On 1 September 2020, a group calling itself the Western Togoland Restoration Front
announced the creation of an independent state of Western Togoland in southeast Ghana.
In the weeks that followed, a number of violent incidents occurred across
the region - suggesting that a serious secessionist uprising may now be emerging.
But what exactly is the Western Togoland issue?
And just how seriously should we take these current developments?
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Hello and welcome. If you're new to the channel my name is James Ker-Lindsay and
here I take an informed look at international relations,
secession, independence and the origins of countries.
Around the world, there are many territories that have come together - either voluntarily
or against their will - to form new states, often at the time of decolonisation.
In some cases, the merger proved successful.
However, there are numerous examples where the resulting countries have been unhappy unions.
Some obvious examples I've already covered include Eritrea and Ethiopia,
British and Italian Somaliland, and North and South Yemen.
Another extremely interesting case is British Togoland,
which was incorporated into Ghana in 1957.
Largely forgotten, the issue came to admittedly rather limited attention
once again at the start of September 2020 with reports of a secessionist uprising.
Over the weeks that followed, signs started appearing around the major roads into the region
welcoming people into Western Togoland.
As armed militiamen began blockading the roads into the area,
there were also incidents of arson and officials were even taken hostage.
More recently, a video has been released claiming that 4,000 trained fighters - the
so-called Western Togoland Dragons - are currently stationed in a "nearby country"
and are preparing to invade Ghana and liberate Western Togoland.
So, what is the Western Togoland issue?
Ghana is located in West Africa.
Ivory coast lies to its east, Burkina Faso to its north, and Togo to its east.
At 240,000 square kilometers, or 92,000 square miles, it's the 80th largest of the
UN's 193 member states, and is roughly the same size as the United Kingdom.
Its population is currently around 30 million people
the origins of the Western Togoland issue lie in European colonialism.
By the late 19th century, the European powers had established a presence in West Africa.
France was the largest single colonial power, having taken control of most of the region.
At the same time, Britain had also established a significant
presence - establishing the colonies and protectorates of Sierra Leone,
the Gambia, Nigeria, and most importantly for this story, the Gold Coast.
Meanwhile, not to be left out of the 'scramble for Africa',
in 1884 Germany had also established a thin sliver of colonial territory in the region.
Squeezed between French Dahomey and British Gold Coast the area became known as Togoland.
During the First World War, Britain and France, which were at war with Germany,
invaded Togoland and divided it between them.
The British took the western third of the area and France took the remaining two-thirds to the east.
This division was confirmed in 1922, when the parts were
officially recognised as British and French Togoland under a League of Nations mandate.
Following the end of the Second World War, and as the process of decolonisation began, the parts
in turn became United Nations Trust Territories under continued British and French administration.
Crucially, while French Togoland was kept administratively
separate from neighbouring Dahomey, British Togoland was formally administered from,
and highly integrated with, the Gold Coast.
This would prove to be absolutely crucial as the Gold Coast was now making rapid progress towards
independence under one of the huge figures of African decolonisation: Kwame Nkrumah.
Although, the UN had first considered the so-called 'Togoland Unification Problem' in 1947,
the issue really came to the fore in December 1954 when UN General Assembly Resolution 860
requested that the trusteeship council determine the wishes of
the people of British and French Togoland regarding their future.
In the case of British Togoland, four possible outcomes were presented:
independence, union with an independent French Togoland,
union with an independent Gold Coast, or some other self-governing status.
In August 1955, a UN fact-finding mission traveled to the region.
As the Gold Coast was rapidly approaching independence,
the Trusteeship Council decided to recommend two options: union with an independent Gold Coast
or continued UN Trusteeship as a separate territory pending a final status decision
on another option; such as independence or unification with French Togoland.
On 15 December 1955, General Assembly Resolution 944 endorsed a referendum on the two proposals.
From the start, the population of British Togoland was deeply divided on the issue.
On the one hand, the Ewe, the largest community - representing 40 of the inhabitants and located
mainly in the south - wanted continued UN trusteeship in the hope of either union
with French Togoland, where the Ewe were the largest ethnic community, or the creation of
an entirely new country which would unite the Ewe people across French and British Togoland.
Against this, most the territory's 30 or so other ethnic groups, no doubt fearing Ewe domination,
favoured unification with the Gold Coast.
The vote took place on the 9 May 1956.
On a turnout of 82.7 percent of the territory's 194,000 registered voters,
58 percent voted to unite with an independent Gold Coast.
Ten months later, on 6 March 1957, the Gold Coast, incorporating British Togoland
became independent as the Republic of Ghana - and in doing so became the very
first European colony in sub-saharan Africa to gain its independence.
Two days later, it was admitted as the 81st member of the United Nations.
However, tensions over the territory arose just three years later when, on 27 April 1960,
neighbouring French Togoland became independent.
From the start, relations between Ghana and the new Republic of Togo
were difficult; not least due to Togo's claim to Western Togoland.
Spurred by his pan-Africanism, Nkrumah envisaged solving the problem by uniting the two countries;
albeit with Togo effectively becoming a region of Ghana.
