The Assassination of Sylvanus Olympio of Togo and The Rise of Eyadema : Part 2

President Gnassingbé Eyadéma, Africa’s longest-serving ruler, died at the age of 69 on February 5th 2005 while en route to France for emergency medical treatment, the Togolese government said in a statement. Mr. Eyadéma was one of the last of a breed of postcolonial lions in Western Africa, governing without compromise for more than 37 years. He was known as “The Boss” and “The General” and was always shielded behind dark glasses in public. During his tenure, he survived seven attempts on his life, two of which, in 1977 and 1986, involved mercenaries. After one attempt, he began carrying a constant talisman: a notebook pierced by a bullet that failed to reach him. He was born to a peasant family in the village of Pya, in northern French Togo, on Dec. 26, 1935. He joined the French Army early on, trading on his skills as a champion wrestler and earning accolades in battle in Benin, Indochina, Algeria and Niger. Mr. Eyadéma was a young sergeant when he helped orchestrate independent Togo’s first coup, ousting Sylvanus Olympio in 1963 to ease the rise to power of Nicolas Grunitsky. In 1967, after two years of serving as armed forces chief of staff, Mr. Eyadéma led another coup. He claimed the mantle of president three months later and held it tightly ever since, winning in uncontested elections in 1972, 1979 and 1986. A national conference in 1991 tried and failed to remove him from power, backing down in the face of the military’s support for Mr. Eyadéma. Africa Report correspondent Peter Da Costa noted that Eyadéma “has shown remarkable survival skills, clawing back his powers stripped by a national conference in 1990. … With his 1993 election victory, Eyadéma’s bully-boy tactics, which cost hundreds of lives, appear to have paid off.” Eyadéma’s style of autocratic rule, which he held to tightly through contested elections in 1998 and 2003, led observers to call Togo “one of the [African] continent’s most closed and repressive nations,” to quote New York Times contributor Kenneth B. Noble. Only 30 miles wide and 360 miles long, Togo is a tiny country that borders the Atlantic Ocean in West Africa. Formerly a French colony with strong ethnic ties to neighboring Ghana, the nation became independent in 1960. Most Togolese citizens are subsistence farmers, but the country does export coffee, cocoa, and phosphates. Many imports and funds for development come from France, Germany, and other Western nations, including the United States. Seagoing commerce is centered in Lome, the capital city, which is quite close to the Ghana-Togo border. The two principal ethnic groups in Togo are the Ewe and the Kabiye. As is the case elsewhere in Africa, tensions between the two peoples present a continuing political concern, especially since neighboring Ghana contains a sizeable population of Ewes. Gnassingbé Eyadéma was of Kabiye descent. As leader of the Togolese military starting in 1963, he oversaw the promotion of Kabiye soldiers to all ranks in the army. Eyadéma’s own ascent in the Togolese army ranks was swift He received his military training with the French Army and served with French troops in such places as Indochina and Algeria before accepting a commission in Togo in 1961. At the age of 26 he was named a commander in the Togolese Army after he led a successful revolt against then-president Sylvanus Olympio. To be Continued…. Sources : https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/07/world/africa/gnassingbe-eyadema-69-togo-ruler-dies.html and http://African-research.com