Travel report: Togo
Date of visit: January 2018
My plane, which took me from Côte d’Ivoire to Lomé, landed on time on a Tuesday afternoon. Togo was the second out of three countries I visited on this first trip to West Africa. Why Togo? Togo is one of the easiest countries to travel to in West Africa. And since it was my first trip to West Africa, I wanted to start with less challenging countries. After all, West Africa has the reputation of being the hardest region in the world to travel.
The fact that I did not have to apply for a visa in advance, in contrast to the other two countries this tour, also contributed to my decision. Because in Togo you get a visa on arrival at the airport. The whole process was quite simple and after ten minutes and 10,000 CFA less in my wallet I had the visa.
The visa on arrival allows you to stay up to 7 days in Togo, but it can be extended at the visa office in Lomé. However, seven days are enough to see a lot of the country. Togo is tiny and frankly not packed with attractions either. Most people visit Lomé, Lake Togo, Kpalimé with its waterfalls or Mount Agou, Togo’s highest mountain at 986 meters. My plan was to stay in Lomé for three days and to visit the rural areas around the city.
Lomé – a real ‘African’ city
Compared to Abidjan, where I spent the three days before, Lomé seemed much more authentic or more African. While you could see the French influence everywhere in Abidjan, there was practically no foreign influence in Lomé. Lomé is a hectic and chaotic little city, and the infrastructure is very poor. Everything was definitely less developed than in Abidjan. It was actually the way I always imagined an African city to be.
Besides, I didn’t see a single white person in Lomé on my first day. In Abidjan I saw many expats. Being the only white person to walk through the streets, I felt strange at the beginning. But I never felt insecure. On the contrary. Some locals greeted me, others wanted me to enter their shop, and others just wanted to chat.
As in other francophone African countries, the English level of the locals is not particularly good or even almost non-existent. What made the conversations easier for me, like in Côte d’Ivoire, was the simplified French of the Togolese. Grammar doesn’t play a very important role, so that a conversation there (for me) was definitely easier than with French people.
First day in Togo
I had my hotel in the Grand Marché area, the liveliest place of the city with many stalls and small shops. The hotel was run by a really nice French-Ivoirian couple, and the owner asked me every day if everything was okay. My stay there was more than pleasant. Plus the good location of the hotel made things quite easy for me. It was only a five minute stroll until I reached the beach. Many restaurants were nearby too.
A big plus of Lomé (or Togo in general) is that it’s more or less safe. Of course, walking alone at night should be avoided, but you can easily walk around during the day without getting into trouble. There is one exception though: Lomé is right at the border to Ghana, and this part of the city has the reputation of being dodgy at night.
Another thing I checked out on the first day was the beach. It looked beautiful, swimming wasn’t an option though as the currents are too strong here. However, there are beach sections in Lomé where you can swim. I was just never there.
After exploring Lomé on the first day, I had to admit that I really liked it. I had the feeling that Togo was my first real African country. In other words, the way one imagines a stereotypical African country. A country with own character and few influences from the western world.
The real highlight had yet to come. Before this trip, I found 1001Pistes, a tour operator in Lomé (the only one in Togo I found online). It is run by a French couple and they are offering various eco-friendly tours through the country. I was particularly interested in one of the tours described on the website. It was a tour through the villages around Lomé.
The shock came when the owner quoted me the tour price. For a full day tour they quoted me CFA 140’000 (€215). I have never paid that much for a tour. Usually, I pay 40-60 dollars for a one day tour, even if it is a private tour. After first doubts, I finally agreed to this price. I said to myself that I would probably never be back in Togo and that this would be a now or never opportunity. It turned out to be one of the best tours I ever did…
Village tour by 1001Pistes
The next morning, a young French guy named Charles picked me up at my hotel. He had a full beard and he was probably two or three years younger than me. Nevertheless, Charles seems to have already experienced some things in his life. For example, he lived in Chad for eleven years before moving to Togo three years ago. And as he drives me away, he explains to me in broken English that he learned to drive at the age of 11.
20 Minutes later, I met Loïc Henry, the owner of 1001Pistes and my tour guide for that day. Loïc was born in France but moved to Togo 30 years ago. He and his wife were traveling through West Africa and when they arrived in Togo, they knew that this was the country where they would raise their children.
Loïc had curly white hear and he reminded me of Dr. Emmett Brown from the movie Back to the Future. Not only because of his looks, but also because of the way he acted. He was a cool guy and I liked him right from the beginning.
