some aspects of cultural policy in togo; studies and...

Some aspects of cultural policy 7 .

in Togo J by K., M.. Aithnard

The Unesco Press Paris 1976

Studies and documents on cultural policies

In this series:

Cultural policy: a preliminary study

Cultural rights as human rights Cultural policy in Japan, by Nobuya Shikaumi Some aspects of French cultzwal policy, by the Studies and Research Department of the

Cultural policy in Tunisia, by R a a Said Cultural policy in Great Britain, by Michael Green and Michael Wilding, in consultation

Cultural policy in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, by A. A. Zvorykine with the

Cultural policy in Czechoslovakia, by Miroslav Marek, with the assistance of Milan

Cultural policy in Italy, a survey prepared under the auspices of the Italian National

Cultural policy in Bulgaria, by Kostadine Popov Some aspects of cultural policies in India, by Kapila Malik Vatsyayan Cultural policy in Cuba, by Lisandro Otero with the assistance of Francisco Martínez

Cultural policy in Egypt, by Mag& Wahba Cultural policy in Finland, a study prepared under the auspices of the Finnish National

Cultural policy in Yugoslavia, by Stevan Majstorovic Cultural policy in Sri Lanka, by H. H. Bandara Cultural policy in Nigeria, by T. A. Fasuyi Cultural policy in Iran, by Djamchid B e b a m Cultural policy in Poland, by Stanislaw Witold Balicki, Jerzy Kossak and

The role of culture in leisure tima in New Zealand, by Bernard W. Smyth Cultural policy in Israël, by Jozeph Michman Cultural policy in Senegal, by Mamadou Seyni M’Bengue Cultural policy in the Federal Republic of Germany, a study prepared under the auspices

Cultural policy in Indonesia, a study prepared by the staff of the Directorate-General

Cultural policy in the Philippines, a study prepared under the auspices of the Unesco

Cultural policy in Liberia, by Kenneth Y. Best Cultural policy in Hungary, a survey prepared under the auspices of the Hungarian National Commission for Unesco

The cultural policy of the United Republic of Tanzania, by L. A. Mbughuni Cultural policy in Kenya, by Kivuto Ndeti Cultural policy in Romania, by Ion Dodu Balan with the co-operation of the Directorates

Cultural policy in the German Democratic Republic, by Hans Koch Cultural policy in Afghanistan, by Shafie Rahe1 Cultural policy in Ghana, a study prepared by the Cultural Division of the

Cultural policy in the United Republic of Cameroon, by J. C. Bahoken

Some aspects of cultural policy in Togo, by K. M. Aithnard

The serial numbering of titles in this series, the presentation of which has been modified, was discontinued with the volume Cultural policy in Italy.

Cultural policy in the United States, by Charles C. Mark I

French Ministry of Culture

with Richard Hoggart

assistance of N. I. Goloubtsova and E. I. Rabinovitch

Hromhdka and Josef Chroust

Commission for Unesco

Hinojosa

Commission for Unesco

Miroslaw Zulawski

of the German Commission for Unesco

of Culture, Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia

National Commission of the Philippines

of the Council of Socialist Culture and Education

Ministry of Education and Culture, Accra

and Englebert Atangana

Published by The Unesco Press, 7 Place de Fontenoy, 75700 Paris Printed by Imprimerie Oberthur, Rennes ISBN 92-3-101 315-7 Aspects de la politique culturelle au Togo : 92-3-201 315-0

0 Unesco 1976 Printed in France

Preface

Th e purpose of this series is to show h o w cultural policies are planned and implemented in various Member States.

As cultures differ, so does the approach to them; it is for each Member State to determine its cultural policy and methods according to its o w n conception of culture, its socio-economic system, political ideology and technical development. However, the methods of cultural policy (like those of general development policy) have certain c o m m o n problems; these are largely institutional, administrative and financial in nature, and the need has increasingly been stressed for exchanging experiences and information about them. This series, each issue of which follows as far as possible a similar pattern so as to m a k e comparison easier, is mainly concerned with these technical aspects of cultural policy.

In general, the studies deal with the principles and methods of cultural policy, the evaluation of cultural needs, administrative structures and management, planning and financing, the organization of resources, legislation, budgeting, public and private institutions, cultural content in education, cultural autonomy and decentralization, the training of personnel, institutional infrastructures for meeting specific cultural needs, the safeguarding of the cultural heritage, institutions for the dissemination of the arts, international cultural co-operation and other related subjects.

T h e studies, which cover countries belonging to differing socia1 and economic systems, geographical areas and levels of development, present therefore a wide variety of approaches and methods in cultural policy. Taken as a whole, they can provide guidelines to countries which have yet to establish cultural policies, while all countries, especially those seeking n e w formulations of such policies, can profit by the experience already gained.

This study was prepared for Unesco by K. M. Aithnard, sociologist

The opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect and Inspector for Youth, Sport and Culture.

the views of Unesco.

Contents

9

13

17

32

59

64

66

69

77 81

83

87

Introduction

S o m e basic facts

I. The main trends in cultural policy

The development of cultural policy

Evaluation and programming

II. Artistic creation and the executive machinery for cultural action

Artistic creation and training

Artistic creation and centres for the dissemination of culture

School reform and artistic creation

The problem of disseminating culture

III. Administrative and financial structures

Administrative structures

Financial structures

Conclusion

Appendixes

TOGO

i S Scale : 1 /I ,000,000 (km)

I 106; 10 A ¡O $0 sb 16 d 90 1W

b Craftwork 2 Plastic arts

Introduction

After the euphoria attendant upon the winning of independence, the African countries had to face reality. They needed to develop. There followed the time of the experts. Far-fetched, utopian development projects mushroomed. A vast literature on ways of preparing for the ‘radical’ change of attitudes was published and found its w a y on to the ofice desks of the departments concerned. There was great activity on]Tall sides.

T h e basic problem, however, was rarely raised. Development, yes-but what kind of development was suitable for the African peoples?

It is unwise to approach the question of development in terms of a confrontation between progress and tradition. It should be considered, rather, in terms of dialogue, a dialogue which extends to all sectors of the population, since the refusal to exchange views with the people is the first pedagogical sin against its cultural authority. Colonialism presumed to insult the people in that way. There must be no question of doing the same again.

For the type of development sought in Togo, positive cultural values must be regarded as a nourishing spring. Modernization is generally taken to mean the whole process by which a society enters the small circle of industrialized countries. For Africa, this process of change would be only a simple transposition of experience from the industrialized world to the African world and would be essentially exogenous in character. Togo, on the other hand, conceives of development as the establishment of internal conditions favouring endogenous production. Such development would be geared to the basic characteristics and values marking the h u m a n environment. M a n would cease to be at the mercy of whatever transformations occurred and would himself become the protagonist of change. In this way, the cultural values of the c o m m u n - ities could, as appropriate, provide the components for an increased national awareness. Imitation, the main ingredient in bringing about

9

Introduction

modernization, would be replaced by creation, the hallmark of true development.

In order to embark on this course, Togo is seeking to free itself from a double alienation: alienation derived from acculturation through colonialism (the élites) and alienation resulting from a morbid attachment to ancestral traditions (the masses).

The programme of the Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais (RPT) defines these alienations as follows:

For historical reasons (in particular those relating to colonization), the African suffers, despite himself, from a basic inhibition which few succeed in acknowledg- ing. In the illiterate masses, this inhibition is expressed by an almost patholo- gical attachment to habits and traditions, an instinctive rejection of innovations, a morbid fear of initiatives and the limitation of effort to a strict minimum. In the more sophisticated, who have had more or less prolonged contact with other civilisations, a veneer covers this basic inhibition, without, however, changing it in any way. This results in certain quite extravagant reactions: excessive attachment to imported habits and attitudes, particularly in outward appearance-way of dressing, language (reluctance to speak one’s native tongue), even choice of food-a rush to accumulate wealth by more or less honest means, disdain for others, a tendency to regard outside opinions as gospel truth, etc.

The African must therefore be freed from his complexes, whether he belongs to the élite or to the masses, and must be helped to find the common denomi- nator represented by African realities, the very blood and bones of Africa, without falling into facile and ineffective traditionalism.

This cannot be done easily, for the ‘petrification’ of our minds, our alienation, has gone deep, so deep that some deny its existence and even those who acknowledge it find, sometimes to their great surprise and chagrin, that they themselves are still affected by it.

Any viable cultural policy must take this present-day phenomenon into account. A return to the fountainhead is needed, and for this purpose research must be undertaken in order to be able to stigmatize the negative aspects of both sides of the heritage. At all costs, cultural extroversion must be avoided. Togolese culture must retain a dynamism which can instil into all sectors of the population a n e w attitude, conducive to integrated development.

Culture is a complex whole. In the ethical context it has often been likened to civilization, as opposed to barbarism. This is not the place, however, to go into the definition of this concept at any length. Already in the first half of the twentieth century, over 160 different definitions of culture could be listed. Whether descriptive, historical, psychological, genetic, structural, or what you will, these definitions, even though they open up an increasingly vast field for observation, have unfortunately not led to the establishment of an operative concept.

The different peoples have continued to exist, their personal cultural experience influencing and being influenced by the other aspects of daily life.

10

Introduction

It is therefore through observing this continually changing cultural life that the cultural achievement and efforts of the Togolese people can be understood. By its content, Togolese culture can serve the interests of development.

Fortunately, the Togolese Government has opted in favour of an integral type of development. The industrialization of the country will be achieved step by step, but care must be taken to see that in the labyrinthine network of production machinery, the people do not die of ‘spiritual, moral and emotional starvation’. In the march towards progress, greater use will have to be made of the latent forces inherent in the culture of the country and its genius, and borrowings from other cultures will have to be confined to whatever seems desirable in its effects.

