Lomé, Togo: West Africa

We are lucky to have arrived just a few days before the auspicious occasion of the 50th anniversary of Togolaise independence. But, luck in this instance is a learning experience to further our understanding and impressions of Africa, to get a slight interpretation of the massive affects of 400 years of colonial rule, and to explore, for ourselves, the ways that Togo has had impacted our lives in unanticipated ways.

Lomé, capital of Togo, is home to more than 2/3 of the country’s inhabitants. It is a sleepy slow city, at first impression, milling and humming on boulevards by motor bike, constantly avoiding the heat of day. Like most tropical cultures, though, Lomé comes to life after sunset, with visiting, cooking, partying, and general merriment that occurs until the wee hours of the morning.

Lomé is not impressive. There are perhaps a half dozen buildings over six stories scattered across its horizons. It has a port; but the port seems mostly to be set up to import basic necessities such as oil. It had (or has still?) a railroad. It has two perpendicular transit routes, one 56 km across its coast, another north all the way to Burkina Fassao.

Lomé is a history that encapsulates Africa’s suffering and injustice. The current president is the chosen son (among dozens) of the recently deceased one who ruled Togo for nearly forty years. It is a democracy in name only. Recent elections handed the president a resounding victory (monitored by U.N./E.U observers -who paid for the observations and then paid the observers who apparently treated the elections as a tropical vacation, were paid, and created a perfect economic loop before returning their opinion that there were not ‘enough’ irregularities to call the election a farce), while 80% of the population supports the opposition. Of course, the opposition is divided and unsteady.

While Togo is poor, corrupted, bureaucratically vile - the government is not the people. They are kind.

The manners are like home (the US South): everyone responds with greetings on the street. Children and old folks are so happy to speak to us. Like our discovery of other countries, people want the same basic necessities - quality life and economy, opportunity and hope, education and self-sufficiency, pride of culture, freedom of movement and expression, better lives for their families and neighbors.

Having just been in Ethiopia, it is easy to draw comparisons of what democracy has not done for Africa: Empowerment of elites and oligarchies; Replacement of colonial powers with neo-colonial entrenchment; Ruination and vast degradation of environments and natural resources. None of this, however, should be any reason not to visit. If anything, African and ‘3rd World’ democracies do envy most western democracies - in their worst sense. Entrenched oligarchic rule benefits elite and self-centered powers that have little interest in the people suffering under them. Participatory democracy may not herald better times; however, honest reflection on history seems to point to one unjust and corrupt government being swept away and replaced by something similar. As our friend said, sometimes the opposition just prefers the ‘devil you know, to the one you do not.’

While these themes of graft and corruption prevent progress and democratic participation, the heartbeat of West Africa is strong. As visitors and ambassadors of the western power structure we can show our solidarity in visiting; we can explain and measure the poor performance of government and ‘true’ democracy by sharing some of the failures of our own histories. We can enjoy and engender new forms of trust and affection between our peoples.

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See “Zeitgeist Addendum” a movie on world monetary systems

1% of the world’s populations own more than 40% of its wealth.

50% of the worlds citizens survive on less that $700 U.S per year or >$2 per day

Think of an item that you spent $700 on. We spent almost five times this on each of our ‘round the world’ tickets. Is your item worth it? It is a question worth pondering….