HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF WESTERN TOGOLAND STRUGGLES

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF WESTERN TOGOLAND STRUGGLES

BY ABDULMUMINI ADEKU

TOGOLAND:This is the former German protectorate in Western Africa and it is now divided in between the modern day Republics of Ghana and  Togo .

Togoland covered 3,934 square miles about 90,479 square kilometers between the British Gold Coast colony to the West and French Dahomey now Benin Republic to the East..

inhabited by a mixture of Ewe and other people ,it became a political unit    in 1884 when in  The European scramble for overseas territory ,German Chancellor Otto Von Bismark claimed it for Germany at the time.

The Germans wanted to make Togoland a model  colony because the region did not have any form of mineral resources at the time though phosphate was later to be discovered .

Germany concentrated on agricultural commodities like Cocoa, Cotton, Oil palm  with a lot of infrastructural support systems like road ,railways and port facilities built to help Lome, the Capital city of Togo  .

During World War one, France and the United Kingdom occupied the area but in 1922 it was formally divided by The League of Nations' mandate ,today's United Nations .

2/3 of the territory became the French Togoland including Lome ,the remainder in the west bordering The Gold Coast  now Ghana became the British part administered by Ghana and became part of   it when it became independent but French  Togoland remained distinct in identity from Dahomey now Benin and late got independent at Republic of Togo in 1960

.lingering sentiments for the reunification of Togoland   especially among Ewe people in Ghana has regularly strained diplomatic ties between Ghana and Togo since independence to this day...

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PROVIDED BY ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA ,VOLUME 11 ,PAGES 821