Yikpa-Au Village

The most important question in politics, business and at company lunches is “who is going to pay for this?” The questions we ask about conflict and war usually revolve around “who threw the first rock?” But that’s the wrong question. Here, too, we need to follow the money and understand “who pays for this?” and “who gets a free lunch?” Then suddenly you can see how looters and profiteers can drive a country like Togo to the brink of civil war.

I’ve pointed out elsewhere that the turmoil in Togo right now has a significant ethnic dimension, and it is important to understand this. But only because it helps to see where the money goes and who gets stuck with the tab.

Togo has at least 37 ethnicities. In the South, the Ewe (pronounced Eh-veh) tribe is dominant, and they are the largest ethnic group in Togo (just under 50 percent). The Ewe lands stretch from Lake Volta in Ghana into Benin and Nigeria. The Kabyé people are another ethnic group of significant size in Togo. Traditionally they were often migrant farm workers and sharecroppers.
Because most of the land in Noth part of Togo where the kabye settled was made of rocky mountains where crops could not grow very well, most of young strong kabye before the independence of Togo (1960), had to work on lands owned by Ewe in the south part of Togo.

This group is concentrated around the city of Kara in northern Togo, but they are scattered all over southern Togo, because they often work on land owned by Ewe. Traditionally, the Ewe looked down on the Kabyé, as they were not as closely connected to the land they lived on.
Togo was colonized by Germans from 1884-1919 (towards the end of World War 1) then by French who will give a part of the Togoland territories in recompense to English in Gold Coast (actual Ghana) who helped them win over Germans in Togo. Togo will have its independence in 1960 after strong struggle of the people and Sylvanus Olympio would be elected first president of the new Nation. Eyadema helped in the French army fight in Indochina (actual Vietnam and Cambodge …). When Eyadema returned to Togo after his military experience, Togo had its Independence and he and some of his fellow soldiers wanted the new president to build an army that they could be part. But olympio didn’t by that idea. Eventually Eyadema and his fellows with the help of France allegedly did the first coup d’Etat after independence Africa.

But in 1963, a Kabyé soldier by the name of Gnassingbe Eyadema, newly returned from the French colonial army, killed the first president of Togo, Sylvanus Olympio, in the first military coup in post-colonial Africa. Two years later he made himself president of Togo, and his rule ended with his death on Feb 5, 2005, after ruling Togo for 38 years.

Eyadema’s rule was strongly supported by the French government, which regards West Africa as its back yard. That was despite the fact that Togo does not have a lot of natural resources. It has rich Phosphate mines. That’s it. It does not have Ghana’s gold and diamonds, Nigeria’s oil, or Ivory Coast’s coffee and cocoa. But Eyadema managed to maneuver tiny Togo into a position of strategic importance to France, and so the French government armed and trained his troops.

Eyadema recruited a loyal military from his own tribe, the Kabyé, and soon the Kabyé dominated all the security forces by roughly three quarters, while they only represent less than 20 percent of the total population. For a long time this disproportion was not a major point of contention (from what I understand). However, it is clear now that the Gnassingbe clan started skimming the profits of what modest resources Togo had. And it seems obvious that the French would have not been so forthcoming with military aid, if the bottom line was not favorable to them.
Most of the young kabye recruited in the Army were farmers and being recruited in the Army was a great opportunity for them and their families

In the early 90s, when I was in Togo, the rumors often circled around the trade of illicit drugs. At one point I read that one of Eyadema’s sons was caught in France with a huge amount of cocaine stashed in his private jet. But there were never any charges filed, and he left France hours later. There is no doubt in my mind that Lomé was (and probably is) a significant hub for trafficking a vast array of illicit goods. Considering the total control the Gnassingbe clan had of Togo, and the cosy relationship Eyadema enjoyed with Mitterand, and later with Chirac, I don’t see how all this money could have gone unnoticed by these gentlemen.
With the 1990 democracy movement, Eyadema and his collaborates tried to paint and make people believe that the problem was a conflict between the Ewe of the South and the Kabye of the North or the North against the South when in fact it wasn’t like that. Eyadema did all this to gain the political and military support of the Kabye and other Northerners for himself. Some people in the North chased away Souherners who were working in the North in 1990’s unrest and in the South some peopletried to chase Northers. I can say we were lucky this kind of situation didn’t go too far because it would have been a real mess. Thanks God! They tried to convince people falsely that the first president of Togo Sylvanus Olympio (who is Ewe) never cared about people from the North or the kabye and was only going to develop the South and if it wasn’t for him Eyadema who came in power the kabye would have been screwed forever. While in fact his wasn’t through. Eyadema tried during his life and presidency to paint himself as a good patriot and used propaganda to build himself an image of peace maker. They had people dancing and singing for him everywhere he went in Togo portraying him as the savior and the unifier of Togo under one national party RPT. They even made us learn in school the names of the Prfets and the RPT leaders and some others.