Some consider that the stable machinery of traditional society is in danger of crumbling under the effects of industrialization, to become elements in a heterogeneous society in which the will to resolve internal conflicts would become weaker and the density of social relations gradually give way to fierce individualism. What would then remain of culture? These comments are certainly relevant, but Togolese culture is more than that. Many of the values of traditional civilization bear witness to its vitality. And the most important thing is to determine from the start the place and role of culture in development.

The resolve to pursue integrated development in which economics and culture play an equal part therefore represents a challenge. But this is a challenge which Togo is determined to accept and, if possible, win. This is the pact which the government concluded with the nation and which is set out in the national programme of RPT. There is room for hope since the decisive step which the country took in 1967. The issues at stake are daunting, but the vitality and enthusiasm of the people make victory a certainty. The place given to culture by General Eyadema’s government can be seen clearly. But the people must continue to work together and the feeling of responsibility for the cultural heritage must become more operative. To the responsibility for acquiring knowledge must be added responsibility for transmitting the knowledge acquired. Hatred for the new must not be confused with concern for the cultural heritage. One is a stagnant pool, the other a living spring of creative thought.

To be open to dialogue, to accept the ‘other’ in his cultural specificity, to draw upon the sources of universal knowledge in order to enrich the Togolese cultural heritage, to improve its expression and maintain the sense of ‘cultural hospitality’, but no longer to accept demeaning comparisons-this is no small undertaking. What it amounts to is to safeguard culture, to confirm it, bring it up to date and enrich it from the springs of the universal. A host country by historical vocation, inheriting three foreign

11

Introduction

cultures (English, French, German), by necessity a country of refuge, Togo, thanks to its narrow longitudinal shape, crosses several cultural areas of West Africa. This is an asset of appreciable importance.

In his speech announcing the cultural weeks in 1973 the Minister of Culture emphasized that every Togolese citizen should consider the cultural wealth of the country as a treasure to be jealously guarded but to be quantitatively and qualitatively improved, since the elaboration of a cultural policy is a joint creative endeavour.

It is by surveys, research, dialogue and action that a cultural policy can be put into operation. ln this task, personal whims must not be allowed to obscure the path to true consensus. If culture is to play its full role as a factor regulating economic development, several disciplines will have to act in close co-operation-social sciences, economics, information, etc.

In so far as cultural policy in Togo must harmonize with the other aspects of development, it would not be possible to determine it once and for all, in all its details, without stifling it. In Part I of this study, its general aspects and related projects will be outlined. Part II will highlight the executive machinery for cultural action; and this will be followed, in Part III, by a brief description of the administrative structures.

The appendixes contain a number of data which throw light on the general trends in Togolese cultural policy.

12

Some basic facts

Togo is a thin strip of land about 600 km long and 50 to 150 km wide, crossed diagonally from SSW to NNE by the continuation of the Dahomean mountain range known as the Atakora. Surface area: 56,000 km2. Climate: in the south, a Guinean climate, with two dry seasons and two rainy seasons. In the north, a Sudanese climate, with a very long dry season. Temperatures vary between 220 C and 320 C. Rainfall varies between 1,500 mm and 2,000 mm of rain per year.

Growth rate: 2.6 per cent per year. Ethnic groups: three main ethnic groups: Anyi-Twi (Ewe-Watyi- Peda, Ehoué, Ahlo, etc.) ; Nigerian-Voltaic (Kabre, Losso, Moba, Gurma, Kotokoli, Tamberma, Basari, etc.) ; Yoruba (Ana-Akposo- Akékou, Chakossi, Fulani, Nago, Hausa, etc.).

Population : 2,000,000 inhabitants, i.e. 35 inhabitants per km2.

Oficial language : French. Government and administration : 1884: King Mlapa of Togoville signs the protectorate treaty with

Consul Nachtigal, making Togo a German colony until 1919. Togo then comes under French mandate, until gaining internal autonomy in 1956.

Togo gains independence and national sovereignty. A military régime is established, under the leadership of General Gnassingbé Eyadema, president and founder in 1969 of the Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais (RPT), the only political party.

1956-1960: The Autonomous Republic of Togo. 1960: 1967:

National motto : work-freedom-homeland. Economy: currency: the CFA franc (1 unit of account = 291 francs CFA).

Gross national product at market prices: 270 million units of account, i.e. 140 units of account per capita. Main economic activity: agriculture

13

Some basic facts

(85 per cent of the population). Products and resources: coffee, cocoa, groundnuts, cotton, palm-oil, phosphates, textile industries, iron ore deposits, marble quarries, fishing, stock-rearing (cattle, sheep, pigs, etc.).

Communications : 7,700 km of roads; 499 km of railways. Education: School attendance rate: 58 per cent. Population of school

age: 537,375. Population attending school: 311,678. Types of education: State, catholic, protestant, private undenominational, others. Levels of education: primary, secondary, higher (one university).

14

I. T h e main trends in cultural policy

The development of cultural policy

Elements of cultural policy

In order to attain its true meaning and a definite content, the concept of cultural policy needs to be spelt out in a manifesto expressing the consensus of all sectors of the population and the responsible institutions. This cultural policy manifesto would refer to the other aspects of h u m a n development, defining their complementary relationship and the necessary conditions for harmonizing culture and economics on the conceptual and pragmatic levels.

This of course requires studies and surveys which extract the quintessence of the philosophy and of the cultural models and artifacts of the tillers of the soil and others w h o with them remain the true repositories of the values of our civilization. Moreover, beyond the famous theories on the applicability of so-called universal patterns to programmes for cultural action in African countries, there is one element which has been experienced all too often: the rejection phenomenon. In other words, any policy promoting culture and artistic creativity must include the participation of all sectors of the population. A n y project is bound to fail in the long run if the local inhabitants, of their o w n accord, show an obvious lack of interest in it. Once the credibility of the project is questioned, it should either be given further study or purely, simply and honestly abandoned.

Ideally, therefore, the cultural policy manifesto should take into account the aspirations of all those concerned, in order to stimulate at Ieast a mínimum of voluntary participation. This emphasizes the importance attaching to aspirations ; they give concrete expression to the people’s sense of responsibility vis-à-vis the manifesto and ensure a greater degree of interest on their part, provided they have been consulted and their agreement sought at all levels during its preparation. T h e

17

The main trends in cultural policy

manifesto then constitutes a genuine cultural contract, freely entered into in all seriousness, between the people and the programmers.

Despite the fact that Togo had no such agreed manifesto in the first years after independence, it is nevertheless possible to piece together the elements of a cultural policy from the various statements of intent made at this time and also from the conspectus of development policy represented by the national programme of the Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais (RPT).

At the start: an unco-ordinated cultural programme

In their plans of action, the political movements before independence did indeed show a definite interest in young people, in so far as the latter constituted potential supporters for their programme. Their position with regard to cultural problems can only be gleaned through their methods and techniques for stimulating the masses and through some of the structures established and speeches delivered. The content of the cultural programme was usually interwoven in the general ideology which determined the position of each movement in relation to the colonizers. It goes without saying that this implicit cultural policy was endogenous or exogenous according to whether the political position of the movement was nearer or further from that of the administering power.

T h e gaining of national sovereignty m a d e it possible to establish administrative structures which should theoretically have helped to open up the w a y ahead. T h e promotion of culture was included in the attribu- tions of the Ministry of National Education. But the definition of the tasks and of the cultural programme was still imprecise. S o m e activities were indeed carried out here and there, but they were more the result of personal initiative than the expression of a deep-seated desire on the part of the decision-makers to place the promotion of cultural activities on a sure and permanent basis.

However, traditional cultural life retained all its dynamism. The traditional ceremonial occasions continued to be honoured, almost unheeded by the administrators.

In the towns there were numerous youth movements but their cultural activities were unfortunately not co-ordinated. The contradictions were due mostly to the lack of agreement as to the form socio-cultural development should take.

A change of régime came about in 1967. Until then the people were divided into political clans which m a d e it impossible either to reach consensus on the cultural problem or to draw up a cultural manifesto. The interests of the different groups, among both adults and young people, were ‘too divergent. On 30 M a y 1967, a decree established the

18


post of High Commissioner for Youth, Sport and Culture, directly attached to the presidency of the republic.

President Gnassingbé Eyadema, by launching an appeal on 30 August 1969 for the creation of a single movement for dialogue and national unity, thawed the cultural situation. ‘The salvation of Togo’, he said, ‘lies in the union of all her sons in a single, genuine national crucible in which all the vital forces of the country will fuse together, regardless of previous party alliances.’ Those whose minds were most fertile in ideas, w h o had until then stood somewhat apart from the mainstream of national construction, n o w joined in and contributed to the preparation of a programme for a general policy of integrated development, the national programme of the Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais.

The Green Book and cultural policy

Popularly called the ‘Green Book‘, the RPT programme is a really revolu- tionary document. It is a challenge to the past, the start of a ‘new march’ for the country.

Rejecting the interests and principles which had hitherto governed the young republic, and defining the ills-nepotism and regionalism- which were undermining the country physically and psychologically, the Green Book ushers in a n e w climate in which to m a k e a n e w start.

It lays the foundations for integral development and assigns to m a n his proper role as a citizen with a part to play in his country’s history.

The part of the programme devoted to culture is concise and deals both with structures and general lines of action. It marks for the first time in Togolese history the deliberate choice of a cultural system integrated with other aspects of development.

To quote the programme itself, ‘Cultural policy in a developing country is not to be considered as a luxury, something extra which will be bestowed on us as a matter of course once the political and economic issues have been settled’. While giving economic problems (which are dealt with in detail) their full importance, the Green Book links them with a concern for integrated development in which culture is no longer the poor cousin, but a full partner in a history of m a n m a d e by m a n for man.

It required exceptional courage and perspicacity to launch this n e w conception in a country which had remained too long isolated, fixed in its pie-independence contradictions.

