Evening star., 1963-01-14
Olympic Admired U. S.,
Was U. N. Supporter

The United States lost a
great admirer and Africa one
Of its more enlightened leaders
with the death of 60-year-old
President Sylvarus Epiphanio
Olympic Of Togo at the hands
Of assassins.
The slain Togolese leader,
who visited Washington last
March to ask for help against
a famine threatening his land,
was the father of his tiny
nation and strong supporter
Of the United Nations.
He was regarded as a hard
headed businessman rather
than a demagogue in the mold
of some of the leaders Of
fledgling African republics.
President Kennedy, who
pledged olympic 5000 tons Of
cornmeal and sorghum when
the Togolese president came
here seeking aid last year,
called him "one Of Africa's
most distinguished leaders"
Called Key Figure
olympic, as leader Of one of
the smallest countries in the
world. turned out to be neither
fiercely natlonalistic nor an
enemy of the West. In addi-
ton, since he had lived under
German, British and French
control in his lifetime, olympic
was considered a key in at
tempts to bridge the gap be-
tween the English and French
speaking countries Of West
Africa.
An accomplished linguist Of
Portuguese-Ewe descent, Olym-
pio was born in Togo's capital,
LONE, on September 6, 1902.
He always denied with a smile !
that his forebears were slave
dealers, noting that slave trad
ing was abolished probably by
the time his grandfather came
to the Gulf Of Guinea from
Brazil.
Young Sylvanus was raised a
Roman Catholic in a German
run school and switched over
to English schooling when the
Kaiser lost his colony in 1914
10 Franco-British forces.
When the French, in turn,
assumed control of LONE in
1920, Olympio's father sent |
him to school in England where
he received a degree in COM
merce from London University. |
Returning to Africa, he went .
10 work for the Unilever Com
pany's branch of the Great |
West African Trading firm and |
enjoyed a career rare for an
African. /
Interned in 1912
After working in Nigeria and
.he neighboring lands of Da-
honey and the Gold Coast, he
became general agent for Lever
In 1912, he was interned in
Oahomey by the Vichy French
and but was released when the
pro-Axis faction lost out to the
Free French. In 1850, under
French pressure, the company
transferred him to Paris but
quit to work full time
for his political goals.
His Unity party had always
wanted to unite the Ewes
divided three ways among the
Sold Coast (now Nkrumah's
Ihana), British Togoland and /
Togo. olympic changed
he pitch to reunite the two
rogo's and carried the fight to
he U. N. in the late 1940s.
British Togoland voted to join
ihana but Olympic emerged
IS the leader of his country, |
he former French mandate, /
md independence came in
800 after his party had won
10 of the as seats.
The French trusteeship, how
'ver, had left its imprint on
1is poor little land which has
one airport, no seaport and
only 295 miles of railroad. |
himself favored and .
maintained a sort Of supple .
relationship with France and .
the currency was based on the
cFA Colonies Franchises
d'Afrique) franc. French is still
the official language Of Togo.
Political Moderate
A political moderate, he had
his party and without
an opposition Of hot-heads who
felt he was not moving fast
enough or far enough. He be-
lieved in the principle Of Pan
Africanism but not to the ex-
tent that the Juvento Party
does.
His other Bette Noire was
Kwame Nkrumah Of relatively
Ghana, once a friend
Of olympic. Nkrumah's patent