Traditionally, the relationship between the Ewe and the Kabyé had been tense, but restrained. That’s the Ewe view, at least. The Ewe needed the hardworking northerners as laborers, and the Kabyé needed the jobs. But that relationship was one of dependency, and sometimes exploitation and violence. When tensions grew in Togo, Eyadema started arming “his people” – the Kabye – and the Ewe started getting scared of the Kabyé among them. In 1990, during the unrest then, this tension sometimes exploded into regular genocide. In several villages in the region I was familiar with, serious, but relatively minor violent incidents between Ewe ad Kabyé led to the total annihilation of several Kabyé villages. In our village, the chief demanded that all Kabyé turn in any weapons they possessed. In turn, he offered security guarantees to these people, who lived way up in the hills, on remote farms. To my knowledge, these guarantees were kept.

On the other hand, the Kabye-dominated military frequently turned violent against Ewe civilians, and sometimes against anyone who crossed their path. I don’t know how many times I had drunk soldiers wave loaded assault rifles or pistols in my face at road blocks, just because they did not like my face, or I did not offer a large enough bribe. During the strikes, Ewe villages were harassed, razed and burnt down by the military. The prisons were full of Ewe dissidents and trouble-makers.

All the while, the weapons dealers, diamond smugglers, drug traffickers, and looters were getting richer and richer. The CIA estimates the 2003 annual per capita income in Togo at $1,600. That is comparable to Haiti, Nepal and North Korea, and quite a bit less than Bangladesh ($2,000), Viet Nam ($2,700) or neighboring Ghana ($2,300). Yet, in 2002, Eyadema’s personal wealth was estimated at $2.8 billion, and his personal financial advisor, Maurice Assor, at also over $2 billion. Eyadema owned a Fokker 28, Grumman helicopters, a DC-8, various Boeing jets and an arsenal of arms. (more info ). He owned numerous mansions all over Togo, and some prime real estate in places like Tokyo, Paris and Manhattan. Clearly he spread some of his wealth among his clan in his hometown of Pya, near Kara. But even Kara itself, does not particularly stand out among Togolese cities. Maybe the roads are nicer and the electricity is more predictable. But I heard from some Kabyé, who were not part of his clan, that the rest of “his people” didn’t see much of his wealth. The military was still underpaid and often they, too, had to wait a week for their paychecks. Yet, they were fiercely loyal, because they were simply scared of what would happen to them if Eyadema lost control of power.