T h e concern with economic development is coupled with a concern for the quality of life. W e must try to become modern Africans sharing the same faith in matter, mind and soul. So that w e m a y remain true to ourselves, w e must link the n e w skein to the old and draw upon the vitality of our positive traditional values in order, as the popular saying goes, to ‘forge ahead’.

19


In this n e w approach to development, will-power and the sense of responsibility take on a n e w dimension. It has so often been too easy to shift the burden of our disappointments on to others. N o w that w e have gained our independence, history can no longer judge us through others. The responsibility cannot be shared. There was a time when certain skilfully presented alibis were used to absolve us from the responsibility w e had assumed with independence. But n o w there will be no ‘extras bestowed on us as a matter of course’. T h e time for idols is past.

AB regards culture, the RPT programme is a call for a deep change in attitudes.

Economics and culture are no longer dissociated in space and time. They are two travelling companions forever linked together. (There is not one time for economic and social policy and another for cultural policy’, says the RPT programme. T h e conception and preparation of the development plans will necessarily take into account this unity in time and space. Since progress is an integral whole, development will take place on two levels: economico-social and cultural, so as to achieve balanced progress. No distortion of the one in favour of the other is permitted. On the contrary, if the balance leaned in favour of culture, it would only be fair compensation in view of the past.

In the RPT programme, cultural and economic affairs are presented as two indissociable partners at all stages of h u m a n progress. The one cannot take a step forward without the other. ‘You take a step, I take a step’, as our popular saying has it. Economic development implies cultural development ; and cultural transformation fits into the over-all process of change. ‘You cannot look up at the sky if you keep your eyes on the ground.’

Dichotomy is no longer possible. Moreover, complementarity is actually sought after. Cultural policy assumes here its role as a regulator of economic progress.

Likewise, economics supports cultural development. Here the crite- rion of economic viability is no longer always relevant. Although the contribution of culture to economic development cannot always be measured, it is none the less true that culture can act upon development as a stimulant.

This concept of integrated development is based on the concrete reality of traditional life. Eighty per cent of our population are still peasants. Economic life cannot be separated from cultural life (time for work, time for leisure and culture).

In fact the originality of traditional society lies in the coherence of the various elements and structures underlying it. T h e socialization of the child through a form of education which is indistinguishable from (oral) instruction, comes about in successive stages of training, involving gradually increasing participation and the progressive assumption of economic and cultural roles. In this w a y the social personality of the

20


child emerges at a very early age as the result of a step-by-step accession to civic roles within the cultural and economic community. T h e Green Book has m a d e a point of stressing this reality: ‘The policy for the development of the arts and literature is an absolute necessity; indeed the affirmation of one’s o w n culture is a weighty and invaluable factor in attaining n e w awareness.’

A satisfactory cultural policy should have terms of reference which serve as a starting-point for reflection and action. Culture is not a bud which appears in the morning and opens out spontaneously the following day. It is a link between the past and the present, a communication, an expression of the philosophy and the visual elements which have formed and are still forming, in their unceasing dialectical relationship with economic life, the attitudes and behaviour of peoples w h o are at one and the same time the inheritors of the culture of the past and the exponents of that of the present. A people must therefore enter into possession of its past heritage and at the same time assume its cultural responsibility for the present.

The Togolese people must become aware of this cultural heritage, study it, immerse themselves in it, live it and often bring it u p to date, prune it if necessary and m a k e it bear fruit so as to pass it on alive to future generations w h o in their turn will have to pass it on at an even higher level. This n e w awareness, a ‘weighty and invaluable’ component indeed, is the very condition of our development. In our ineluctable upward progress, the specificity of our development-on whatever rung of the economic ladder w e stand-can only derive fi6kur culture which remains the essentially inalienable content of our personality.

Factories and roads all look alike; it is only their design, the w a y they fit into the environment, the original architecture of buildings and houses, agricultural methods and the appearance of the fields, the w a y w e dress and cook, our literature and the objects of our art and civilization that show our true personality and our o w n specific culture. This continuously renewed heritage cannot be bargained over. Its price is incalculable, its value unassailable.

Such is the irreversible position of the Togolese Government and people. T o assert their identity at all levels. And to do so, they must free themselves from all obstacles and impediments in the way. ‘ W e must not think solely of political freedom’, in the words of General Eyadema, ‘we must always bear in mind that there are other freedoms which are not yet complete and which are stdl to be gained. W e m e a n cultural freedom and economic freedom.’

Cultural policy cannot therefore be a spontaneously generated phenomenon. It is the result of continuous observation, study and reflection based on concrete reality: the living culture, the cultural heritage. But it cannot steer its o w n course. T h e Togolese leader’s words emphasize that there can be no dichotomy in the concept of integral

21


development and that one cannot give preference either to the cultural aspect of development or to the economic aspect. Economics and culture cannot face in two different directions. T h e ‘new march’ is a harmonious whole embracing all aspects of development.

Moreover, to develop a cultural policy throughout the whole of the territory is a factor of unity and cohesion, in so far as the inland provinces will thus be led to have a life of their own, providing a magnet for the most highly educated who will no longer be attracted solely by the brilliance of the capital.

Thus culture, which was long accused of being a cause of division and discrimination, can no longer be m a d e the handmaid of personal ambi- tions. On the contrary, the establishment of a carefully prepared cultural policy strengthens national unity, in that it does not give priority to any one ethnic culture over the others. Within a single administrative district, several ethnic groups live side by side with their different basic cultures. Each culture in its expression remains faithful to its heritage, without this expression detracting from the national unity achieved with so m u c h difficulty.

Furthermore, the notion of justice must preside over any decision of a cultural nature. T h e capital and the slightly industrialized areas have for long enjoyed special attention. Only the rational application of the above-mentioned recommendation in the programme will mak e it possible to reduce the impact on development of population migration from the rural areas. T h e ‘brilliance’ of the capital in comparison with the ‘half-light’ of the provinces has caused the intellectual élite to move away from their h o m e environment. Their surreptitious, relatively infrequent visits to their homes cannot serve as an example to the n e w generation which, rightly enough, also wishes to sample the strange-tasting fruit known as progress. An intensive programme of action is essential if the best brains are to be encouraged to stay in their h o m e area. T h e establishment of regional inspectorates for youth, sport and culture has m a d e it possible to undertake specific action for the benefit of each region: district cultural weeks, regional weeks, the establishment of cultural centres and regional survey centres.

An effective cultural policy must be based on the solid ground afforded by personal cultural experience. ‘In this field, therefore, it is a matter of the utmost urgency to m a k e a general survey of the Togolese cultural heritage by highlighting the cultural vocation specific to each region.’l

Thus ethnic and regional cultures should not be regarded as factors of division, but should be understood in depth, their values brought to light through a series of systematic, carefully planned surveys.

1. RPT programme.

22


T h e safeguarding, defence and effective presentation of a culture entail an intimate knowledge of all its aspects and its relationship to the cultures of other sectors of the population. It is of course difficult to reconcile the deep-felt desire of the various population groups for national unity with the diversity of their ethnic cultures; but the preservation and revitalization of these ethnic cultures cannot fail to be beneficial to national unity and cultural wealth.

O n e concrete step towards putting the recommendation in question into effect was taken with the first cultural weeks. Interethnic cultural exchanges are as essential as foreign tours for regional and national stage companies. By strengthening national cohesion, these exchanges encourage cultural interpenetration and mutual understanding, thus promoting voluntary participation in community and national development as well as stimulating and fostering artistic creation. On the other hand, as is pointed out elsewhere in the national programme of the Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais, the preservation and revitalization of the ethnic cultures does not imply any rank-ordering of their respec- tive values. A n y form of discrimination, any hegemony of one ethnic culture over others is inacceptable, whatever the political situation. In fact each region has its o w n cultural vocation. Each has long possessed a certain specific tradition in the working of leather or pottery, iron, raffia, etc.

Since the ‘new march’ is essentially a matter of praxis, the RPT programme also recommends that a number of spearhead structures be established and their purpose defined and spelt out.

A policy must be determined for setting up youth centres and cultural centres, encouraging the creation of ballets, both national and regional, and stimulating local private ventures through suitable means (annual arts competitions, art prizes awarded by the president of the republic, national and regional arts fortnights, etc.)l.

Indeed, a cultural policy needs to be based on a number of key activities which keep alive and m a k e daily use of past acquisitions as well as stimulating fresh creation.

T h e various existing facilities provide a framework for artistic dissemination and creation. The national ballets, which are the pride of Togo, contribute a channel through which o u songs and dances can be brought together and revitalized, a real centre for research and choreographic creation which will be supported by the National Institute of Music and Dancing.

T h e fact that the president of the republic has done away with the post of High Commissioner for Youth, Sport and Culture, in order to set

1. op. cit.

23


up a special ministry with the same functions, is a clear indication of his interest in socio-cultural problems. The Green Book has stressed this concern by stating that art prizes would be awarded to the best artists by the president of the republic himself. These rewards will certainly tend to stimulate artistic creation.

T h e national and regional arts fortnights are regarded as opportunities to evaluate n e w creations in the various cultural fields. Events of this sort, organized at suitable intervals, cannot fail to encourage our artists, especially when prizes are awarded for the best works, which are then selected for exhibition and comment in the various museums and exhibitions (local or travelling) so as to keep the memory of their authors fresh in the public’s mind. And the RPT programme rightly points out: ‘The census of the arts should lead to the establishment of a National M u s e u m and it will be necessary to give thought to arts training for young people through the establishment of a National Arts Institute.’

Thus the need to safeguard the cultural heritage leads ipso facto to the setting up of n e w facilities to receive the most representative works in our culture. Rigorous selection will be necessary in this respect. Specialists will have to select the finest works and those which bear an ethnographic, historical or cultural message. Not only does the national honour depend upon this, but it is important that young people should be provided with striking examples of the creative vitality of the Togolese people.

