Togo: anatomy of a succession

A documentary directed by Augustin Talakaena.

Synopsis

Pres­i­dent GNASSINGBE Eyadéma died on Feb­ru­ary 5, 2005 after rul­ing supreme for 38 years over his coun­try and being viewed as immor­tal. The streets emp­tied and the mar­kets closed when the news of his death was bro­ken. The army in favour of the rul­ing party took advan­tage of the absence of the pres­i­dent of the Assem­bly to pro­nounce his son Faure GNASSINGBE pres­i­dent, which was not in con­for­mity with the con­sti­tu­tion. This trig­gered a gen­eral out­cry among the oppo­si­tion in Togo and the inter­na­tional community.

After sev­eral weeks of demon­stra­tions he was urged to resign. Con­se­quently the vice-president of the Assem­bly was cho­sen to lead the tran­si­tion gov­ern­ment. Elec­tions were organ­ised. The oppo­si­tion said they were rigged, which gave rise to a rekin­dled move­ment of dis­con­tent. The demon­stra­tions were vio­lently sup­pressed by the army to bring order back thus send­ing thou­sands of refugees across the borders.