The Fruits of Freedom in British Togoland

Abstract

The end of World War I saw the former German protectorate of Togoland split into British- and French-administered territories. By the 1950s a political movement led by the Ewe ethnic group called for the unification of British and French Togoland into an independent multiethnic state. Despite the efforts of the Ewe, the United Nations trust territory of British Togoland was ultimately merged with the Gold Coast to become Ghana, the first independent nation in sub-Saharan Africa; French Togoland later declared independence as the nation of Togo. Based on interviews with former political activists and their families, access to private papers, and a collection of oral and written propaganda, this book examines the history and politics behind the failed project of Togoland unification. Kate Skinner challenges the marginalization of the Togoland question from popular and academic analyses of postcolonial politics and explores present-day ramifications of the contingencies of decolonization.

Securitising Decolonisation

“…Yet, he reiterated his stance on secession by calling on international support: "I do appeal to the international world, those in the corridors of peace […] to come here, to put the situation under control, [and] to avoid any possible mayhem." 49 From his hide-out, Kudzordzi liaised with the Belgium-based Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), which in January 2022 brought the matter officially to the attention to of the UN, when it filed a complaint to the UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, alleging that the government of Ghana was systematically misusing the criminal justice system to target the HSGF. 50 In June 2022, the UNPO followed up with a submission of a Universal Periodic Review to the UN Human Rights Council on the subject of Ghana's crackdown on members of the HSGF.…”

“…The literature of the early 2000s notes that the first generation of UN missions in the 1990s was generally successful in terms of peace-keeping, 49 yet largely failed to achieve their goal of successfully transforming state institutions, which were hoped to ensure building lasting peace. 50 Furthermore, the debate gained momentum with the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent War on Terror, shifting the focus on 'failed' or even 'rouge' states as source for insecurity.…”

“…Rachel Suissa has cautioned that theories of the "New Security Studies" must pass the test of falsifiability in order to distinguish themselves from pseudo-science. 48 She contends that analogous to Popper's critique of Freud's psychoanalysis, 49 securitisation seems to be able to explain any outcome by putting any empirical observation to work in its service: securitisation can be used to explain why a certain referent object was successfully securitised, but may also explain the opposite case, that is, why the securitisation of the very same referent object failed. Securitisation analysis thus runs the risk of its use becoming self-fulfilling: any analysis that announces its use in the introduction would automatically imply its endorsement in the conclusion.…”

“…48 The study uses content-analytical methods, but explicitly analyses the collected data as part of a colonial discourse. 49 Based on the overarching research question, the evaluation was guided by sub-questions such as how was (in)security communicated and what experiences have been revealed in the process? Which threat constructions were mobilised (terms and categories)?…”

“…48 It was precisely under missionary efforts such as by Jakob Spieth that the Ewe were intensively exposed to German Protestant ideals of the Volk. 49…”