This, briefly, is what the Green Book has to say about cultural matters. Other paragraphs of this vast programme of integral development evince the same preoccupations.

The essential feature of this programme!, however, is the avowed resolve to m o v e off the beaten track and to bid the Togolese people see their future in a n e w light, viewing it from a standpoint which embraces all aspects of h u m a n development.

The ‘land of our fathers’ must pass on to its sons outstanding cultural values which ensure the renewal of our civilization.

In order to meet this challenge and remain the masters of our destiny, the people must be m a d e more aware and freed from their complexes, the national consciousness of the masses and the élite must be heightened through suitably designed education and information compaigns and the necessary reforms must be carried out, once and for all, so as to bring about a global change in attitudes. T h e Green Book is very explicit on this point.

Reactions to the Green Book

The RPT programme, like any document which bears an entirely novel, messianic message, has administered somewhat of a jolt to existing views by announcing the inauguration of a n e w era. T h e different interpreta- tions and discussions which it has aroused show the interest felt by the

24


public asza whole and the general need to emerge from a situation which ill-befits the renown of the Togolese nation.

There were also some adverse reactions, however, understandable enough, which revealed personal whims and misconceptions ; they led the militants to launch an information campaign. Moreover, the cultural weeks have provided the representatives of the president of the republic with the opportunity of stating and explaining the ideals of the RPT and its national programme.

President Eyadema has also m a d e clear in one of his speeches the meaning of the search for a specifically African identity.

To free our minds is to return to the African sources, to free ourselves from foreign ideologies and examples, which are not adapted either to our resources or to our soul and which, finally, hamper our self-expression and our development.

In cultural circles it has become urgent, after the preparation of the RPT national programme, to bring out the practical means and conditions of implementing the programme in the field of culture, in other words to continue reflection, investigate the existing potential and try to establish a coherent programme of action which would take into account the other fields of national development.

By creating a Ministry of Youth, Sport, Culture and Scientific Research (21 January 1972), the head of State, president and founder of the Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais, wished to show the importance which he attaches to cultural problems and the effective implementation of the Green Book’s recommendations in the sphere of culture. Just three months later, on 13 April 1972, the Minister of Culture accordingly brought together artists, m e n of culture, representatives from the various ministries and Togolese craftsmen in a National Committee for Culture composed of four commissions: Commission for the Study of the Togolese Languages; Commission for the Study of Religions and Customs; Commis- sion for Music and the Performing Arts; Commission for Plastic Arts and Crafts.

Each commission submitted to a plenary meeting on 7 June 1972 the results of its work, of which a very brief summary is given below.

COMMISSION F O R THE STUDY OF T H E TOGOLESE LANGUAGES

T h e commission, recognizing that language is the instrument of inter- personal communication and of cohesion and national unity, recognizing that it is also a factor in promoting economic, social and political development, considers it desirable that Togo should show the world its literary wealth, through the dynamic action of the Ministry of Culture. It

25


suggests, moreover, two main guidelines for the action to be undertaken:

First, to define a policy which will ultimately enable the Togolese national languages to come into their own. With this in view, it will be necessary to carry out an inventory of all the written Togolese languages and the literary works published in them, to collect foreign publications dealing with those languages, to establish if possible their points of similarity with other African languages and to m a k e contact with all universities interested in this matter.

During the colonial period, use of the Togolese languages, which were reduced to the level of vernacular languages and dialects, was forbidden. This phenomenon of disparagement is inherent in colonialism: thus the Hebrews spoke Egyptian; Latin was considered as a barbarian language by the Greeks, but Rome, once she became ruler of the Mediterranean, in turn depreciated the ‘language of the gods’ and imposed her own.

N o w that w e have gained independence, it is important to select a n e w language which will have to be developed, but without prejudicing literacy work in the languages chosen for this purp0se.l

Secondly, to define a policy of cultural promotion by means of a systematic census of our cultural assets (tales, legends and proverbs), for which purpose a national commission will be set up. Suitable structures will also be established at regional levels.

In addition, it is essential to carry out a census of all Togolese writers, followed by the publication and distribution of their works. This will encourage young people in Togo to write and embark on studies which will help in developing their talent.

Literary competitions will have to be organized, in which prizes will be awarded for the best short story, the best novel, the best tale, both in senior and junior secondary schools and among the uneducated masses. T h e best entries could be collected and published.

A national commission for the promotion of literature will have to be set up for this purpose; and a literary review will be founded to deal with various questions (art, literature, etc.).

COMMISSION F O R THE STUDY OF RELIGIONS A N D CUSTOMS

In view of the present stage reached in our cultural development, there is no question of wishing to re-establish the Togolese religions and traditions in their original entirety. There will be m a n y things to preserve, improve, adopt and present more effectively. Similarly, some

1. The educational reform has selected two languages (Ewe and Kabre) to be taught in the schools and universitiee.

26


aspects should be allowed to disappear because they no longer correspond to the present trend in thought and h u m a n culture which is universal.

Like the previous one, this commission recommends the forming of working teams and research and survey groups. It also stresses the desirability of giving substantial encouragement to all those who seek to serve the community, for example to healers and soothsayers who refuse to m a k e themselves known for fear of reprisals and through the need to safeguard their secrets. This encouragement will perhaps bring them to m a k e a n effective contribution to solving the health problems at present facing the country.

T h e commission also recommends a thorough-going programme of research and investigation into traditional religions and customs.

COMMISSION F O R MUSIC A N D T H E P E R F O R M I N G ARTS

This commission has drawn up a list of the various types of musical instruments existing in Togo and noted the different occasions on which music is used and the style appropriate to each occasion. Its suggestions are similar to those of the other commissions with regard to taking a census of the cultural heritage.

In view of the importance of music in man’s cultural education, in view also of the urgent necessity to safeguard and give fresh stimulus to this art which is threatening to die of starvation.

The Commission for Music and the Performing Arts supports the wish already expressed in the National Programme of the Rassemblement du Peuple Togo- lais, that a National Theatre, Music and Ballet Company as well as regional companies be set up on a permanent basis, with a well-organized programme of activities, which could certainly arouse and stimulate the attention of our élites, who often feel almost ashamed if they show an even remote interest in the folklore of their country.

The commission also suggests encouraging artistic creation by competitions and concerts at which prizes are awarded, periodic festivals, arts weeks and fortnights, recordings and the dissemination of ancient and modern works. It recommends a n increase in filmed and photographic records, the publication of art reviews and the effective application of the principle of copyright.

Lastly, the commission recommends that both formal and non-formal education m a k e adequate provision for arts training at all levels and that suitable facilities be established for this purpose (academy of dramatic art, institute of music and dancing, etc.).


COMMISSION F O R PLASTIC ARTS A N D CRAFTS

This commission, like the others, recommends that a systematic, nation-wide census be conducted, so as to discover hitherto unknown products of plastic art and craftwork, and artists, and encourage the creation of n e w works. With this in view, a national sub-commission will have to be established, composed both of connoisseurs and of people w h o can make themselves understood by the local inhabitants. In order to achieve its aims, the sub-commission will have to base its activities on existing structures in the regions and administrative districts, so as to facilitate contact with the local inhabitants and the settlement of any disputes concerning acquisitions or loans.

T h e Commission for Plastic Arts and Crafts stresses the desirability of putting into effect a policy to encourage and improve the status of artists, with a view to making Togo’s art potential more widely known. In this connexion, it also recommends that competitions with awards (prizes, medals for artistic merit, etc.) be organized.

T h e conditions for the development of art are in direct relation to the support and protection which the State provides for artists. A coherent policy for the production and protection of our most representative art objects will have to be elaborated so as to avoid flooding the art market with works of uncertain quality. T h e protection of works of art will necessarily relate to both invention and conservation. As regards the first, patents should be granted to the authors of works of art and reproduction m a d e subject to regulations. As regards the second, works should be conserved either in ecomuseums or museums of the traditional kind.

In order to stimulate artistic creation, there will be a need for arts training at all levels. In this way, young artists will be given the opportunity to see beyond their o w n limited world. For the purpose of carrying out this policy for the promotion of plastic arts and crafts, the commission recommends the establishment of an association of Togolese artists and craftsmen.

T h e commissions of the National Committee for Culture have m a d e concrete proposals which overlap with each other and indicate the main lines along which cultural policy should be implemented. These proposals, based on the recommendations of the Green Book, are aimed at extending the debate and establishing optimum conditions for the success of the cultural programme. T h e Ministry of Culture has drawn valuable conclusions from them concerning the ways in which cultural action m a y be integrated with overall development, and has prepared detailed plans for a number of practical steps, spread out in time and covering the whole country, as recommended in the RPT programme.

28


The challenge of the third five-year development plan

The Ministry of Planning, in accordance with the recommendations of the RPT programme, is using all possible means to increase not only the level of economic activity, but also the enjoyment of cultural property. Its dynamic approach affords reason to hope that the third five-year development plan should get off to a vigorous start and that the entire programme should be in full swing by the end of the fourth plan in 1985.

The first two plans (1966-70, 1971-75) m a d e it possible to gain experience and consolidate the government’s determination to overcome the problems of economic and socio-cultural development. T h e first plan was aimed principally at establishment of the structures required for the implementation of a programme for integrated development. T h e second plan was the start of the production phase.

T h e third and fourth plans will be decisive for the economic and socio-cultural take-off of Togo.

T h e 1985 horizon represents the coming of age.

The year 1985 will be a year in which the people become truly aware of national development, in which all the structures and supporting machinery will have been adequately established and the masses strongly motivated and intellec- tually prepared for integral, self-maintaining deve1opment.l

The figures are conclusive: growth rate forecast for the period 1976-86, 84 per cent; gross domestic product (GDP) forecast for 1985, 260,000 million CFA francs; gross domestic product per capita in 1985, 80,000 CFA francs.

