Early on a Sunday morning, before the sun rose, I was up and ready to explore. The following photo essay recounts my walk through Lomé, Togo.
Lomé Togo Photo Essay
Just outside my hotel was the Monument de l’Independance (Independence Monument), built to commemorate Togo’s independence from France in 1960. Speaking of independence, Togo is such an interesting country. Although French is widely spoken and the French colonial influence visible, Togo was a German colony from 1884 until the end of World War I when it was divided by Britain and France.
After World War II, British Togoland voted to join Gold Coast in what would become Ghana while French Togoland became an autonomous republic. Independence was declared in 1960 and bloodless (though a period of intense political instability followed).
My walk took me on a winding path down busy streets and side streets, though all was a quiet on Sunday a morning.
Eventually, I made my way to the busier heart of the city and found Lome Cathedral, a Roman Catholic Church. A mass in the indigenous language had just concluded and a French mass was about to begin. I took a peak inside, but continued on my way. I’ve sat through services in French before and my French is sadly just not sufficient for me to draw much from any sermon or take part in any liturgy.
Interestingly, I noted several signs with a stylized image of communist founder Karl Marx and the words Guten Tag! (good day in German). The only thing I could find was that the billboard somehow represents a brasserie (brewery) in town.
After walking to the beach, I head headed back to the hotel. By this time, the streets had grown much busier. I noted that there were children sitting in the dirt in the street, some naked. There was no social distancing and no sanitation…even then I wondered what Lomé might look like if hit by COVID-19. Thus far, Togo has only reported 3,576 COVID-19 cases and 68 deaths. Thankfully, the country seems to have been spared, even if the numbers are greatly undercounted.
CONCLUSION
Lomé is not my favorite city in Africa but it was interesting to spend a morning walking around. I’m sure there are things that I missed and I would not mind spending another night or two here if I ever traveled via Lomé, a focus city for Ethiopian Airlines.
This story is part of my An African Adventure As The World Shut Down trip report.
The modernist architecture looks fantastic. I love this about Africa. And the weathered nature of many of these incredible buildings over time.
You mention Lomé is not your favorite city in Africa. What is, out of curiosity?
I love Cape Town, Zanzibar, and Marrakech.
There’s a rundown structure, like a boardwalk almost, that leads out into the ocean and was never finished. Locals called it the “bridge to nowhere” that was intended to link Ghana and Togo by sea. Did you see it?
I did not.
Very interesting!
I’ve always wondered why French speaking Togo and Benin didn’t join as a country. After all, both are small and skinny on the map. Also, the French got Togo after World War I, a long time ago. This article led me to do some reading and I’ve come to my own conclusions why, though they may be wrong.
1. Togo was a British French condominium and didn’t split into the British side (joining Ghana) and the French side until the British side voted in 1956. By then, Benin (as Dahomey) was well on their way to independence, not giving much time for unification with the French side of Togo.
2. People in power want to keep it, not reunify if that means losing power to the other half.
3. There are different ethnic groups in Benin and Togo. Togo has Ewe in the south but Fon are in Benin’s south. They may have similar skin color but are not the same. Hypothetical conversation: “You fool, White man”. “Can’t you see we’re different?” “That man is Ewe and I am a Fon!” (Just like “that man is Russian and I am English!”
I wouldn’t trust Covid numbers from most developing or undeveloped countries. Africa though as likely been spared the worst because it’s so much younger on average than most of the world, so the effects of Covid aren’t felt as much by those who get it.
Years ago I traveled to Lome quite often as a Diplomat as I had many projects at the American Embassy. One weekend we drove a short distance north of the city in the mountains and found a German cemetery over grown but still with grave makers in the old German script. In town next to the old US embassy was a German butcher shop where you could shop for German food products and German home made sausage products. The was also a German Pub, maybe the Brasserria (?) which we went to many times for German tasting beer and hot German meals. This was during the late 1970′ early 80’s. Then only one 3 star expensive hotel in the city and the rest were no star types. Even the hotel which they called a beach resort was a dump. They did have plenty of fresh veggies and fruits in the open air market. US Embassy in Accra used to make weekly trips to stock up on food and Ghanaian funny money (Cedies ?) at special rates when Ghana was in bad shape economically.