While Togo was open to stronger cooperation, it obviously rejected this idea.
In the period that followed, tensions rose
rapidly - even leading to the closure of the border between the two countries.
And while the situation improved from the mid-1960s, the issue would continue to serve
as an occasional point of friction between the two countries in the decades ahead.
Meanwhile, on the ground, discontent lingered.
Following its incorporation into Ghana, British Togoland was actually divided.
The pro-union north became part of a larger
'Northern Region' that spanned the previous boundary between Togoland and Ghana.
At the same time, the Ewe dominated south also became a region - Volta.
Although it seems that parts of the Ewe community grudgingly came to terms with the union,
many continued to see it as an injustice.
In 1972, a group called the National Liberation Movement of Western Togoland - TOLIMO - petitioned
the Organisation of African Unity, now known as the African Union, arguing that the 1956
referendum had been unjust and the region was being neglected by the Ghanaian authorities.
They wanted to be allowed to unite with neighbouring Togo.
Four years later, amidst claims that the group was engaged in secessionist violence,
Ghana cracked down on the movement.
In the years that followed, the Western Togoland issue,
while never completely disappearing, nevertheless seemed to fade into the background.
However, as recent events have shown, it's never entirely gone away.
The current chapter of the story really begins in early 2017 when a body called the Homeland Study
Group Foundation, HSGF, announced its intention to declare an independent Western Togoland.
Soon afterwards, seven members of the group were arrested and charged with treason.
Although it appears that they were eventually released with a warning,
the group nevertheless stepped up its effort to publicise their cause.
For example, Western Togoland was admitted as a member of the Unrepresented Nations and
Peoples Organization, UNPO; a body that acts as a forum for various communities
and unrecognized states around the world.
Throughout 2018 and 2019, tensions rose as police continued to arrest
members of the group, including its eighty-year-old leader.
Although the government claimed that the group was also training a militia,
this was strongly denied by the HSGF, which insisted that its methods were solely peaceful.
Meanwhile, on 16 November 2019,
the group declared an independent state of Western Togoland - prompting yet another police crackdown.
However, the apparent catalyst for the most recent surge in violence appears
to have been the arrest of 17 people in August 2020 for speaking French.
Just two weeks later, the Western Togoland Restoration Front began its activities.
Obviously, the big question at this stage is whether this is a serious movement
and whether it's campaign of violence is really likely to grow?
In truth, it's extremely hard to say anything for certain at the moment.
Little is known about the group.
And while they claim to have an armed force,
it's unclear just how well organised or how well armed it is.
Also, it's not clear how, or even if, it has any links with the Homeland Study Group Foundation.
Nor is there any real indication of just how much wider support they enjoy.
Then there's the question of how the Ghanaian Government will address the issue.
So far, it's launched another crackdown on the Homeland Study Group Foundation
and arrested scores of alleged rebels,
but it's not clear how it will react if the armed insurgency grows and spreads.
And overly repressive measures might make the situation worse.
Of course, one question in all this is Togo's role.
Although it's been alleged that some of the rebels are Togolese,
there's absolutely no evidence to suggest that Togo has had any hand in developments.
Indeed, the uprising appears to have received almost no attention in neighbouring Togo.
More to the point, there seems
little evidence that Togo continues to harbour a claim to the territory.
This seems largely due to fears within the northern-dominated government of Togo
about bolstering the number of Ewe in the south of the country.
Already around 40 percent of the country's 8 million inhabitants, bringing in another 3
million Ewe from Ghana would decisively shift the country's tribal balance in their favour.
The period of decolonization is filled with examples of territories with rather
different histories or ethnic compositions that were brought together in new states.
In a number of cases, this has proven to be a source of
long-lasting and deep-seated unhappiness.
One of the most interesting, and yet little-known and largely ignored cases, concerns Togoland;
a German colony that was divided between Britain and France during the First World War.
While the French part went on to become an independent country,
Togo, British Togoland was instead integrated into Ghana - despite opposition from the
largest single community in the territory, who wanted union with neighbouring Togo.
It's against this backdrop of historical grievance over denied union, coupled with a lingering
sense of resentment over governmental neglect, that appears to have fed the current uprising.
And yet the situation remains confusing on so many levels.
Leaving aside the question of the seriousness of the rebellion,
it's not entirely clear what they are really striving for.
While in the past the aims seem to be secession and union with Togo, it seems that this is no
longer the case; not least of all as Togo would seem to have no interest in this.
Instead, the aim seems firmly centered on independence.
And yet it's also clear that this claim to statehood isn't aimed at the entire
region of British Togoland; a large percentage of which voted
in favour of unification with Ghana and seems happy in that arrangement.
Instead, the campaign seems to be focused on the Ewe dominated south.
To this extent, one even wonders if the longer term goal could still be the unification of all
Ewe into 'Eweland' - the idea rejected by the United Nations in the 1950s.
In the meantime, there are a lot of unanswered questions about this latest
upsurge of violence over a long-standing but otherwise largely forgotten issue.
For all these reasons, Western Togoland would certainly seem to be a situation to watch closely.
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