Thus 1985 (end of the fourth plan) is a goal towards which present efforts are directed. T h e problems of training key personnel in the various fields (economic and socio-cultural) will have to be solved. Not only the number but also the quality of such personnel will have to be adequate in all sectors. The villages will have to be replanned and modernized.

Through judicious leadership, the concept of the development plan will be stripped of mystery and m a d e accessible to the people.

Production will have to be intensified and rationalized in all spheres of economic and socio-cultural development, so that the country areas m a y enjoy the same comfort and cultural activities as the towns, which will no longer ‘dazzle’ young people and attract them away from the country.

1. Taken from the main trends of the third plan.

29


According to the forecasts of the Ministry of Planning, by 1985 the network of communal socio-cultural facilities and supporting machinery will be such as to encourage the n e w initiatives that are essential for endogenous development. AU will enjoy a reasonable standard of comfort, as part of the full development of economic and socio-cultural activity.

Naturally, the whole production system WU have to be supported by adequate well-planned social and cultural facilities (health, education, training, culture, leisure) which correspond to the true requirements of the economy .... It is also planned to set up a dense, modern telecommunications network for the immediate transmission of technical, economic and socio-cultural information.. . . Water and electricity will be available for everyone .... A road system, which will open up the isolated regions, would link Togo with the neighbouring States, thus encouraging economic and cultural exchanges.

Thus, the third plan is regarded as a hinge between the first two plans, which corresponded to trial periods, and the last plan, which will be a true economic and socio-cultural development plan. In other words, the 1985 goal can only be reached if conditions of m a x i m u m participation are fulfilled and if the necessary supporting structures, both in staff and equipment, are established and economic and socio-cultural production ensured. It is the third plan which will mak e the fourth plan a real plan for development.

T h e third plan (1976-80), denoting a fresh economic and socio- cultural start, will have to promote mass production in all fields. T h e time for hesitation is over. Our type of development calls for thorough- going harmonization of the economic and cultural aspects, since all the creative faculties of the masses must be mobilized towards the achievement of balanced production.

Culture then becomes the motive force which brings the Togolese people to assume responsibility for their o w n future. This situation calls for a greater collective awareness and fierce determination, which leadership and dynamic cultural action should help to strengthen.

T h e projects of the Ministry of Culture are a backcloth linking artistic creation, the organization of cultural activities, and the dissemination of culture (through decentralized structures and supporting machinery) against which it will be possible to mobilize effective grassroots participation in the integral development programme.

The third plan is aimed above all at: ensuring almost total integration of the economic and socio-cultural aspects of development; achieving national independence in all spheres; transforming the State administration into an administration for integral development in which quantity and quality will be equally sought after; stimulating and

1. op. Cil.

30


substantially increasing national production on the basis of the integration of economics and culture ; reducing national disparities (necessitat- ing, of course, efficient decentralization of structures and judicious budgetary deconcentration) ; and making foreign aid complementary to the national effort, which will provide the major thrust for the main activities for development or socio-cultural advancement. Thus the third plan will be the expression of the national determination to achieve integral development.

Socio-cultural policy under the third plan necessarily centres on concern for the quality of life. It focuses on the zones selected for priority development, without neglecting the action undertaken or continued under the second plan.

T o ensure militant participation in development by the people, ‘the existing political structures should be used to motivate the people of Togo and induce them to cast off their passive state and adopt a more active, creative attitude’.

Lastly, the third development plan emphasizes the exhaustive exploitation of cultural, artistic and craft values for the purposes of tourism. It states that this is one of the priorities and will be carried out according to a coherent programme extending over the whole territory, a programme which will necessarily include a ‘mass tourism’ component, of particular interest to the major part of the Togolese population. This determination to promote cultural, artistic and craft values is at first striking. O n e m a y wonder whether the exploitation of these values is only being sought with a view to promoting a profitable tourist industry, and to attracting foreign tourists. This aspect is of course not to be ignored. Fortunately the main trends of the third plan stipulate that the emphasis will be laid on the exhaustive exploitation of these cultural values for the good of the Togolese people, w h o should be the first beneficiaries. T h e plan provides in particular for the creation of holiday villages, youth hostels and a national m u s u e m and the organization of folk, artistic and craft events.

It must be a matter of satisfaction to the Ministry of Culture that there is this identity of views as between itself and the Ministry of Plan- ning. This is certainly due to the channels for co-operation and joint action which exist between the two ministries. In fact the Ministry of Planning, as a member of the National Committee for Culture, has had its say on all the cultural aspects, furnishing its advice and issuing warn- ings designed to avoid disjointed development.

O n e m a y justifiably hope that communication between the two ministries will continue to improve. For the m o m e n t the main policy decisions taken under the third five-year plan coincide with the concern of the Ministry of Culture to apply a cultural policy which avoids regional disparities, unco-ordinated supporting machinery and wastage of effort.

31

Evaluation and programming

The ambiguous concept of cultural wealth

It is over-simplifying matters somewhat to proclaim in more or less aggressive fashion to the world at large that one possesses a rich cultural heritage. O n e cannot question the value and richness of the cultural heritage of any country. Nor can one establish, without fear of discrimination and arbitrary schematization, an order of rank or merit between the various cultures. T h e colonialists did so and w e k n o w what this attitude led to. However, in a world which has so m a n y technical methods of investigation, a country cannot merely assert the richness of its national culture without basing its assertion on specific data. It is of course impossible to carry out a codification or partial quantification of Togo- lese cultural life without a wide margin of error and incertitude. However, the use of statistics m a y m a k e it possible to achieve deeper knowledge of our cultures. T h e social scientists, statisticians and experts in culture would appear to have a prime role to play in this connexion. T h e establishment of concepts, definitions and classifications, the listing of sources of information, etc., should surely m a k e it possible to lift culture out of the sea of dialectic verbiage which hinders discussion between economists and experts in culture.

It would also be necessary to determine the role of cultural statistics, as well as the fields and levels to which they should apply. There is no longer a need to prove the precision which such statistics would bring to the clarification of cultural indicators and concepts. T h e complexity of the cultural network makes it necessary to establish permanent links between economists, statisticians, social scientists and experts in culture, in order to define precise criteria and rational methods for developing cultural action. This work should be done in stages and requires a rigorous methodological and conceptual approach. T h e concept of cultural

32


wealth would then become less ambiguous and the comparative studies of cultures would gain in quality. Surveys are therefore essential to provide the benchmark data for research.

Surveys

It is for this reason that the Ministry of Culture insists on a study and evaluation of existing data as a necessary preliminary to any large-scale project. Surveying, which involves successive stages comprising respectively definition of the field to be studied, the collection of data, the classification and sorting of data and in-depth analysis must be progres- sively extended to cover the various aspects of the cultural heritage.

The first intensive cultural survey was conducted in the field of singing and dancing. After establishing a cultural geography in this sphere, a team of ethnologists, experts in choreography, cultural organizers, film-producers and photographers travelled through Togo following a plan of the ‘centres’ of culture. They collected hundreds of dances and games, recor- ded a large number of varied songs and chants and listed musical instruments and dance costumes. This first survey made it possible to establish a photograph library and an index of dances including annotations and choreographic variations. On the basis of this material, a flexible choice was made to determine what could be of use to the national ballets, in their work and research.

Each year a survey is carried out on a precise area of the cultural heritage: oral literature, plastic arts and crafts, religions and traditional costumes, hairdressing, dress, cookery, etc.

Survey agents

Survey centres are established in all the economic regions of the territory. They act as relay stations for the Survey Division of the Department for Cultural Affairs.

The survey agents are recruited, trained on the spot and given the necessary equipment to help them in their work (scooters, tape recorders, photographic apparatus, cameras, etc.). It is their job to track down cultural information, collecting all the elements of the cultural heritage which have an immediate or future value. They seek out and meet those who are still the repositories of the traditional values, so as to collect as much data as possible before it is too late.

The equipment at their disposal enables them to record, photograph and make descriptive index cards which, after an initial classification, are sent to the Survey Division for closer analysis. W h e n the event is of exceptional importance (triennial seasonal festival, discovery of centres of culture), extra teams composed of ethnologists, museum technicians and cameramen are sent out to gather information on the spot or perhaps to collect objects.

33


T h e survey agents are helped in their work by organizers of cultural activities, to w h o m their community naturally look for a lead, and w h o can pass on information about cultural events and ceremonies (visit of a griot, ritual ceremony, traditional festivals, etc.).

The role of these cultural leaders is of prime importance in the discovery of ‘centres of culture’ (traditional initiation centres, places where objects for ritual ceremonies are manufactured, convents, villages with specific cultural vocation).

District cultural weeks

T h e first evaluations and surveys clearly manifested the need for action on some of the measures recommended in the Green Book. Before organizing artistic and regional ‘fortnights’, it was necessary to initiate activities at grassroots level, i.e. the level of the administrative district.

These considerations led to the launching of the first ‘district cultural weeks’. Among other advantages, these weeks represent a kind of pre- survey for the definition of a rational cultural policy and provide opportunities for collecting works of value for the museums.

Their purpose is to bring to light various aspects of the cultural heritage. It is not a question of necessarily reviving customs which the evolv- ing practice of society has already disavowed; on the other hand, it is essential to give n e w life to certain activities whose renown has suffered from the repeated persecution of the colonial era. The cultural interpenetration of an administrative district containing several ethnic groups is an element in the awareness of national unity. It also leads to a mutual understanding which is enriching from the creative point of view. T o quote the Minister of Culture in the instructions relating to these events:

The District Cultural Week should be the expression of the cultural resolve of the communities concerned to preserve what they feel is vital for their iden- tification and to receive from others what could further the development of their cultural heritage.

