Islam arrived in Togo through the agency of various groups of itinerant Muslim pastoralists and traders, who came from the countries of northwestern Africa. Towards the end of the 18th century, Muslim traders from the Sudanic belt settled in Tchaoudjo among the Kotokoli. Different Muslim groups - the Fulani, Mossi, Djerma, Hausa and Tchokossi - settled in various other parts of Togo. Using a simple method of 'adaptation' and 'assimilation', Islam has been able to spread and implant itself in Togo. The evolution of Islam was also favoured by the direct or indirect advantages from which it benefitted during the colonial period, notwithstanding French 'supervision' and repression. The numerical evolution of Islam in Togo in the period 1924-1986 suggests an increase in the number of Muslims. In the fifteen years between 1970-1986 the Muslim population doubled and it now accounts for 17 percent of the Togolese. Today various factors are also working in favour of the increase of Islam among the ethnic communities of Togo. Muslims, formerly thought of as foreigners, have become citizens of Togo like the rest of the population.
Le présent ouvrage est le résultat du colloque international organise les 25, 26 et 27 septembre 2018 en hommage au professeur Sékou Bamba à l'occasion de son départ à la retraite. Directeur de recherches (CAMES), cet éminent historien ivoirien a consacré quatre décennies de sa vie à l'étude des civilisations africaines notamment l'histoire du Bas Bandaman précolonial en valorisant les traditions orales comme des sources pour l'exhumation du passe des sociétés africaines.
L'ouvrage revisite et réexamine plusieurs questions liées à l'islam africain du moyen âge à l'époque contemporaine.
Togolese officials reported the first successful jihadist attack on its territory overnight on May 10 (RFI, June 15). The attack, which targeted the northern town of Kpekankandi, left eight Togolese soldiers dead and was later claimed by al-Qaeda’s affiliate in the Sahel, Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) (RFI, June 15). This incident came after a series of attacks in 2020, 2021 and early 2022 in nearby Cote d’Ivoire and Benin, which leaves Ghana as the only coastal West African country bordering Burkina Faso that has yet to be targeted by JNIM.
In recent years, jihadist groups have gradually shifted from northern Mali toward the centre of the country and then Burkina Faso. An acceleration occurred in 2018, with an increase in incidents in the south-west and flares of violence east of Burkina Faso, raising fears of spreading to Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo and Benin. Contrary to the discourse on an external threat and the resilience of the brotherhoods, while dozens of nationals of the Gulf Guinea countries have joined jihadist groups in recent years, West Africa’s coastal States have their backs against the wall in the attempt to develop and implement responses to stem the spread of jihadism, starting by learning from the experiences of their Sahelian neighbours.
Kabou, a locality in Togo (9° 25′N., 0° 50′E.), 24 km. to the north of Bassari, an important market whose prosperity, in pre-colonial times, was based partly on the barter of crude iron given to the Kabre iron-smiths of Lama-Kara in exchange for slaves, and partly on its function as a halting place on the kolacaravan routes. The presence in Kabou of Muslim outsiders (particularly Ḥawsa and D̲j̲erma) was therefore not unusual.
Kubafolo ou Bafilo (8° 40′ lat. N., 1° 30′ long. Est), chef-lieu de circonscription du Nord Togo, à 73 km. au Nord de Sokodé, qui doit son origine à une halte inopinée d’une colonne de guerriers gonja conduits par Mama, souverain de Pembi, au début du XIXe siècle et revenant d’une campagne militaire contre Djongou. Ils firent halte à Séméré (actuelle République populaire du Bénin) où un groupe s’installa.
Kubafolo or Bafilo, the centre of the administrative region of Northern Togo, situated in lat. 8° 40′ N. and long, 1′ 30’ E., 73 km. north of Sokodé. It owes its origin to the unforeseen halting of a column of Gonja warriors led by Mama, ruler of Pembi, and which was returning from a campaign against Djougou at the beginning of the 19th century. They stopped at Séméré (now in the People’s Republic of Benin), and a group settled there. The warriors were tired by a long march through the mountain regions, but did not dare to ask their chief to stop; however, the latter’s horse stopped to urinate, and the warriors seized the opportunity to halt. Finding the spot pleasant, they set up an encampment which they named Gobangafol (from banga “horse” and mbofol “urine”). These Gouang warriors settling there married Tern women and adopted the Tern language. The traditions vary concerning this expedition; according to Goody, it was probably commanded by Soumaïla Ndewura Jakpa, king of Pembi, and according to others, by Mama, with Séméré and Bafilo being founded by rebellious dissidents rather than by disciplined soldiers.
Although Togo is one of west african countries where islam appeared lately (fifteenth century), its moslem population is 1 4 of the whole population, that is roughly 800,000 moslems. They are found everywhere in Togo and their population is particulary dense in the central and savannah regions. The dessimination and the deepening of the islamic faith in Togo is a religious problem which needs to be pinpointed in the spiritual evolution of the country. Preached among a heavily fetichist population where it is gaining ground, islam is fully expanding, evolving in a modern way just as in all black african countries. Its development has particulary been speedying up for twenty years or so. From the very early stages, islam was locked in the north ; this explains the heavy concentration of moslems in that part of the country, while christianism, faced with certain resistance, had to remain in the south. We are therefore in front of two opposite phenomena which will end up in a conquest struggle. Apart from the colonial conquest, we will witness religious clashes.