Eyadema bought houses for French leaders in Europe and financed some of their political leaders’ campaigns when his own people is leaving way under poverty line (and $ 250 per capita earning YOU VERIFY AND SEE THE RIGHT ONE I’M NOT SURE)
In 1990’s after a national sovereign conference that grouped Togolese of all religions and political parties and intellectuals and scholars, a prime minister Joseph Kokou Koffigoh was elected and was supposed to lead a reconciliation transition towards presidential elections and democray. But it was without counting the military and and the strong will of Eyadema to stay in power. He attacked the office of the prime minister with tanks and a whole battalion of the army. They arrested the prime minister and that was the end of the transition and the begining of the fake democracy of Eyadema and the RPT regime until his death.
I heard from some friends students originally from Kabye and other ethnic groups of the North who were on campus that in the North part of the country only part of Eyadem’s antive village was electrified and developped with big houses of those who were in his goverment and the other half was in total darkeness and people still living in huts with no clean water. Tehy also told me that one of Eyadema’s many children called Ernest who was a military leader acted like the president of the North and had people who were not with him or his father beaten and killed as he wanted. Alot of people were scared of him in the North part of the country. They also told me that contrary to what people believed Eyadema and RPT leaders’ wealth was not benefiting the other people in the North part of the country and they also were victims of the regime. Eyadema’s regime run Togo without sharing from 1967 to today and teir regiem is like a mafia where either you’re with them or against them. Those who tried to say anything a little different than waht the boss taught were considere traders and treated like that. Dahuku Pere who is from Eyadema’s hometown Pya tried to reason him and make him become a little democratic but he was considered manipulated by the opposition and he almost got killed. Agbeyome Kodzo who was one of the hard bones of the RPT regime had the same treatment and he had to flee to France. He denounced every aspects of Eyadema’s regime and called for the effort to end Eyadema’s dictatorship and lack of democracy. Eyadema said of him” Ce garcon ne represente rien politiquement. Il est manipule par l’opposition.” (“This boy doesn’t represent anything politically and he is manipulated by the opposition”). To show the world that he wants to continue in his father’s footsteps Faure made Agbeyome arrested and thrown in prison in Kara after he returned to Togo just before the presidential elections of april 24, 2005. The vendetta Gnassingbe has just restarted.

Just like his father came in power with a coup, Faure also came in power with a coup February 5, 2005 just hours after the death of his father. What a good ressemblance! He later falsely resigned to come back in an election full of killings. It’s the beginning of the reign of Eyadema II. We should know that Eyadema’s or his son’s dictatorship is hurting all Togo people not just the EWE or people form the South but also the kabye, the soldiers and who are underpaid and every Togolese.Leaders of the RPT regime is just using the ethnic or political tension to stay in power and get richer.

With the French behind him, arming the Kabyé dominated military, and the Kabyé scared of retaliation from the Ewe (and others), and the Ewe under the boot of his dictatorship, Eyadema held Togo in a stranglehold that gave him unlimited power, vast fortunes and a bloody legacy. His son, Faure Gnassingbé appears determined to continue the “family business.” Just like under his father, he and his family and the looters and crooks that surround them, are getting a free ride. The Togolese people, Ewe as well as Kabyé, and everyone else, get stuck with the tab.
by Jurgen and Agbessi

Ma mere qui est du village de Yikpa Dafo etait encore une adolescente quand le village de Yikpa Dafor fut cree. Ce qui suit est comme un rapport de ce qu’elle m’a dit. En fait les actuels habitants de Yikpa Dafo etaient des habitants de Yikpa Anyigbe. En un certain moment une querelles s’etait declenchee entre les familles de Dafor et celles de Yikpa Anyigbe. Vue l’ampleur de cette dispute, la vie ensemble semblaient desormais impossible. Les familles de Dafo deciderent de se separer et de fonder leur propre village sur les terres qui leur appartenaient je crois. C’etait coutume de transporter les toits des maisons intacts d’un endroit a un autre. En fait le toit est le mem avec les memes bois ou planches qui le supporte mais de nombreuses personnes se rassemblent la dessous et le transporte tout en chantant pour une distance un peu considerable et le mettre juste au dessus de la nouvelles maison. Ma mere m’a raconte qu’elle etait encore une adolescente quand Yikpa Dafo fut cree. Elle etait parmi les jeunes qui ont aide a tranporter les toits des maisons de Anyigbe a l’actuel endroit ou se trouve Yikpa Dafo. Lors du transport des toits, ils chantaient: ” Miawo mi dafo le eme….”, ce qui veut dire nous sous sommes sortis du probleme, nous nous ommes debarrasses de ce probleme( les disputes je crois). Alors ils travaillerent tous a la construction de ce beau village qui deveindra plus tard la residence des douaniers et de la police frontaliere, et le marche local pour les trois Yikpa. Mon oncle Pascal, le frere de ma mere est le premier enfant ne a Dafo. Je pense que les familles qui ont fonde Dafo ont bien reussi leur fondation car aujourd’hui si l’on veut comparer les trois village, Dafo est bien un gros poids dans la vie a Yikpa.
Agbessi