Thus the elaboration of a Togolese cultural policy involves successive stages in which reflection and action alternate: committees for culture, surveys, cultural weeks, etc. It cannot be the mere rubber-stamping of someone’s individual scheme derived from personal reflections. For it to be rational, a rigorous methodology must be adhered to in its preparation.

As the expression of a national consensus, Togolese cultural policy must be rooted in the individual cultural experience of each ethnic group. Within the framework of the recommendations of the RPT national programme, it must continually adapt and be renewed in the light of the n e w problems which arise, and will necessarily embrace n e w kinds of cultural activities and artistic production stemming from the aspirations

34


of the people. O n e must not fall into the trap of regarding the contemporary world in such a w a y as to romanticize the past, which might encourage a return to primitivism. The present must bring the past up to date through a progressive view of the future. As the order of things in the world is never one of stagnation, a redefinition of one’s identity in a modern environment is a continual necessity. But for this purpose it is essential to have a kind of balance sheet from which to judge the people’s ability to assume the cultural responsibilities which history lays on them. These were the aims of the first Togolese cultural weeks. Their proclama- tion was a clarion call to all Togolese to rally round the government’s policy. There had never been anything like them before. Unanimously united around the head of their district, the local inhabitants welcomed with sincere joy this initiative on the part of the government.

The arrangements for the cultural weeks were m a d e at district level with the help of a team from the Ministry of Culture. In each administrative district, a cultural commission (dependent on the National Committee for Culture) was formed; it drew up the programme for the cultural week on the basis of the instructions received from the Minister of Culture and in association with the cultural leaders of the district. T h e traditional chiefs and other repositories of cultural traditions m a d e their o w n concrete contribution to these preparations. Old m e n and w o m e n searched through their belongings and in their memories for all the things which could give substance and authentic colour to the events. Pupils in primary and secondary schools, following the instructions of the Minister of National Education, prepared theatrical performances, learnt traditional dances or improved their knowledge of them and executed drawings, paintings and sculptures, so as to participate in all the events proposed for the cultural week, of which details are given below. Performing arts (drama, theatre, ballets, traditional or modern dances,

vocal or instrumental groups, orchestras, choirs, etc.). A place of honour is given to the performing arts inspired by the cultural heritage. Thus plays, poems and tales m a y be presented in Togolese languages or in French, the essential point being to communicate with the public.

Plastic arts and crafts (exhibitions of children’s works, exhibition of works of plastic art making use of the local materials, exhibitions of craftwork, etc.).

Personal adornment (exhibitions and parades of traditional costumes, demonstrations of plaiting hair showing the Togolese and African art of hair-dressing, etc.).

Agro-culinary exhibition, showing farming tools, kitchen utensils, foods, in short, everything belonging to Togolese culinary art.

In order to collect as m u c h information as possible from these cultural weeks, a travelling team composed of sociologists, ethnologists, m u s e u m technicians, choreographers, photographers and sound technicians from

35


the broadcasting company attended all the weeks, in all the administrative districts, with the help of native speakers with a deep knowledge of their local traditions.

The contribution of the information services meant that the events could be brought to an appropriate audience and the data collated in an intelligent manner. Thanks to the mobilization of all the dynamic forces of the Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais and the administrative services, the different districts in turn honoured the quintessence of their cultural heritage, from 19 November 1973 to 25 April 1974.

The first cultural weeks were a test for future action. Moreover, they made it possible to complete the indexes resulting from the surveys, to grasp the main trends in cultural activities and to gauge h o w receptive the local inhabitants would be to a programme of joint cultural action and how they could best participate in it.

On this basis it was possible to decide the periodicity of the major national events of this kind, as follows: district cultural weeks, every three years ; regional cultural weeks, every three years, one year after the district cultural weeks; national arts fortnights, every three years, one year after the regional cultural weeks.

Prizes and various awards are presented at all these events, in the different fields of art.

By this wide-scale action the government has made the Togolese people as a whole aware of its cultural policy. The young intellectuals were able to return for a few days to their native cultural environment, while parents were able to refresh their children’s ‘westernized’ memory at the life-giving springs of their basic culture. The lectures and debates organized during these events gave those who were the repositories of our traditions the opportunity to speak to young people and intellectuals about the cultural values and philosophy underlying Togolese cultural life. Conversely, the young people and intellectuals brought their up-to- date knowledge to bear on the cultural exchange and philosophical discussion. And the national languages re-emerged as a prime vehicle for teaching and education in the traditional environment.

The ministers and members of the political bureau joined, for a few days, in this ‘return to the fountainhead’, participating actively in the events of the cultural week of their district of origin, over which they presided on behalf of the head of State.

Moreover, the president of the republic, since he came into power, has personally attended each year the traditional festival of the ‘Evala’, the feast of the new initiates of his region.

All this amounts to an innovation in cultural practice, which must be safeguarded, supported and enriched by reflection and further activities. As two Togolese proverbs say: ‘If you do not know where you are going, try at least to know where you have come from’, for ‘it is not because the log has floated a long time in the water that it will become a crocodile’.

36


Test operations

In order to arrive at a satisfactory cultural policy which takes into account the values of our civilization and the deep aspirations of our people with regard to integral development, it seems preferable-in Togo-to use an empirical method, a continuous alternation of reflection and large- and small-scale actions. Through these actions, which are real test operations, it is possible to judge the validity of the activities, measure their impact on the population and where appropriate make the necessary arrangements for their extension. This approach reduces the number of mishaps en route which sometimes result in the spectacular failure of necessary though unfortunately ill-prepared activities and thereby cause a loss of energy, time and money.

The test operations make it possible to adjust the methods and procedures to fit the final objectives, taking into account the material and psycho-sociological difficulties arising on the spot. It is then possible if necessary to bring the operation to a halt or to adjust it to suit the circumstances, at less cost than would otherwise be the case.

Among the test operations one m a y quote: Amuze-Keté, which covers a whole series of popular activities ranging

from sketches and various other forms of entertainment to exhibitions of art and craftwork.

The popular theatre festivals which are operations for rehabilitating the various forms of popular dramatic expression. They bring together different types of drama, the best of which are selected for presentation to the public in the appropriate architectural setting.

The concert party-improvised mass theatre, arranged around popular themes, with special make-up and language for each type of character.

Each concert party is generally composed of about fifteen performers. The whole performance is set to music and lasts for over five hours. It is linked together through spoken language (improvised texts in the Togolese language), musical language (music), the language of gesture (mime and dancing) and plastic language (décor, costumes, make-up). All these elements of theatrical language retain great originality through the choice of theme, the ‘high-life’ music and the acting. The impact of the concert party on the average audience is very striking. Research is being conducted at a number of levels to find ways of improving it, since the public participate enthusiastically in the performances (songs-dances-dialogues between the actors and the audience, presents given to the actors by the audience, etc.). Indeed these concert parties merit attention as a way of increasing sensitivity and awareness, of educating and of spreading culture.

The Kantata is a form of theatre which emerged during the early years of colonization. The Kantata was originally arranged round bibli-

37


cal themes, with the incorporation at intervals of songs and dances with a direct bearing on the subject of the play. The present themes are no longer biblical and the Kantata covers various subjects from tales and legends to a kind of tragi-comic opera. The texts are in Togolese languages. At present the test operation consists in the enrichment and extension of this form of art.

The Albera is a form of theatre which is developed in the Moslem community, which is highly influenced by the Arab and Hindu cultures. Like the Kantata and the ‘concert party’, the Albera uses several forms of expression: Togolese languages, dancing and music.

Travelling exhibitions consist of tours for Togolese painters, sculptors, craftsmen, and photographers who present their work and give commentaries in the Togolese languages. These exhibitions encourage the public in rural areas to take an interest in the plastic arts and discuss them. They often reveal unknown or latent talent. The results obtained determine the course of future operations.

The Agouti operation (from the name of a rodent found in Togo, regarded as a gastronomic delicacy) is a combination of film showings, lending of books and itinerant exhibitions, for the benefit of communities which can be reached by railway.

For villages and localities not near the railway, a book-cum- cinemobile bus service is arranged which fulíils the same function as the book-cum-cinemobile railcar (Agouti). The Agouti operation provides library books and presents exhibitions during the day and in the evening projects films accompanied by commentaries and discussions.

Test operations in the primary and secondary schools: the elaboration of a cultural policy demands a knowledge of young people’s tempera- ments and aspirations. Moreover, it can only be effective if a start is made on giving the child some awareness of his cultural heritage and training in the arts as soon as he starts to play games.

An operation has been launched in the primary and secondary schools. It consists in providing the schools with artists who stimulate the children’s interest in the theatre, the plastic arts, etc.

Popular song festivals are a series of operations aimed at displaying and discovering musical talent. The festivals afford a propitious vehicle for already established singers, stars and song-writers, and give young people the opportunity to discover, guide and improve their o w n talents. Through such festivals a symbiosis of traditional and modern music is achieved. Apart from the awards for the partici- pants (prizes, presents, medals, etc.), they play a recognized part in eliciting new talent and revealing the cultural possibilities of the country in the sphere of music, as well as in making singers and song- writers known to the national public and sometimes to the public in other countries and continents.

38


Through these operations a dialectic is established between the theoretical concept and the concrete achievement so that it is possible to plan, henceforth in a less arbitrary manner, cultural action which corresponds more closely to the socio-economic situation.

Elements for a national programme of cultural action

The test operations do indeed reveal a number of latent cultural needs. Thanks to them it is possible to detect unexpressed public demand, by the way in which the public welcomes and participates in the activities. But once the test has proved convincing, it is essential to prepare a definite programme, while of course retaining a margin of flexibility and the possibility of adapting to new conditions. A distinction should therefore be made between two kinds of programming, differing in regard to the period they cover: long-term programming within the guidelines of the integrated development programme of the Rassem- blement du Peuple Togolais and short-term programming directly linked to the five-year plan.

However, in both types of programming, the trends revealed by the test operations should be taken into account and programmes, methods and activities designed accordingly.

