FORMER GERMAN COLONY
By Bob Van Leer

  (LOME', TOGO, Friday, Jan.19, 2001) - A highlight of today's tour of this small country was a canoe ride across Lake Togo about an hour's drive north of the capital of Lome'.
The lake, while broad, is shallow, so we were propelled across the lake for the 30 minute ride by poles, not paddles.

  On the side of the lake where we were loaded, we could step into the canoes dry. But on the other side there was no landing. We were each packed to shore by a pair of muscular young locals. This cost two dollar bills for tips, but it beat having wet feet and legs the rest of the day.

  The landing we left from is Togoville and we met the chief and were treated to a folklore dance, drumming and chanting. This was the way I had pictured west Africa. This primitive town is made mostly of mud and straw. The singers and dancers created a volume similar to a rock concert with the drums making your head vibrate. European dress was not visible on the locals, and presiding overall was the chief, a big, middle-aged man with gold ornaments on his head and body surrounded by his retinue.

  Not that the country is completely primitive - a few blocks away is the Cathedral of Togoville, built before World War I when this was a German colony.

  The landing we arrived at was another small, dusty village with kids and chickens running around. This is the dry season and many of the roads we were traveling on were unpaved. I guess you don't go to such places when it rains. At the village, we boarded a bus to our lunch stop. Not a dozen feet from the bus door there was a local relieving himself into the shrubbery and watching the white tourists board the bus.

  Togo was not colonized until 1884 and was lost to Germany as a result of World War I. The British invaded in 1914. After the war there was a joint British-French administration and finally Togo was administered by the French until independence in 1960.

  The country is small, slightly larger than West Virginia. Population is estimated at just over 5 million (July 2000). The climate is hot and muggy and today was no exception. At 7:30 a.m. the temperature was 79 degrees and quickly rose from that into the 90s. The bus we toured on was supposed to be air-conditioned, but it didn't feel that way.

  At the breakfast buffet this morning there was a new addition. Everyone had to use large antiseptic towel wipes. The assistant cruise director claimed this was just "precautionary", but a crew member said it was suspected that someone ate ashore at Dakar and brought a bug on board which spread through the ship. I asked and our assistant head waiter said there were a dozen diners missing the night before from the area of the dining room he supervised.

  Wherever it came from, there are minor illnesses aboard, diarrhea for one, and a lot of upper respiratory infection.

  Our tour took us through a lot of countryside and it was interesting. Here there are a lot of small villages made entirely of straw and mud. Around here it looks natural, and these dwellings are quite adequate for this climate. In town there are more substantial buildings and in some of the small towns also.

  We saw a lot of unfinished concrete block buildings, and a number of concrete block fences surrounding areas perhaps five to 10 city lots in size. Our guide said the owners of the unfinished buildings work on them as they have the money. The fences are owners staking out their territory and will have structures in them later.

  There are crafts for sale anytime tourists show up. For locals there are other products. Gasoline is sold by the bottle, stacks of bottles are alongside the road in liter, gallon and two gallon sizes. Motor oil is for sale by the bottle also, and it looks as if it had just come from a crankcase.

  Another stop we made was to the "Fetish Market". This is where the voodoo doctors (spelled "vodoun" in French) buy their supplies. The market was a block or more long on both sides of an unpaved road. Individual booths had for sale, that we could see, skeletons, skulls and hides from elephants, crocodiles, monkeys, snakes, and lots of dried parrots and other birds. I went into the back room with a stall owner and he sold me a small voodoo doll that he guaranteed me would protect my whole family. The market is for local trade, what the tourists buy wouldn't begin to support such a large operation.

  The Germans decided to turn Togo into a model colony and Selma Edwards, the ship's African lecturer, said in 1914 nine of ten school age children were in school under the Germans, a record that has not been reached since. They also built roads, a harbor and rail facilities.

  We saw on out trip hundreds or thousands of acres in small-plot vegetation production. Each garden, the size of a couple of city lots, had a dug well and irrigation was by sprinkling can from the well. In only a couple of cases did we see a pump. The plots were very well cared for.

  We are getting further from Muslim territory. Only 10% are classified as Muslims, 20% Christian and 70% indigenous beliefs. This is a male-dominated country. Literacy is estimated at 67% for males and 37% for females.

  The Gross Domestic Product is estimated at $1700 per person (1999), several times more than the $340 estimated for Ghana, but it doesn't look like it from what we saw on our drive.

  Tonight we take another short run of 120 nautical miles to Cotonou, Benin.