Togo, like other west african countries, does not in fact escape from the advance of islam. In the first part of our thesis, we talk of the introduction of islam into togo by immigrant ethnic groups. This part of our work spells out the methods of expansion, adaptation and the strategy of infiltration of islam into the indigenous ethnic groups. It equally emphasesis the complex relationships of western colonial powers with islam throughout west africa. These relationships, contrary to what one might imagine ; have, to a great extent, encouraged its expansion and its evolution in this part of the black continent. In togo, after independance, islam adopted a method of organisation similar to that of christianism church, for one inherited the western structures dating back to the missionary era. We conclude this first part of our work by a discussion of the attitudes of the christian missions towards the traditional religions and islam. The second chapter throws light on the fundamental elements of traditional religions, the symbiosis resulting from its meeting with islam, and the reasons for this symbiosis. In the third and last chapter, we seek to inderlin the efforts made by both moslems and christians in order to facilitate a peaceful coexistance with one another. To conclude this thesis we appeal to christian churches in black africa to put an end to their internal rivalries. "it is time to put a stop, in togo as well as in the whole of africa, to denominational sermons". Churches must unite under the cross of the one and only lord and saviour jesus christ with a view to "evangelizing", not "christianizing". The churches must move from the stage of more verbal testimony to that of diaconal services. Finally we call upon christian churches ans moslem communities to continue the islamo-christian dialogue which is absolutely necessary in africa today for peace, justice and the well being of its peoples, men, women and children alike.
L’islam est arrivé, dans ce qui deviendra l’espace territorial du Togo actuel, à partir du milieu du XVIIe siècle par le nord, le nord-ouest et le nord-est. Il faisait lentement son chemin quand survint la colonisation, à partir de 1884, qui va largement influer sur son cours. Aussi, est-il naturel de faire d’abord un bilan de la situation initiale, avant d’en décrire l’évolution entre 1884 et l’Indépendance ; il sera proposé aussi un regard sur le phénomène de la marginalisation de l’islam, parfaitement lisible dans la vie du pays pendant toute la période coloniale, ce qui, au passage, permettra de prendre connaissance de certaines données de la société musulmane nationale.
L'auteur, pasteur de l'Eglise Evangélique Protestante du Togo, entend situer les relations islamo-chrétiennes au Togo, dans leur contexte historique et géographique. Il rappelle d'abord ce que furent les attitudes des Eglises vis-à-vis des religions traditionnelles, de l'Islam et de «l'oeuvre civilisatrice». Il analyse ensuite les formes contradictoires de la «colonisation», allemande puis française, quant au traitement politique de l'Islam local. Il y ajoute une étude récente sur l'évolution et l'expansion de l'Islam au Togo: lieux de rencontre, formes de collaboration, modalités de la compréhension, difficultés rencontrées, toutes choses qui devraient permettre un dialogue plus confiant et une émulation plus respectueuse.
Territoire d’immigration par excellence, le sol devenu ghanéen fut un foyer d’islamisation qui va influencer la pratique de cette religion dans les pays voisins. Le Togo, ayant fourni d’importantes cohortes de jeunes à cette mobilité transfrontalière, ne fut pas épargné par cette mutation culturelle provoquée par le retour des migrants islamisés. Alors, une interrogation reste soulevée par cette hypothèse : Comment peut-on comprendre l’islamisation du Togo par l’intermédiaire de l’immigration vers la Gold Coast ?
Cette question soulevée sera traitée en trois étapes dont la première décortiquera les fondements de l’émergence islamique de cette entité territoriale au milieu durant la colonisation. De ces explications suivra une autre inquiétude qui se penchera sur l’analyse des actions de propagation de l’Islam par des personnalités influentes du monde musulman togolais que sont Modjolobo et les Alfas d’Adjéidè. Pour clore ce travail, il sera répertorié et décrypté les multiples efforts fournis par les migrants dont les œuvres sont faiblement cités et menacés par l’oubli.
L’objectif de cette production scientifique est de montrer le lien entre la mobilité humaine vers le Ghana et l’islamisation des peuples du Togo. De façon spécifique, il s’agira d’analyser les raisons de ce rayonnement culturel afin de décrire cette mutation religieuse menée par les migrants dont certains, à l’instar de Modjolobo et des Alfa d’Adjéidè, devinrent des héros dans la diffusion islamique au Togo.
Afin que la société civile et les médias puissent jouer un rôle significatif, il est indispensable qu’ils disposent d'informations précises sur l'extrémisme violent.
L'état en question est celui de Kotokoli, le plus peuplé et le plus islamisé des royaumes du Nord Togo et avec un rôle important dans l'évolution politique togolaise. L'auteur discerne trois phases avant l'intervention coloniale et trois à partir de cette intervention. L'évolution Kotokoli est presque constamment marquée par une antinomie entre l'islam et la coutume négro-africaine. En même temps le groupe social musulman joue un rôle essentiel dans l'économie et parfois dans la politique locale. A partir de l'intervention coloniale l'islam tend à devenir un facteur de regroupement débordant les cadres de l'entité politique Kotokoli.