It turned out that Loïc had made some crazy trips that I could only dream of. When he and his wife finished their studies, they spent an extra year studying mechanical engineering in preparation for their next trip. Then they crossed the Sahara by car.
The purpose of their studies was that they could fix the car if something happened during this adventure. However, there were no problems. And so they crossed the Sahara 14 times in the following years with car, bus and motorbike. Only when they were almost shot a few years ago during their last attempt in Mali did they stop with these adventures.
I was more than impressed. I thought about how scared I was before this trip to West Africa and felt somehow ridiculous.
Traveling through rural Togo
We left Lomé and half an hour later we arrived at a village. Loïc pointed to a cemetery and explained: The Togolese bury the bodies of their relatives in their houses, as they want to keep them close. But when the Germans colonized Togo, they told the people to build graveyards and bury the bodies like people in the western world do.
The Togolese had no other choice than following that order. However, they just buried the coffins without the bodies and continued burying the bodies in their homes. The Germans never opened a coffin so they didn’t find out. Indeed, one of the coffins we saw was half-broken and there was nothing in it. Clever Togolese.
Of course, we drew all the attention to us when we entered the village. Loïc is a star there! He knows almost everyone there and the people welcome him with utmost hospitality. He chatted with all of them and handed out some photos he took during the last visit.
There is neither electricity nor running water in these villages and the houses are very simple. I felt like being in one of those documentary movies about rural Africa and it was absolutely spectacular.
The real highlight were the children though. They followed me every step and the most courageous kids came closer and touched me. 🙂 It was a real delight to shake their hands and hug them.
They wouldn’t let us leave the village until we tried their palm liqueur. The alcohol content was 60% and it shook me up when I swallowed it. It was really disgusting. But what should I have done? It was not optional.
We left the first village after 30-45 minutes and headed to another one. The way we were welcomed was even better than in the first village. The way we were welcomed was even better than in the first village, because as soon as we arrived, a dozen children followed us every step of the way.
Not everyone was happy though. A little girl, maybe one year old, started crying when she took notice of us. She had never seen white people before and was afraid of us. Crazy, isn’t it? Without the crying girl but with all the other children we did a group photo.
Most of the kids haven’t seen a smartphone in their life. Therefore, they were curiously inspecting my Galaxy S8. 🙂
Loïc didn’t come to this village empty-handed but with a football. I cannot describe the joy of the kids when they saw the present. However, they had to earn the present first! We played a football game, five against five, and the winning team would get the ball as a trophy.
Temperatures were above 30°C and the game was really exhausting therefore, but after 15 minutes I finally scored the 1-0 for our team. We managed to save that result for five more minutes and the kids in our team could keep the ball.
Visiting these two villages was fantastic, the best was yet to come though. A third village was also on our program. Before we went there, we drove to Lake Togo. There we drifted in a wooden boat through the swamps, which was an ideal place to see birds and watch fishermen at work.
After we had a very late lunch there, we drove to the third village in the late afternoon, which should be our last stop. I really enjoyed the landscape in rural Togo. Especially the contrast between the red earth and the green plants. The red earth is a result of iron in the soil. This is the typical landscape I have in mind when I think about Africa.
The ceremony
It was around 5 PM when we entered the third and last village on our tour. To be honest, I was pretty tired and hoped to be back in Lomé as soon as possible. The village seemed to be more or less empty or at least not as crowded as the previous ones. Suddenly, we heard drums…
We followed the music and I could hardly believe what we got to see. A ceremony was just taking place. That was nothing staged or agreed with Loïc. He was just as surprised as I was. The ceremony was also not an official part of the tour. We were just incredibly happy to have passed this village at that time.
All the people wore special clothes (costumes?) and we had to take off our t-shirts and our shoes and wear one of these dresses too. There is no picture of me wearing these clothes, so don’t even ask. 🙂 But yes, I must have looked funny.
As soon as we wore the decent ceremonial clothes, we were led to our place. All the villagers had gathered in one place in the village and we got a seat in the front row. Of course, all eyes of the 150 people present were on us. And so we watched as the people danced to the sounds of drums and gave a performance.
“This is the queen of the village” Loïc told me and pointed to a corpulent woman who was performing her dance right now. She was wearing a hat whose decorations were reminiscent of a crown. In addition, she wore Nike sneakers next to the traditional festival outfit. “She is the only one allowed to wear shoes,” Loïc explained. I wondered if Nike shoes were a status symbol in this village…
I really enjoyed the dancing and I was absolutely thrilled. This was a real ceremony, not the silly stuff you can see in Bali with hundred other tourists sitting next to you. Loïc, Charles and I were the only white dudes there. And the best thing was that we could film everything.
