Lomé, Togo: 50th Anniversary
>> April 29, 2010
written by Nathan
Protests in the street on the 50th Anniversary of Independence
On the day of our arrival in Lomé, Saturday, we saw mass protests on the boulevard. Every Saturday in Lomé, at least 60,000 citizens rise in opposition to the entrenched oligarchy here and march through the streets. Nearly every weekend these protests are begun with song and dance and ended with teargas and clubbing. After watching the first presidential address to the nation (five years after assuming power) we were dulled into boredom of watching fancy tinted window SUV’s and military might on parade from our TV. Our friend, a local musical celebrity of afro-funk and supporter of the opposition, stopped by and invited us to join him in visiting the celebrations of independence by the opposition.
All three of us loaded onto moto-taxis and rode to the beach where the protest marchers were circling after being refused entry to Lomé’s Independence Square. Meanwhile, the Stalinist-era military parades were taking place on the other end of town, and, while the square remained empty, the opposition was barred from using it (they had also been barred from using their own central church because, apparently, the president has a great fear of the power of burning candles).
The celebrations and speeches on the beach were already wrapped up when we arrived, crowds were either dispersing or joining the mass of the parade back to their headquarters. We enjoyed very much walking beside the quickly-moving parade (at one point thousands passed by us under a massive Togo flag - providing illumination of their country pride and much needed shade to those underneath). The march turned from the beach back onto the boulevard principal and we shortly found ourselves nearing their headquarters.
We arrived to see food and rich shade under a canopy in front of an nondescript building. We were so happy to be shown the ins and outs of Lomé by a local celebrity, people passing greeted us and burst into song from his popular ouvre of opposition music. We had not realized how lucky we would be to have this friend and guide. He suggested that we get going. “The parade did not stop here as I suspected they would,” he said, “apparently they continued back to Independence Square of the Cathedral.” When we turned back onto the boulevard, he said, “we are almost home, it is just a couple blocks. Let’s go back through the neighborhood.” Just as we crossed the boulevard we saw groups running back in our direction, behind them was the army truck that we had seen following the protest march.
“Run!” our friend yelled, taking off running in front of us. Brittany and our friend sprinted in front of me. I glanced behind just at the moment that the army truck turned onto the gravel road behind us. Soldiers were pointing tear gun rifles out of the back of the truck! As I watched, canisters began shooting through the air, tumbling down the street behind us. Families standing in courtyard gates waved to us, “Come in to our house!” they yelled in English. We turned a corner and stopped at the compound of a family known by our friend. “Come in!” they beckoned. We gratefully accepted. Shortly, the excitement died down. The tear gas truck, we were told, had gone off chasing the opposition in other directions. We walked back to our neighborhood watering hole, drank a few beers, recanted the excitement. “This happens every Saturday and has gone on for more than 20 years,” our friend said. “We almost won in 1990,” he told us. “We changed the constitution and had a Prime Minister elected who took power,” he went on, “the army surrounded his compound with tanks, barricades, and artillery until he waved a white flag and submitted to arrest.”
We discussed our experiences of studying Ghandhian thought in India and the powers of its implementation at the “Bapu Kuti” ashram in Sevagram. We shared our pride at the election of the USA’s first black president (with the peaceful transition of power that accompanies our elections). We discussed the history of non-violent civil rights movements in the USA and India - and pressed for their merits to continue here. Our friend shared his own experiences, while living in Chile twenty years earlier, of being part of the peaceful protects against the military dictatorship of Augosto Pinochet in that country; “I hope that Togo has a peaceful transition of power the same way Chile did,” he told us. “But, here, these youth are frustrated. They are asking their leaders for arms.”
Sadly, we will not understand the complexity of Togolaise politics on this visit. We were, however, with the right person to get a view of the very real struggle taking place here. We wish Togo and her people freedom, prosperity, dignity, and democracy in the future.
****
We have been traveling with a half dozen small books by Ghandi we purchased at the Bapu Kuti ashram. One of these, Mohan-Mala, is “A Ghandhian Rosary.” It shares a prayer each day for peace and justice.
