Posted
on January 13, 2014
"Let's
celebrate!"
-- "No!
This is a horrible day to celebrate!"
I
can think of several examples of holidays that some people enjoy
commemorating and others find offensive or sorrowful. For example,
some Native Americans and others argue that Christopher Columbus
should not be celebrated as a hero, and some even think that
celebrating Thanksgiving is questionable because of the mistreatment
of Native Americans by “the Pilgrims” and other European-born
settlers.
Today
is one of those questionable days in the African nation of Togo. For
centuries Togo was part of the “Slave Coast,” a trading center
for Europeans to obtain slaves; in the late 1800s German declared
Togoland a protectorate; and after World War II Togo became French
“property.” In 1960 French Togoland became independent under
President Sylvanus Olympio. However, on this date in 1963, Olympio
was deposed by military forces, and when Olympio tried to reach the
U.S. embassy, he was shot and killed.
It
is the winners who write the history books, many have said, and it is
the winners who set up the holidays, too. The winners, in this case,
include the military forces under the leadership of Eyadema
Gnassingbe. Gnassingbe ended up assuming the presidency several years
later and ruled for 38 years, until his death, and it was his
government that set up the holiday called “Liberation Day” for
the day that he helped kick Olympio out of power and ended up killing
him. Eyadema Gnassingbe's son Faure is now the president and has been
sensitive enough to the people who don't want to celebrate coups and
assassinations to call for the end of Liberation Day celebrations.
Togo's
topography
 |
| Lome is the capital of Togo-- and it's on the Atlantic coast. |
The
topography of a nation is the altitude, the various landforms, the
natural, physical features of the nation.
Togo
is long and skinny, squished between Ghana and Benin. As you can see
from this topographic map, Togo is divided roughly in half by
a band of hills. The northern half has gently rolling savanna, and
the south is a woodland plateau that slopes down to a coastal plain
with lagoons and marshes.
Also
on this date:
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