The first year(1998-1999), I was in the universiy of Lome I was living in dorms on the university campus as were a lot of new students. That year problems were getting worse on the university since the government since they created the university in the 70’s never cared about renovations of the buildings nor the infrastructure nor he conditions of students as if the university was supposed to take care of itself with the years. This solely university in Togo was in constant and progressive deterioration and nobody in the government cared because they all sent their kids to big famous universities in Europe and the United states leaving the children of the poor citizens in this sometimes bushy university campus deal with their own destiny. That year as I said earlier I was living the dorms. I need to mention that the university campus is close at a few steps from the “Boulevard Eyadema” the street that leads to the private residence of the president Eyadema called Lome2 and soldiers were on that street 24 h/24h assuring the safety and secuity of the president. One night around 12 a.m or 1 a.m as we were sleeping we were woken up with some noises of some of our comrads students. What was it? A student was walking off his cousin after she paid him a visit and they were walking on the “Boulevard Eyadema” when some soldiers stopped them and started asking them questions. He told them she was his cousin and she was just walking her off, but they didn’t want to listen after tehy realized he was a student. I need to mention that a lot military people in Togo hated the students for unknown reasons. Some people said that they thought students were full of themselves and taught they were better than them. Or maybe because they knew most of them didn’t like the RPT regime or so. One can never tell. So they told the student and the the girl to strip and act as if they were having a sexual intercourse. As he refused to do it one of the soldiers told him he wanted to show him and he allegedly raped the girl in front of the student. That was after that that he ran to the campus to tell his fellow students who were enraged to hear that. A lot of them came out of their rooms and started whistling like they usually did to call for a meeting. They decided to make a march on the “Boulevard Eyadema” towards the university chancellery to show their unhappiness about what happenned. Around 8 a.m the march started with students singing and screaming slogans like “SOLDIERS RAPISTS”, “SOLDIERS VIOLENT AGAINST CIVILIANS”, “THOSE WHO DID THIS SHOULD BE TAKEN TO COURT AND JUDGED”…. They were marcing on the street with soldiers on the side of the street saying and doing nothing maybe because they thaught it would spark violence from students if they tried to stop them. This march was successful in some way because the minister of national security promised investigations to find those soldiers who committed such ingnominous act and take them to court. Even if they never found them ( it would have been easy for them to find them since they knew which soldiers they put on duty on the “Boulevard Eyadema that night), it showed a sign that soldiers were supposed to protect civilians and not harm them.

One of our demonstrations at the university were always portrayed in the news on the national Television as by students manipulated by the opposition parties. And one of the virulent so-called journalists at the national Televion in comments and editorials made for the regime RPT was Innocent Pato. He was a tall skinny guy. any time students did a demonstration to ask for better conditions of study on the university campus he would come on TV in the 8 p.m news with an editorial. He will portray the students as “bad boys who are not very concerned about their studies but about money and are being manipulated by oppostion parties to fight the government”. He was doing all this in order to be noticed by the boss Eyadema as zealous and that way he could get nominated as a minister or at a very important post. That was how a lot of the RPT regime members have come to be nominated members of the government. Examples are Kofi Panou who died two or three years ago of obesity, and Pitang Tchalla the actual minister of communication. This made students very upset and they disliked him.
One of our demonstrations led us to Lycee de Tokoin where the university chancellor’s office is. This demonstration was to ask for payment of months of unpaid financial aid and better food at the university dining room. As the students gathered over in front of the chancellor’s office and were screaming slogans, look who appear on the side with a camera recorder on his shoulder: Innocent Pato.
He showed up allegedly after the chief of the police officers who were around warned him of the risk of what he was trying to do but he went on arguing it was part of the risk of the job of being journalist.
He was trying to film the students and show them on TV with bad comments about them. All of a sudden all the students rushed on him took his camera from him and trew it on the ground and some of them started beating him at the same time. uhh! It was wild! If it were not the intervention of the president of the CEUB of the time Lawson Alphonse, it would have been real bad for Innocent Pato. They let him go with some scratches on him. Innocent Pato came on the news couple days later treating studetns of “vandalists and violent people”. It just made a lot us laugh because we knew what he always said about the university students.
Some years ago I heard Innocent Pato fled Togo for US or a european country for some unknown reason may be because he failed to please the big boss of Lome2. That’s Togo!!!!!!!

