Volontaires des Zones Rurales

Situation: State of Western Africa located on the gulf of Benin
Surface: 56 656 km²
Population: Nearly 6 million
Capital: Lome
Other main cities: Aného, Atakpamé, Kpalimé, Sokodé, Kara, Dapaong
Official language: French
Currency: Frank C.F.A.
Religions: Animists in majority, christianity and islam


Physical, human and economic geography

Togo, which lengthened North in the South on 600 km (width from 50 to 150 km), corresponds to a plate crossed of South-west in the North-East by the mounts of Togo (1 020 m with the Agou mount). The coast, low, is difficult access (bars). The tropical climate is moderated according to the latitude: savanna prevails in North, and the forest in the South. The rivers (Oti, Mono...) are well fed
There is more than 40 dialects in Togo. But the principal ones are: Ewé, Mina, Akposso (spoken in the South); Tem, Kabyè (spoken in North).
Agriculture is the dominant activity. The food crops (corn, millet, manioc), in rise, remain insufficient. Togo exports cocoa, coffee, cotton, palm oil and, especially, phosphates (rich person layer of the lake Togo, near to the coast), but the latter are sold badly since the beginning of the Eighties.
The industrial activity, very reduced, treats the agricultural produce and phosphates. The country is strongly involved in debt. Since 1983, according to the regulations of the F.M.I., several large companies of State were privatisés.


History


Togo Southerner was recognized at the end of XVe century by the Portuguese. At the XIXe century, the Germans (Gustav Nachtigal in particular) established their protectorate on the coastal area and continue exploration towards the interior, creating a colony whose borders were delimited with France in 1897, and with the United Kingdom in 1899. With the First World War, the Germans left Togo and in 1922 the S.D.N. placed the Western area under British mandate and the area Is (that is to say two thirds of the colony) under French mandate. Togo British (Togoland) decided for integration with Coast-in-the Or (Ghana) in 1956; French Togo reached independence in 1960 with in the chair Nicolas Grunitzky, Sylvanus Olympio, reversed and killed in 1963, and replaced by his rival. In power since 1967, Etienne Gnassingbé is dead in February 2005. He is replaced by his son Faure Gnassingbé at the end of a discussed election.