Moreover, it must not be forgotten that our villages are destined to become towns, in view of the progressive urbanization policy recommended by the father of the nation, and this will necessitate in-depth studies.

LONG-TERM P R O G R A M M E

H u m a n activities and needs change according to processes which are ineluctable and often unpredictable. However, the way in which needs actually emerge is a constant which it is absolutely essential to know.

A long-term programme cannot be prepared unless needs are identi- fied. Interdisciplinary studies and research on cultural requirements and aspirations are therefore indispensable.

It is indeed difficult to dissociate the various aspects of a social being’s aspirations. But the transformation of these aspirations into needs is marked by a number of elements-images, representations, symbols, etc., of various kinds- which m a y be linked together in order to grasp the cultural conceptions, aspirations and needs of a community. This study requires a wide knowledge of the area and a faultless grasp of psycho-sociological methods and techniques.

It has been known for some years that desire or ‘drive’ is a pre- conscious and conscious excitation which reaches a certain degree of intellectualization and rationalization whatever its nature: economic, social, cultural, etc. Indeed the word desire, in the dialectic of motivation, only takes on its full meaning when it is linked to the concept of aspi-

39


ration. Following the process methodically, the stages of intellectualization and rationalization correspond to aspirations and needs.

In human development, aspirations and needs have many aspects. The cultural aspects are of particular interest to us, since it is they which ensure that m a n can fully exercise his creative faculties, the motive force behind cultural innovation.

Man’s cultural personality is formed from early childhood onwards. The child, in his human and spatial environment, learns and interiorizes all kinds of roles to which he reacts in terms of his personality. The reactions of the individual show his conception of life and his aspirations to change the environment. Similarly, the impact of the outside world on his aspirations is important. The cultural elements from outside (whatever their nature) can stimulate the desire for artistic creation, and accelerate the natural processes whereby desires are rationalized and transformed from aspirations into needs.

There remains a critical point in the study of cultural motivations, namely the rhythm or rate at which aspirations become needs and the rate at which these needs become either obligations or demands- demands which will not brook delay, on pain of giving rise to agitation or open revolt.

The changes, people’s attitudes and cultural behaviour in the face of these changes and the cultural needs derived from them must all be forecast.

Research on the aspirations (the phase during which desire is more or less consciously rationalized) will throw light on the global image, however imprecise, which an individual or a community has of his or its future, by revealing the process involved in the intellectual elaboration of cultural aspirations and needs. Grounds for justified protest naturally stimulate change. But if cultural needs become obligations and then demands without the decision-makers realizing it, brutal and violent changes m a y take place (riots, revolutions, etc.) which unfortunately often leave abiding scars behind them.

The complex nature of a forecast in the sphere of culture demands the establishment of channels for permanent consultation between research workers in all disciplines, decision-makers, agents working in the field and the various segments of the population. A transmission belt must be set up between the various levels so as to ensure the correct functioning of the system. Here the problem of rhythm arises, for the same rhythm assuredly does not apply at the different levels mentioned above. Harmo- nization must be sought after, in order to prevent the engine from grind- ing and choking. This rule is as essential at the conception stage as it is at the stages of implementation and evaluation. The urban and rural environments do not follow the same rhythm. Similarly, the work of the statistician, of the ethno-historian, the psychosociologist, the econo- mist, etc., does not progress at the same rate, in the different stages. The

40


experts will have to take into account the rhythms of the different environments in which they will have to work.

For all these reasons, the Ministry of Culture is endeavouring to ensure that its cultural research projects are conducted in a concerted, complementary manner, as a prerequisite to determining the lines which should be followed in the long-term cultural programme. In this way the Minis- ter of Culture has been able, in association with the National Committee for Culture, and taking into account the requests received from the regional inspectorates for youth, sport and culture, to establish the elements of a flexible programme of cultural action which will still have to undergo the necessary readjustments. In fact this draft programme will only be operational in so far as it respects the general trends of integrated development in Togo.

In this connexion Togo does not make any precise division between structures, supporting machinery, activities, etc., which must all form part of a coherent whole. A building only becomes essential if previous activities make it so. A structure should only be established if its operational value is proved by the trends in cultural action throughout the country. In order for a project to figure in the budget, feasibility studies must therefore indicate clearly its intended purpose and its impact on the environment, and spell out the arrangements for it to be taken over by the population concerned, with the resources made available by the State and the local authorities.

Taking into account the recommendations of the RPT programme, it is fitting that, in our legitimate advance towards industrial development, our progress should be distinctively marked by the place reserved for culture.

The fundamental objectives of our cultural policy are: to provide the different segments of the population with optimum conditions for renewing and building on their cultural heritage; to enable them to balance this heritage with positive elements from other cultures; to restore to the people, at all levels, the creative ability which was stifled by colonialism; and to fuse political, cultural and economic awareness in the minds of the militants, so that they act in all spheres as the invincible defenders of national sovereignty.

The national programme for cultural action is based on actions of a general nature and on actions concerning each field of culture. The projects for supporting machinery at national and regional levels are indi- cated below:

General action

Under this heading are listed activities requiring mobilization of the masses and covering the whole territory. They are mostly the results of test operations.

41


Cultural weeks, national arts fortnight

It is worth repeating that when well-conceived action is taken in the various fields of art, it is important that the results achieved should be marked by major events and offered to the public.

In other words, cultural achievements, both at the level of the administrative districts or economic regions and at national level, should from time to time be the object of a synthesis through the presentation of the best works in each field of art.

The district cultural weeks. A t this point it is appropriate to say a little more about the cultural weeks, as illustrating the concrete realization of theoretical ideas.

T h e district cultural weeks give each administrative district the opportunity to evaluate its cultural and artistic production. It is, as w e have said, no part of the aim to revive the negative aspects of a civilization which have already been rejected in social practice, or to exhibit far-fetched cultural fantasies unlikely to speed up development. It is a question of modernizing the positive cultural resources and using them to further development and to assert our determination to preserve our originality as Africans. Seen in this light, the artistic events of the cultural weeks act as a stimulant on our personality and an instrument for bringing our acculturation to a reasonable level, for positive acculturation can encourage the rise of n e w aspirations and cultural innovation.

T h e district cultural weeks will be held every three years.

Regional cultural weeks. T h e purpose of these weeks is to bring together, in each economic region, the best productions of the district cultural weeks. Prizes and participation certificates will reward the best artists in each field, as at the district cultural weeks. A special prize will be offered by the president of the republic.

The regional companies, following the example of the National Theatre, Music and Ballet Company, will be able to recruit n e w personnel from these events.

The regional cultural weeks will be held every three years, one year after the district cultural weeks.

T h e regional cultural weeks will be organized in turn in each of the districts of the region. T h e host district will be provided with adequate installations. F r o m one regional week to another, the emphasis m a y be placed on a specific field of art.

The National Arts Fortnight T h e purpose is to assemble at national level the best productions from the regional and district cultural weeks. Prizes and the medal for national artistic merit will be awarded for the best productions.

It will be held every three years, one year after the regional cultural

42


weeks, and will be held in turn in each of the main towns sf the five economic regions.

Suitable supporting machinery will be set up to ensure the smooth functioning of the events (Regional Arts Centre, Cultural Centre, Artists’ Foyer, etc.).

It is important, therefore, that each development plan should provide for these events.

National Artists’ Day

Each year a day will be devoted, throughout the territory, to honouring Togolese artists. It will take the form of a popular carnival with street exhibitions, open-air concerts, talks by the artists, radio and television interviews with the most outstanding artists of the year, a televised programme on the youngest talented artists of the year, a message from the Minister of Culture, free entertainment, a popular subscription for the benefit of artists (to be donated to the N e w March Arts Foundation), etc.

The New March Arts Foundation This is a fund for assistance to artists. It will be managed by a board of directors composed of Togolese artists and representatives of various ministries. The government will grant the fund a yearly subvention. The board of directors will be responsible for drawing up each year a list of beneficiaries, according to well-defined criteria.

The task of drafting the statutes of the New March Arts Foundation and determining its method of functioning will be entrusted to a commission.

Languages, literature, publishing, cinema

The State will have to make a sustained effort in this field, for written Togolese literature has still less to offer than might be expected.

A policy will be needed for the encouragement and support of all writers, whatever their language of expression.

For this purpose, all the regional and district cultural commissions-in the same way as the National Committee for Culture has a commission for language and literature (Standing Commission for the Promotion of Literature)-will have to set up a sub-commission for the promotion of literature as rapidly as possible. Each sub-commission will deal with both inventorying and promotion in this field. Fresh impetus will have to be given to the development of our national languages: Ewe, Kabre, Tem, Ben, Ncem, etc., particularly for the first two, which have been selected to be taught in the primary and secondary schools.

It is also essential that an interdepartmental commission should study practical ways of developing our national languages and should determine the nature and level of the relations and co-ordination which should exist between the different authorities dealing with language

43


problems (Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Ministry of National Education, Ministry of Youth, Sport, Culture and Scientific Research).

Founding of literary reviews. Reviews could be created in the national languages. Besides these, it is urgent to found other national literary reviews covering various spheres of art and literature, apart from the Timbo and the Amuze-Keté.

Literary competitions. Literary competitions will be organized. Prizes will be awarded for the best short story, the best novel, the best tale, etc.

All the national Togolese languages will be honoured. The best works written each year will be published in the form of anthologies and made available to the public.

National and regional book weeks. The Togo Book Week will be devoted to exhibitions of books and brochures (in particular those written by Togolese or those written about Togo), reviews, newspapers and mimeographed collections, etc., in each region. All languages, Togolese and foreign, will be accepted. Lectures, talks followed by debates, interviews with authors, audio-visual programmes and special broadcasts will be organized. The exhibitions could be travelling exhibitions, so as to reach as wide a public as possible.