Toujours voulant se presenter comme artisan de la reconciliation Eyadema voulut nous offrir une visite surprise au Campus qui est en fait en face de sa residence privee de Lome 2. Alors que moi j’etais parti dans la banlieue de Lome (sur la route Lome- Kpalime) pour visiter mon oncle, Eyadema en personne etait venu rendre visite a ses voisins Etudiants sur le campus universitaire de Lome. Ce qui suit n’est que le compte rendu de ce que les camarades m’ont dit a propos. Aussi marrant que cela puisse paraitre, les Etudiants s’y sont rendus en nombre et ont vu arriver en personne Gnassingbe Eyadema autour duquel ses ministres faisaient le zele.
En premier lieu ce fut le ministre de l’Interieur d’antan le tres dur Szing Walla qui prit la parole rapporta que selon ses sources d’information (dont j’en doute la validite) lui ont rapporter que les Etudiants avaient acheter de l’essence, des burins , des briquets et autres pour causer le vandalisme dans l’universite et dans la ville de Lome. Ayant su son desir de montrer les Etudiants (qui ne font que reclamer de meilleures conditions sur le campus) comme des vandalistes, un Etudiant de derriere la foule a crie ” Mensonge!” Alors tous les autres ont commence a grogner puis toute la foule d’Etudiants a commencer a le huer. Ce fut si fort qu’il n’avait pas pu terminer son discours. Croyant que les Etudiants l’ecouteraient lui et cesseraient de grogner, Le prenmier ministre d’antan Messan AgbeYome Kodzo ( qui croupit aujourd’hui dans les geoles (prisons) du regime Togolais a Kara) a pris la parole pour tenter de calmer les Etudiants. Il n’y pu rien et du laisser le micro a son tour. Tout ce que les Etudiants voulaient entendre en ce moment c’etait la promesse de payer les bourses scolaires dans de brefs delais. Eyadema pris le micro lui meme et promis de payer seulement une petite partie de la bourse et ce dans un delais que les Etudiants n’ont pas aime. Il commenca alors a parler de la guerre d’Indochine a laquelle il avait participe. il n’oubliait jamais de parler de cette guerre d’Indochine (Actuel Vietnam, Laos et Cambodge je crois). Dans presque tous ses discours il en parlait et cela etait devenu redondant. Quelqu’un dans la foule a crie “Et alors!” Du coup les Etudiants ont commence a le huer a son tour. Il s’est ensuite enerve il etait parti du campus universitaire en transe comme une fusee suivi par ses ministres eternels beni-oui-oui.
Le fruit de la colere de Gnasingbe Eyadema fut la hausse des frais de scolarite au campus universitaire de Lome de 5,500 CFA a 50,000 CFA et d’autres represailles pour les Etudiants par la suite. C’est peut-etre cela la Democratie a la Togolaise! God bless Togo!
Agbessi “Spartacus”

