Fruits of Freedom in British Togoland
Subtitle: Literacy, Politics and Nationalism, 1914-2014
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 320
ISBN-13: 9781107074637
Subjects: Decolonization; Ghana, history; Ghana, politics and government; Togo, history; Ghana, foreign relations; Great britain, foreign relations
Description: 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.