Faure Gnassingbé became the president of Togo in 2005 following the death of his father, Gnassingbé Eyadéma. Gnassingbé Eyadéma had been the president of Togo since 1967. During that period a number of political opponents and other critics of the regime were harassed, jailed, tortured, and killed. Faure Gnassingbé continued the repression of his father’s regime. In the fifty years that the Gnassingbé dynasty has been in power in Togo that dynasty has been one of the most repressive and brutal regimes that Africa has seen. This regime is so repressive that in 2015 Togo was rated as the unhappiest country in the world. Togo is also among the poorest countries in Africa. Despite this, during the last fifty years the Togolese government has enjoyed close diplomatic ties with Western countries, including the United States.
During the last fifty years the United States has tolerated the Gnassingbé dynasty in Togo and has avoided publicly denouncing the human rights abuses that were committed by this dynasty. In 1990, for example, Gnassingbé Eyadéma was invited to the White House to meet with President George H. Bush. In 2012, while serving as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton met with Faure Gnassingbé in Togo. The reports of the meeting state that Clinton discussed Syria and other international issues. It was apparent from the meeting, and from America’s relationship with Togo during the Obama administration, that America had no interest in really pressuring for democratic change in Togo. In fact, American officials expressed the false view that Gnassingbé was serious about democratic reforms in Togo. In 2014, a U.S.-African summit was held in Washington. Robert Mugabe was among the African presidents who were not invited, but Faure Gnassingbé and many other dictators were invited to attend. Mother Jones published an article which called attention to the fact many of the leaders that attended this summit had poor track records when it came to human rights. This sent the message that the White House was willing to tolerate some autocratic African leaders, but not others. Faure Gnassingbé, who is one of the worst abusers of human rights in Africa, was among those that were tolerated by the White House.
For the last fifty years Togo has been ruled by a dictatorship that has enjoyed friendly relations with Western countries that were willing to overlook the oppressive nature of that dictatorship. The protesters in Togo have now ensured that those Western countries, and the world at large, can no longer overlook the nature of the dictatorship in Togo. The continued protests have left Faure Gnassingbé scrambling to paint himself as the victim in this situation. Recently Gnassingbé gave an address in which he said: “Those who organise these events bear the heavy responsibility for the victims and the damage they caused.” This is a flagrant misrepresentation of the situation, which is that the deaths that have resulted from the protests in Togo have been the fault of the Togolese soldiers who, under Gnassingbé’s command, have been shooting at the unarmed protesters. Faure Gnassingbé might be fooling himself, but no one else is being fooled by what is really happening in Togo.
Gnassingbé is now making a desperate attempt to shift the blame on the protesters, but it is becoming increasingly difficult for the world to ignore the oppressive nature of Gnassingbé’s dictatorship when we see the people of Togo protesting in the streets and demanding that Gnassingbé resign, only to be met with violence from the agents of Gnassingbé’s dictatorship. The international community has largely stayed out of the situation that has been unfolding in Togo, however, which is consistent with how for the last fifty years the suffering of the Togolese people has been ignored by Western countries, particularly the United States.
The struggle in Togo brings to mind similar struggles of African people in the United States. In recent years a movement against police brutality has developed in America. The issue of police brutality has always existed, although it was typically ignored in the United States. It was not until African Americans rose up in protest that the country really began paying attention to not only police violence against African people, but also the dire state of poverty that many African Americans live in. When African Americans rose up in protest in 2015 after the brutal killing of Freddie Grey, President Obama was sure to criticize the rioters, but the issue in Baltimore could no longer be ignored. The Department of Justice was sent to Baltimore where they conducted a report that exposed routine civil rights violations on the part of the police force in Baltimore. During his presidential campaign, Bernie Sanders visited Baltimore and saw firsthand how terrible the poverty there was. Had it not been for the riots, which Obama condemned, the plight of African Americans in Baltimore would have continued to be ignored.
The United States has historically been indifferent to the suffering of African people, both internationally and domestically. This is why I think it’s of utmost importance that the Africans who are fighting for their rights in the United States and other parts of the diaspora to support the struggles for human rights being waged by our brothers and sisters in Africa, especially right now in Togo. Despite the historical significance of the revolution being waged in Togo there is very little coverage of the events there from the American media and the international community continues to ignore the fact that Faure Gnassingbé is ordering his soldiers to brutalize and kill defenseless protesters. But those of us who are fighting for the freedom and dignity of people of African descent cannot afford to ignore Togo any longer.