Alors que nous nous etions rassembles devant le refertoire pour une Assemblee Generale et attendait Lamboni notre nouveau president du CEUB dont la vie etait aussi menace par les soldats, il est arrive avec ses collaborateurs et a debute l’AG. Mais du coup de l’aile droite du refertoire j’ai percu des mouvments de gens qui voulaient commencer a fuire. C’etait la milice du gouvernement (qui n’etait pas composee d’Etudiants mais de certains bandits recrutes dans le quartier d’Adewui. Cette milice etait utilisee pour nous disperser a chaue fois qu’ils percevaient un attroupement d’Etudiantssur le campus. Nous avions pris nos jambes a notre coup. Ensuite quelqu’un a crie ” Il faut contre attaquer il ne faut se laisser faire cette fois-ci.” Nous avions donc commencer a pourchasser ces miliciens. Nous etions tres nombreux a poursuivre ces intruis et j’etais quelque part a la queue de la masse d’hommes qui poursuivaient les miliciens. Ils ont fuis en direction dur mur qui cloture le campus du cote sud. Apres une cousrse poursuite a travers les champs de manioc qui etaient sur le campus, je suis arrive derriere un attroupement de certains camarades Etudiants. Ils criaient nous avons eu l’un d’entre eux. Lorsque je suis arrive avec une pierre dans ma main droite et que j’ai vu l’etait du costaud gars qui gisait sur le sol, j’ai du recnoncer a lui jeter la pierre quej’avais dans ma main. Je n’ai fait que laisser tomber cette pierre par Terre car ce “milicien” comme les camarades l’appelait avait deja essuye des coups de pierre si bien qu’il etait vraiment atteint. J’ai appris chez les camarades qui etait la qu’il avait ete rattrappe par un camarade Etudiant qui venait au campus et a rencontrer la vague des miliciens. Alors que le gars qui gisait par terre avait fini de faire escalader le mur a ses “co-miliciens” (Il etait peut-etre le plus fort d’entre eux), il l’a tire par le pied et au meme moment la vague des Etudiants qui le poursuivais etait arrivee.
Je me suis depeche pour m’en aller du campus car je savais que les instants suivants les soldats allaient arriver et nous risquions leur represailles face a ce qui etait comme une revanche des Etudiants face a cette repression militaire incessante des Etudiants sur le campus.
J’ai appris par la suite que le “milicien” avait perdu la vie apres que les Etudiants etaient partis et la Television Nationale veritable instrument du pouvoir en place a parle a notre grande surprise d’”un passant tue par les Etudiants au campus universitaire”. Le ridicule ne tue pas.
Agbessi
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Ceci n’est que la suite de mes experiences au campus universitaire de Lome. En 2001, alors que nous etions exhasperes par les problemes quotidiens au campus et les greves intermittentes des Enseignants demandant le payment des salaires, les autorites Togolaises se sont immisces dans l’eclection de nos delegues de facultes et membres de notre organisation de lutte estudiantine CEUB. Apres le depart du tres Lawson Hellu Alphonse President du CEUB apres sa maitrise en Gestion ou Economie, le souci de la plupart des Etudiants etaient de le faire remplacer par Lamboni qui etait en 4 eme annee de Droit et que nous admirions pour son courage et sa determination. Mais c’etait sans compter les magouilles du regime Togolais. Un des delegues de Faculte du nom d’Abente ayant selon les informations recu de l’argent de la part du gouvernement a voulu a tout pris se faire elire, malgre nos oppositions, comme President du CEUB. Le gouvernement avait mis a sa disposition une milice armee d’armes blanches(gourdins, machettes et autres) pour pouvoir s’imposer comme president du CEUB. Il a dans un premier temps reussi a corrompre et a rassembler certains delegues de facultes et faire elire par ces derniers comme president contrairement au code d’election du CEUB. Mais Lawson Hellu , president actuel de l’organisation, qui etait toujours en exercice a voulu proceder a un vote populaire lors d’une Assemblee Generale des Etudiants qui se tenaient souvent sur l’esplanade en face du refertoire.
Par peur de troubles et base sur certaines informations qu’ils avaient recu, Il a decide que l’AG se passe a un autre endroit du cote de la la Faculte des Lettres. alors que etions la et que Lawson voulait commencer a proceder au vote populaire. Nous avons commencer a entendre des coups de sifflets tous azimuts dans l’assemblee. lorsque je me suis retourne ja’i constater que certains partisans d’Abente avaient infiltre notre assemblee et avaient tous des sifflets tous neufs qu’ils utilisaient pour faire du bruit et du vacarme afin d’empecher l’election. Lawson ayant note la gravite de la situation a rapidement crie “Lamboni est president du CEUB est-ce vous etes d’accord”" Nous avions tous crie” ooouiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Ensuite il a crie ” Agboka est son vice president vous etes d’accord?” Nous avions crie “oooouiiiii!!!!!”. Au meme moment d’autres partisans d’Abente etaient monte sur l’esplanade ou Lawson se trouvait et ont voulu le poignarder. Ses collaborateurs l’ont protege et il s’est enfui. Ensuite nous avions couru vers le Nord du campus sous des pierres lancees par les partisans d’Abente. Certains camarades ont crie ” pourquoi avions nous peur. ils n’ont que des pierres nous devons riposter!”. Nous avions donc riposte avec des pierres nous servant de nos cartables comme bouclier. Nous gagnions du terrain et nous en rejoouissions. Alors que nous avions repousse nos adversaires aux environs des cites universitaires, soudain des jeeps de soldats lourdement armes ont commence a emerger de derrieres les immeubles et derrieres les partisans D’ Abente. J’ai pris la cle des champs. Je n’arrivais meme plus a courir tant j’etais fatigue par la lance des pierres et mon bras droit avec lequel je lancais me faisais mal.
J’ai couru avec la derniere energie qui me restait car je savais le sort qui m’etait reserve si ces soldats m’arretaient dans ces chasses a l’homme permanentes et habituels sur le campus de Lome en ce moment.
Heureusement pour moi les soldats etaient parti d’un cote autre que la ou je me dirigeais sinon je parie qu’ils m’auraient pris. “Thanks God . I was lucky on that one.” J’ai pu alors renter rapidement a la maison car par la suite les soldats ont poursuivis certains camarades jusque dans les maisons avoisinantes du campus ou ils voulaient se cacher. C’est cela le Togo de la soldatesque!!!!!
Agbessi “Spartacus”
Lire plus sur les Etudiants.