We were leaving anyway, though. But we still had to ask the president of the ceremony for permission to leave. We got the permission and were thanked for coming by and following the ceremony rules regarding clothing. It seemed to me to be in a culture that could not be further away from mine. It was incredible.
I was still blown away when we left. This is basically what you see on National Geographic TV and I had the honor to see it from the first row. Unfortunately, I have no idea what that ceremony was about. Loïc, who lives in Togo for 30 years, told me that this was only the second ceremony he attended with such an importance.
The ceremony was the grand finale of this amazing tour. And after that I realized that it was well worth the 215 euro.
Last day in Togo: Voodoo and turkeys
I had one more day in Lomé. And I quickly realized that it was one day too many. I went to see some of Lomé’s sights, but one has to say that the sights are limited. As the border of Ghana is only 2km from Lomé, I was even tempted to visit another country on that trip. In the end, I resisted, as I still had not seen all of the city. Besides, I didn’t have a visa for Ghana and it would have been unclear if they’d given me one at the border.
The Marché aux Fétiches is one of the main tourist attractions in Togo but also a controversial one. It’s a market for people who practice voodoo. Voodoo is a religion, which is mainly practiced in Ghana, Togo and Benin, and I wanted to find out more about it. Admission was CFA 3’000 and I also had to pay CFA 2’000 in order to take pictures. An English-speaking guide accompanied me from stall to stall, where I could see dog heads, dead snakes and other carcasses.
The smell in the market was terrible. To make me feel better, the guide told me that they did not kill the animals but found them dead before taking them to the market. That was a lie of course. They kill the animals for the market.
My guide explained to me what they do with the dead animals. For example he told me that you have to mix pulverized dead chicken, monkey and some herbs to increase your libido. It didn’t convince me though.
The tour lasted about 20 minutes. There were hardly any locals on the market, so I quickly got the feeling to be on a market especially for tourists. After all, I haven’t seen a single person buying something. Instead, my guide took me to a souvenir shop and tried to sell a few voodoo dolls.
Nevertheless, I got some insights into the voodoo culture at the Marché des Fétiches. According to the people who worked at the market, 80% of the population of Togo practices voodoo (Wikipedia says it’s less than that though). This confused me, as I thought that Christianity was the main religion in Togo.
When I met Loïc again in the evening, he explained that many Togolese follow more than one religion. They practice voodoo but still have a Christian cross in their backyard.
Loïc, his wife Paule, Charles and I had dinner in a restaurant where no tourists go, as it is far from the city center. It was a place famous for its turkeys and you get one or two marinated turkeys that you eat with your hands.
Funnily, a journalist from Lonely Planet contacted Loïc a few years ago. The journalist asked Loïc about the best restaurants in Lomé and Loïc took him to that place. However, the journalist had to promise that he wouldn’t mention the restaurant in the guide book. Loïc simply didn’t want one of his favorite places to increase their prices.
My travel experience in Togo
Togo was the highlight of this West Africa trip, as I really enjoyed the friendly people and the activities I did. Lomé might not be the most spectacular city on earth, but you can easily spend a couple of days there.
My highlight was of course the tour with 1001pistes. Although at first I was skeptical about the high price, I am very happy that I decided to go for it. Because this was one of the most interesting tours I’ve ever had.
Would it also be possible to do this tour alone? Theoretically yes. At least, if you know where these villages are. However, Loïc is well known there and visits the villages regularly. These villages have their own culture and although everything was very peaceful, I don’t think these people would be happy if a strange white guy with his camera just walked into their home.
Is Togo a safe country to travel? Right now, it’s peaceful and stable. But it’s still West Africa and things can change quickly. In 2017, police forces killed a few people at demonstrations in Lomé. Togo is more or less a dictatorship and demonstrations began when the president refused to step back, although his term of office had already expired. As a traveler, you will most probably not be affected by the political problems of the country, but it’s still necessary to be careful.
I have visited eight other African countries before Togo, but Togo is the one with the most character of them. The country cannot rival heavyweights like South Africa, Morocco or Kenya in terms of sightseeing, nature and animals. However, Togo can provide a unique experience that the other countries can’t. I had three full days and tried to make the most out of it, and I think I did.
After Togo, it was time for my country #67: Nigeria. Things were getting ugly now…
Find the travel reports of the other countries I’ve visited here!
