Togoland, bordering Dahomey. The remainder in the west, bordering Gold Coast, became British Togoland. The British part was administered with the Gold Coast and became part of independent Ghana in 1957, but French Togoland remained administratively distinct from Dahomey (now Benin) and became independent as the Republic of Togo in 1960. Lingering sentiment for the reunification of Togoland, especially among Ewe people in Ghana, has occasionally strained relations between Togo and Ghana since independence. In addition, there have been some recent agitations from citizens of the former British Togoland (about the size of Rwanda) for a separate state to be known as ‘Western Togoland’.

There were a lot of activities at the Port of Lome on the day of my visit with many specialized cargo-handling equipment, such as cranes and forklift trucks among others at work. The Port which is the only deep-water port on the West African coast that can accommodate 3rd generation ships is said to have overtaken Lagos as West Africa’s leading port. In 1986, the port became a free trade zone and has become the backbone of Togo’s economy.
The size of its phosphate reserves places Togo in the top ten in the world. It’s quality, nearness to the surface, and proximity to the ocean make the mineral to be highly profitable. With over two billion tones of phosphate reserves, Togo is one of the leading phosphate producers in Africa. Apart from exporting the mineral to other countries, Togo Dangote Industries and the Government of Togo were reported to have concluded an agreement to develop and transform Togolese phosphate into phosphate fertilizers for the West African sub-region. In addition, the country’s ample limestone deposits, critical for the production of clinker and cement, provides it with another comparative advantage in the subregion.
I had been advised that it would be a sin to visit Togo and not see the multi-storey Grand Marche (Big market). I therefore quickly proceeded to the place via the busy Lome/Aflao Highway with its myriads of helmeted motorcyclists some of whom were women. I watched with awe and respect as some women riders, babies strapped to their backs wove and sped their way through the heavy late afternoon traffic.
Although a little bit chaotic, the Grand Marche was a beautiful spectacle of colorful stalls of clothes, shoes, electronics, drinks and food. From the background, loud speakers pelting out high decibel music added to the din of the noise of haggling buyers and soliciting traders. “You can buy almost everything here,” my guide said as traders called out to me for patronage. Despite the claustrophobically narrow market roads, vehicles and motorbikes still plied the market. You therefore have to be careful to avoid being hit by an occasional bike. Stall after stall of clothes, shoes, belts and assorted merchandize assailed my gaze as a powerful smell usually associated with such places hung heavily in the air. I bought a few souvenirs at the exchange rate of 500CFA to 1 US Dollar. This was almost the equivalent of the price of a litre of petrol (425 CFA) and a bottle of beer (600 CFA).
Twilight was setting as I made my way to my last area of interest, the National Stadium at Kegue (Stade de Kegue), a beautiful tartan track lined edifice which glowed under the late afternoon sun. The 40,000 -capacity stadium which was opened in 2000, was said to have been designed by a Chinese architect Yang Zhou. The stadium was the venue of the 2007 African U-17 Championship, which was hosted by Togo in March 2007. It is also a rallying point for the football loving Togolese anytime their national football team, The Sparrows (Les Eperviers) as well as their football hero, Emmanuel Adebayor were on show. On the day of my visit, members of the country’s junior athletic team were preparing for an international tournament. As I watched the lithe and agile athletes sprinting down the maroon- colored tartan tracks, memories of my youthful sporting days came over me and I had to resist the temptation to take off my clothes and jump on the tracks. Suddenly, the stadium’s floodlights came on turning the surrounding twilight into a beautifully lit daytime brightness. I was still watching with delight, the energetic athletes – and their silhouettes under the flood lights as they ‘burned’ the tracks when I was told it was time to leave.
It was late in the evening when I was ferried from my hotel for the farewell dinner in the house of the President of the Togolese Writers Association, Prof Koumealo Anate. In order to reach the Avedji Anome area of the city where the Lady of letters lived, we had to transverse the heart of Lome which by that hour, had taken a more delightful look. Whereas during the daytime, Lome appeared like a black and white photograph, with the advent of night, the city’s wide boulevards shone under the fluorescence of its street lights bringing out the color of its beauty.
It was also obvious that in addition to the French language, the Togolese have also inherited the elegant culinary skills of her colonial master as manifested in the multi course dinner which was well lubricated with generous quaffs of assorted wines. After a long busy day, I was in a good mood for dinner. I therefore did justice to the array of dishes that were served including a dark delicious pasty millet preparation served with vegetables and ‘egusi’ (Epo-Kume with Gboma desi soup). In addition to Epo-Kume, my other pleasant discovery was Togolese Jollof Rice, a fluffy well- seasoned and delightful dish that would give Ghana and Nigeria a good run for their self- acclaimed ‘jollof rice’ supremacy.
As I prepared to take the leave of my hosts after a wonderful and successful three- day visit, I was handed a gift bag inside which were an array of beautiful books all written in French. It was a subtle reminder that I have to polish up my French. ‘Es-tu d’accord avec moi?’