50 Fun Facts About Togo

What is the capital of Togo, sitting on the Gulf of Guinea right against the border with Ghana?

The city limits run to the Ghanaian town of Aflao a few hundred metres from the centre. It is the country's chief port and has an oil refinery.

Togo is bordered by Ghana to the west and which country to the east?

Burkina Faso lies to the north. At its narrowest the country is less than 115 km across between its two coastal neighbours.

What is the official language of Togo?

Ewe and Kabiye are the two designated 'national languages'. Togo joined the Commonwealth in 2022 partly to help its citizens learn English.

Which European power established the protectorate of Togoland in 1884?

A paper was forcibly signed with King Mlapa III at Togoville. Germany built the railway and the port of Lomé to ship out cocoa, coffee and cotton.

In which year did Togo gain independence from France?

The republic was proclaimed on 27 April. Sylvanus Olympio became the first president and was assassinated in a coup in January 1963.

Which soldier seized power in 1967 and ruled Togo for 38 years?

As a sergeant he had led the 1963 coup that killed Olympio. When he died in 2005 the army installed his son Faure, who has ruled ever since.

The name 'Togo' comes from Ewe words meaning what?

From 'to' (water) and 'go' (shore). It first referred only to the lakeside town of Togo, now Togoville, before the Germans applied it to the whole colony.

Between the 16th and 18th centuries Togo's shoreline and its neighbours earned what grim nickname?

Europeans traded for captives here for two hundred years. The Gold Coast was Ghana and the Ivory Coast keeps the name today.

In 1957 British Togoland voted to join which soon-to-be-independent colony instead of the eastern half?

It became Ghana months later. Togoland had been split between Britain and France after the German surrender in 1914, then run as League of Nations mandates and UN trust territories.

In which year did Togo join the Commonwealth of Nations, despite never having been a British colony?

It joined alongside Gabon at the Kigali summit. Togo is also a member of the Francophonie and ECOWAS.

Under Togo's 2024 constitution and parliamentary system, Faure Gnassingbé took which new office?

The post has a six-year term renewable indefinitely, while the presidency became largely ceremonial. Critics called it a constitutional coup.

Who was elected Togo's ceremonial president in May 2025 at nearly 86, the oldest president ever?

He was chosen unanimously in the country's first indirect presidential election under the new constitution.

Togo's flag has green and yellow stripes with a red square in the corner bearing what?

Artist Paul Ahyi designed it in 1960 using the pan-African colours. Ghana's flag has a black star.

How long is Togo's coastline on the Gulf of Guinea?

Barely 35 miles of lagoons and sandy beach, yet the port of Lomé is one of West Africa's busiest transit hubs.

What is Togo's highest mountain?

It rises only 986 metres in the coffee and cocoa hills near Kpalimé.

Togo's longest river, running 400 km north to south along the Benin border, is called what?

The Oti is a tributary of the Volta in the north. The Nangbeto Dam on the Mono supplies power to both Togo and Benin.

How many regions is Togo divided into?

From north to south: Savanes, Kara, Centrale, Plateaux and Maritime, subdivided into 39 prefectures.

Togo has the world's fourth-largest deposits of which mineral?

Around 2.1 million tons a year are dug near the coast for fertiliser. Mining made up about a third of GDP in 2012.

Which currency, shared with seven other countries in the region, does Togo use?

It was devalued by 50% in January 1994, a shock that reset the economy. The cedi and naira belong to Ghana and Nigeria.

Which is Togo's largest ethnic group, making up about a third of the population in the south?

The Kabye of the north are about 22% and dominated the army under Eyadéma, himself a Kabye.

The Akodessawa market in Lomé is billed as the world's largest market for what?

Stalls sell dried animal heads, skins and talismans for traditional healers. Roughly a third of Togolese follow indigenous beliefs.

The wealthy Togolese women who dominated the 1970s wax-print trade were nicknamed after which car?

The 'Nana Benz' were often the only people in Lomé who could afford one. Their trade continues at the Grand Marché.

Koutammakou, a UNESCO World Heritage landscape in northern Togo, is famous for what kind of dwellings?

The Batammariba's takyenta houses, often two storeys with flat roofs, are a national symbol. The site was expanded into Benin in 2023.

Emmanuel Adebayor was African Footballer of the Year in 2008 while playing for which club?

He later played for all three of the others, and in 2020 became the highest-paid player in Paraguay at Olimpia.

In which year did Togo make its only FIFA World Cup appearance?

Coach Otto Pfister resigned over bonuses three days before the first match, was talked back by the players, and Togo lost all three games in Germany.

