About the Republic of Togo
Facing the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa, Togo is a small country with a long and narrow land bordering Benin in the east and Ghana in the west. Since there are few Japanese residents in Togo and Togo residents in Japan, it may be a country that is not very familiar to Japanese people.
Togo has a population of 7.88 million (World Bank, 2018), an area of about one-sixth of Japan (56,785 ㎢), and was elected as a member of the UN Security Council in 2012.
Like many other countries in Africa, it has many children and also has a very young average age.
French is the official language. The main ethnic groups are the Ewe, Cavier, Mina. There are nearly 40 other ethnic groups.
H.E. Mr. Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe, President of the Republic of Togo visited Japan in June 2011, year of the Great East Japan Earthquake. He visited Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture and Watari in Miyagi Prefecture, and donated teak wood and US $200,000 donation to support reconstruction.
A few years later, he established a very friendly relationship with Japan by revisiting the disaster-stricken areas and attending the coronation of His Majesty the Emperor Naruhito.
[The road to independence]
- Portuguese arrived at the end of the 15th century and it became known as part of the slave coast from the 16th century onwards. It was a source of slaves until the 19th century.
- In 1884, the Berlin Conference made it a German territory, but when Germany lost the World War I, it was divided and conquered by England and France.
- The British territory was merged with the neighboring British Gold Coast on March 6, 1957 and became independent as the Republic of Ghana.
- The French territory became independent as the Republic of Togo on April 27, 1960.
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