On the day of this writing, a day after independence celebrations here, I read today’s rosary;
April 28 -
“Shall we have not the vision to see that in suppressing a sixth (or whatever the number) of ourselves, we have depressed ourselves? No man takes another down a pit without descending into it himself and sinning in the bargain. It is the suppressor who has to answer for his crime against those whom he suppresses.” - YI, 29, March, 1928
All three of us loaded onto moto-taxis and rode to the beach where the protest marchers were circling after being refused entry to Lomé’s Independence Square. Meanwhile, the Stalinist-era military parades were taking place on the other end of town, and, while the square remained empty, the opposition was barred from using it (they had also been barred from using their own central church because, apparently, the president has a great fear of the power of burning candles).
The celebrations and speeches on the beach were already wrapped up when we arrived, crowds were either dispersing or joining the mass of the parade back to their headquarters. We enjoyed very much walking beside the quickly-moving parade (at one point thousands passed by us under a massive Togo flag - providing illumination of their country pride and much needed shade to those underneath). The march turned from the beach back onto the boulevard principal and we shortly found ourselves nearing their headquarters.
We arrived to see food and rich shade under a canopy in front of an nondescript building. We were so happy to be shown the ins and outs of Lomé by a local celebrity, people passing greeted us and burst into song from his popular ouvre of opposition music. We had not realized how lucky we would be to have this friend and guide. He suggested that we get going. “The parade did not stop here as I suspected they would,” he said, “apparently they continued back to Independence Square of the Cathedral.” When we turned back onto the boulevard, he said, “we are almost home, it is just a couple blocks. Let’s go back through the neighborhood.” Just as we crossed the boulevard we saw groups running back in our direction, behind them was the army truck that we had seen following the protest march.
“Run!” our friend yelled, taking off running in front of us. Brittany and our friend sprinted in front of me. I glanced behind just at the moment that the army truck turned onto the gravel road behind us. Soldiers were pointing tear gun rifles out of the back of the truck! As I watched, canisters began shooting through the air, tumbling down the street behind us. Families standing in courtyard gates waved to us, “Come in to our house!” they yelled in English. We turned a corner and stopped at the compound of a family known by our friend. “Come in!” they beckoned. We gratefully accepted. Shortly, the excitement died down. The tear gas truck, we were told, had gone off chasing the opposition in other directions. We walked back to our neighborhood watering hole, drank a few beers, recanted the excitement. “This happens every Saturday and has gone on for more than 20 years,” our friend said. “We almost won in 1990,” he told us. “We changed the constitution and had a Prime Minister elected who took power,” he went on, “the army surrounded his compound with tanks, barricades, and artillery until he waved a white flag and submitted to arrest.”
We discussed our experiences of studying Ghandhian thought in India and the powers of its implementation at the “Bapu Kuti” ashram in Sevagram. We shared our pride at the election of the USA’s first black president (with the peaceful transition of power that accompanies our elections). We discussed the history of non-violent civil rights movements in the USA and India - and pressed for their merits to continue here. Our friend shared his own experiences, while living in Chile twenty years earlier, of being part of the peaceful protects against the military dictatorship of Augosto Pinochet in that country; “I hope that Togo has a peaceful transition of power the same way Chile did,” he told us. “But, here, these youth are frustrated. They are asking their leaders for arms.”
Sadly, we will not understand the complexity of Togolaise politics on this visit. We were, however, with the right person to get a view of the very real struggle taking place here. We wish Togo and her people freedom, prosperity, dignity, and democracy in the future.
****
We have been traveling with a half dozen small books by Ghandi we purchased at the Bapu Kuti ashram. One of these, Mohan-Mala, is “A Ghandhian Rosary.” It shares a prayer each day for peace and justice.
On the day of this writing, a day after independence celebrations here, I read today’s rosary;
April 28 -
“Shall we have not the vision to see that in suppressing a sixth (or whatever the number) of ourselves, we have depressed ourselves? No man takes another down a pit without descending into it himself and sinning in the bargain. It is the suppressor who has to answer for his crime against those whom he suppresses.” - YI, 29, March, 1928
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