De 1998 a 2001, j’ai fait ma premiere experience estudiantine au campus universitaire de Lome. La plupart des Etudiants au campus etaient venus de l’interieur du pays et dont les parents sont en majorite des agriculteurs doivent se prendre en charge eux-meme au campus de Lome. Les bourses estudiantines payees par l’Etat etaient pour nous une bonne source de financement pour nos livres et notre survie a Lome. Mais ce fut une lutte quotidienne pour percevoir ces pensions boursieres. Le Conseil des Etudiants de l’Universite du Benin (CEUB) dirige succesivement par les tres populaires Lawson Hellu Alphonse et Lamboni etait notre organisation au sein duquel nous tous nous nous entions membres et qui representait l’organisation de notre lutte estudiantine. Non seuleemnt voulions nous lutter pour nos bourses mais aussi pour une situation politique meilleure car tout etait lie a la politique. Pour faire nos Assemblees Generales c’etait une lutte de chaque jour avec les Forces de l’Ordre omnipresents sur le campus universitaire et pret a disperser toute tentative de rassemblent. Toutes les annonces du CEUB souvent sous forme d’affiches etaient toujours terminees par la phrase:”UNIS POUR LA MEME CAUSE LA LUTTE CONTINUE”.
Je me rappelle tres bien le 1er Mars 2001, nous avions fait une marche de protestation qui nous mene du campus universitaire sur le Boulevard Eyadema jusqu’au Lycee de Tokoin ou se trouvait le Rectorat de l’Universite. Informes de l’absence du Recteur nous avions decide de faire un Sit-in a la Colombe de la Paix jusqu’a ce que nous voyions le vice Recteur qui ne voulait pas nous recevoir.
Nous avions fait ce sit-in a la Colombe de La Paix ou les Forces de l’Ordre lourdement armees nous regardaient en face pendant plus d’une heure.
A la suite, les soldats visiblement ne voulant pas cooperer ont commence a marcher et a nous pietiner, a lancer des gaz lacymogenes semant l’affolement. Des gens ont ete vraiment battus. J’ai du moi meme grimpe et escalader le geant mur du Lycee de Tokoin pour tomber de l’autre cote et pouvoir m’enfuir. Nous avions constate par la suite que de nombreux camarades Etudiants ont ete enfermes et d;autres blesses. Des motos d’Etudiants ont ete voles et beaucoup ont ete battus.
Lorsque vous avez vecu des pietinements et bastonnades de soldats et supporter la hargne d’ une dictature qui existait avant votre naissance et que vous avez supporte pendant plus de 26 ans de votre vie, vous regardez autrement et avec revolte ce qui se passe actuellement au Togo.
Agbessi “Spartacus”
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