Before the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, Togo's team bus came under fatal attack in which host country?

Separatists in Cabinda killed the assistant coach and press officer. Togo withdrew and CAF banned them from the next two tournaments.

Togo's first and only Olympic medal was a bronze won by Benjamin Boukpeti at Beijing 2008 in which sport?

The French-born paddler competed in the K1 event and famously snapped his paddle in celebration.

According to the 2022 census, roughly what share of Togolese identify as Christian?

49.2%, against 18.6% Muslim and 17% traditionalist. Many Christians and Muslims also keep indigenous practices.

Togo's early Protestants were nicknamed 'Brema', a corruption of which German missionary city?

The Bremen Missionary Society sent about a hundred missionaries to the coast. Their expulsion after World War I birthed the independent Ewe Evangelical Church.

Among the Kabye people of northern Togo, young men undergo which wrestling initiation rite?

The Guin of the south-east instead mark the new year with the Epé-Ekpé 'taking of the stone' ceremony at Glidji.

In Ewe communities, small carved statuettes called venavi are made to venerate whom?

The Fon call them hohovi and the Yoruba ere ibeji. Carvers in Kpalimé are also known for 'marriage chains' cut from a single block of wood.

Ewe-Mina religion in southern Togo centres on which creator god?

Associated vodun spirits gave the wider region the tradition known abroad as voodoo. Nyame and Olorun are Akan and Yoruba creators.

In which year did Allied forces capture German Togoland, an early Allied victory of WWI?

The colony surrendered on 26 August, weeks after the war began. It was formally split into British and French zones in December 1916.

How many people did the UN say died in violence around Togo's 2005 election confirming Faure Gnassingbé?

Around 40,000 Togolese fled to neighbouring countries. France was almost alone in not condemning the army's installation of the president's son.

Togo's population is closest to which figure?

It has quintupled since independence. About 65% of people still live in rural villages farming or herding.

Which three farm exports together generate about 30% of Togo's export earnings?

Cotton is another cash crop, introduced along with cocoa and coffee cultivation under German rule. The country is roughly self-sufficient in food.

In which town was the 1884 treaty signed that gave the colonial power its foothold on the coast?

Then simply called Togo, on the shore of Lake Togo. Its name was later stretched to cover the whole colony.

Togo's first president, Sylvanus Olympio, was killed in a 1963 coup partly because he refused to do what?

Demobilised soldiers, including Sergeant Eyadéma, wanted places in the tiny Togolese army. Olympio had been courting the US, UK and West Germany to reduce dependence on France.

After football, which sport is described as Togo's second most practised?

Togo also fielded a men's beach volleyball team in the 2018-2020 continental cup.

Which two landlocked neighbours served by Lomé's port are Togo's biggest export partners?

Burkina Faso alone took 16.6% of exports, ahead of China. Much of it is re-exported goods trucked north from the port.

About how many distinct languages are spoken in Togo, according to Ethnologue?

Some are spoken by fewer than 100,000 people. Ewe dominates the south and Tem serves as a trade language in northern towns.

In which year did the EU freeze its partnership with Togo, calling Eyadéma's re-election a seizure of power?

Other parties had been legalised in 1991. Ties were only revived after talks in Brussels in 2004.

Togo's second-largest city, in the centre-north, is which?

It had about 95,000 people at the 2010 census, just ahead of Kara, the Eyadéma family's power base.

Which king signed the 1884 treaty at Togoville that gave Germany its coastal protectorate?

The territory became the formal German colony of Togoland in 1905, with forced labour on cotton, coffee and cocoa.

Which is Togo's northernmost region, bordering Burkina Faso?

From north to south the five regions are Savanes, Kara, Centrale, Plateaux and Maritime, split into 39 prefectures.

Lomé–Tokoin, the country's main airport, is officially named after whom?

A new terminal opened in 2016 tripled capacity to two million passengers a year.

Which pan-African airline, founded in 2010, uses Lomé as its operational hub?

It serves more than 30 destinations across the continent, making Lomé a regional aviation hub.

What track gauge does Togo's 568 km railway network use?

Phosphate trains once ran between Hahotoé and the port of Kpémé for the Compagnie Togolaise des Mines du Bénin.

According to a 2004 University of Lomé estimate, what share of Togolese were traditional animists?

Roman Catholics were 28% and Sunni Muslims 20%, though many also keep indigenous practices.

Togo's local languages mostly belong to which language family, including Ewe?

French remains the sole official language, used in schools, media and government.