For all these activities, recourse will necessarily be had to audio- visual methods in order to attract the masses.

Cinema. The Togolese cinema will soon be more dynamic. Encouragement must be given to the genuine talent which is beginning to reveal itself. As film-production is particularly expensive, the State will only be able to support gifted film-producers who can furnish proof of their abilities.

Practical collaboration is already being established between the Department for Cultural Affairs and the Department for Cinema and Audio-visual Activities, set up recently within the Ministry of Infor- mation, Posts and Telecommunication.

African Film Week. Each year an African Film Week will be organized for the projection of films produced either by Togolese or other Africans, or by non-Africans but filmed in Africa. These showings will be followed by debates, commentaries, etc.

On the occasion of each African Film Week, an African film-producer will be invited as a guest of honour.

Films will be shown successively in all the administrative districts of the territory.

Cine clubs and the Agouti. To complement the action of the cinemobiles and the Agouti, cine clubs will be installed in all the localities

44


served by the Agouti or by the Information Service cinemobiles. Dis- cussions will be held in the language of the area.

Photography competitions. A photography competition with prizes will be organized each year. The best photographs will be shown at a travelling exhibition throughout the national territory.

Publishing of literary works. Staff will have to be trained in this field to facilitate the publishing of literary works culled from the different surveys (collections of tales, legends, riddles), manuscripts submitted by Togolese writers and specific studies on an aspect of Togolese culture. The Togolese languages will be given a place of honour. Togo is now studying practical ways in which it can participate in an African publishing company, grouping together several African States.

Record-publishing. Togolese musical production would gain a much- needed boost from establishment of the Editions Sonores Togolaises (EDISOTO), a company to produce records of folk songs (griots and popular songs), music composed by Togolese singers and song-writers, national artistic events and important events in the political, economic and cultural life of Togo. A commission composed of representatives of the Ministry of Planning, the Ministry of Information, Posts and Telecom- munications and the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Culture and Scientific Research is studying this dossier and will soon make concrete proposals for the third development plan.

Infrastructure for dissemination and training

The infrastructure for cultural dissemination and arts training must be planned as far as possible, at both the national and the regional levels.

National level

Artists’ Club. The lack of a clubhouse where artists can meet and hold meetings and where accommodation can be provided for artists coming from other regions or from outside the country has often been deplored at national level.

This Artists’ Club will also be a centre for performances, lectures and exhibitions, in short the crossroads where the different artistic trends would meet.

The club will also include an arts training centre designed to house the three sections of the National Theatre, Music and Ballet Company. The centre will put on popular entertainments, the best being chosen for subsequent production at the theatre of the headquarters of the Rassem- blement du Peuple Togolais.

The Artists’ Club will be designed and built in close collaboration with Togolese artists.

45


There will be an equivalent artists’ foyer in each of the economic regions.

The National Institute of Music and Dancing. Project drawn up in 1973 after the survey on songs and dancing.

Togolese dancing and music must rise above their present unsys- tematic, purely folklore level. In a country which is in process of full emancipation like Togo, they must be the subject of a scientific study, combining a thorough knowledge of the basic structures with a creative approach, open to the modern world.

A choreographic analysis of the movement covering K a m o u , L a m a and Akpessè is necessary in order to cut out all that is unnecessary and retain only the spirit and the style of the original. As regards the music, the studies undertaken should be directed at both the genres and the instruments used, in order to produce n e w compositions which nevertheless keep the essential rhythm characteristic of traditional music.

The National Institute of Music and Dancing is intended to provide systematic training for the best Togolese dancers and musicians. The training will take several years, the results always being more satisfactory if training is begun at a relatively early age.

T h e National Institute of Music and Dancing is intended as a centre for both artistic research and training. T h e best students will be admitted to the National Theatre, Music and Ballet Company or will help to teach the rudiments of dancing and music in primary and secondary educational establishments or in the sub-sections of the RPT Youth Movement (JRPT).

T h e institute will also be a centre for the further training of musicians and singers.

T h e institute will be divided into two sections. 1. T h e Sections for Archives and Research will centralize the operations

for the collection of data on dancing, music, costumes and instruments. This section will conduct research on dancing and music based on the cultural heritage or other foreign elements of unquestionable value. A traditional musical instrument m a y be transformed, through research, into an instrument with greater musical possibilities and better quality. The test operation undertaken in this sphere is pro- mising. In-depth studies on our dances will also be carried out, the 1973 survey providing a clear lead in this direction.

The results of all choreographical and musical research will be passed on to the Dancing and Music Section, for purposes of artistic creation.

2. T h e Dancing and Music Section will be responsible for the training of dancers, musicians, singers, dressers, etc.

46


The National Arts Institute. This institute is to be responsible for the training and further training of the best artists from the regional arts schools.

The National Arts Institute will consist of three training centres: 1. The National Centre for Plastic Arts. This centre will be devoted to

the training and further training of painters, sculptors, modellers, etc. The best students could then be used as teachers in primary and secondary educational establishments, after a period of further training. This centre will have several specialized sections: painting, sculpture, artistic craftwork, decorative arts and decoration. It will work in close association with the National Museum.

2. The National D r a m a Centre. This centre will be responsible for the training and further training of actors, theatre technicians, stage managers, sound and lighting technicians, etc. T h e best students will join the Theatre Section of the National Theatre, Music and Ballet Company- or will be employed as staff for teaching drama (regional companies, secondary schools, etc.). Others will become supervisory staff in the various sections of the JRPT or else will gravitate to other fields of art (cinema, art criticism, etc.)

3. The National Crafts Centre. This centre will work in close collaboration with the Centre for Craftwork Training and Demonstration of the Open-air Museum, which-will be more traditional in character. The National Crafts Centre, dispensing a n up-to-date arts education drawing on craft traditions as one of its main sources of inspiration, will, like the other centres making up the institute, train artists capable of teaching their fellows on the spot and of helping to provide an introduction to this form of art in educational establishments.

Regional level T h e colonial authorities went out of their w a y to create favoured and less-favoured areas. This regional favouritism was most obvious at the level of the supporting machinery in the educational and cultural fields. Instead of a policy based on individuals, it is time, as the Green Book says, to ‘develop a cultural policy throughout the whole of the territory’; the implementation of such a policy ‘is a factor of unity and cohesion, insofar as the inland provinces will thus be led to have a life of their own, providing a magnet for the most highly educated, who will no longer be attracted solely by the brilliance of the capital’.

T h e Ministry of Culture therefore proposes setting u p the following institutions in the years to come:

The Regional Cultural Complex (CCR). A complex of this kind will be set up in each of the five economic regions of Togo. A real focal point for culture, the CCR will be a centre for initial and further training, shows and exhibitions of works of art as well as a centre for literary promotion with a library where the public can sit and read, or hand in texts of

47


novels, tales, legends, etc., written in Togolese languages. The director of the complex will be able to appeal to civil servants or voluntary workers to transcribe the texts of any legends, tales, etc., recounted to them by a member of the public, old or young, unable to write his native language.

The role of the survey agents, as ‘trackers-down’ of cultural information, will be predominant in identifying these potential writers.

There will be close collaboration between this action and the vast programme for functional literacy work in the national languages.

The CCR will comprise several workshops: a theatre workshop, a plastic art workshop, a dance workshop and a music workshop.

It will also be the headquarters of the regional theatre, music and ballet company. Periodic courses will be held there for the various cultural organizers in the region, for artists, orchestra managers and musicians, etc.

The CCR, as a centre for arts training and cultural dissemination, will make maximum use of the regional potential, basing its action mainly on existing values, the natural cultural leaders in the area, young people, etc. It will go all out to promote a sense of creativity and responsibility. It would be desirable for the regional museums to be located near these complexes. The regional cultural commissions will guide the work of the CCRs.

The Regional Artists’ Foyer. Like the Artists’ Club in the capital, each economic region will have a Regional Artists’ Foyer situated near the Regional Cultural Complex, which will provide accommodation for the study courses of the CCR and for travelling artists, and act as a centre for meetings and discussions between artists.

The regional museums. A number of requests were made on the occasion of the closing of the district cultural weeks. Among these were requests for the creation of regional and district museums. In fact, the RPT national programme states that each region has a specific cultural identity to safeguard.

It therefore seems urgent to establish museums in each of the five economic regions. There already are a number of embryonic museums of this kind, set up through local initiative and by people from the region. Such ventures are indeed worthy of praise and show the ability of the local inhabitants to take responsibility for the discovery and safeguarding of their cultural heritage. Without discouraging in any way this commendable public-spiritedness, which should on the contrary be given every encouragement, the State will necessarily have to lay down a policy governing the establishment of regional museums, in collaboration with the regional cultural commissions. With this in view the Ministry of Culture is intensifying its survey operations, since the value of the museums depends directly on the objects they contain.

48


The cultural specificity of each region will thus be properly presented.

District cultural centres. Togo has over twenty administrative districts grouped together in five economic regions. The Regional Cultural Complexes (CCRs) will not in themselves be sufficient for the purposes of a cultural dissemination policy.

The few cultural centres which exist in the districts only partially fulfil their role as centres for artistic creativity and cultural dissemination. Dating mostly from the colonial era, when they had been set up with the specific intention of spreading the cultural values of the colonizers, these cultural centres only exist in name. It is proposed to transform completely the ideology underlying their activities and make them into true cultural centres.

In order to mould its own cultural policy, Togo will first have to give fresh impetus to the task of rehabilitating and refurbishing its cultural values, as a preliminary to spreading them throughout the country by means of a well-planned network of operational channels. The action taken in regard to surveys and artistic production will provide the lynchpin for this work, since priority must be given to spreading the products of Negro-African civilization. These cultural centres, which should be community centres related to the socio-economic structures, will be established in each administrative district.

A cultural policy cannot be based solely on the establishment of supporting machinery, the raison d’Lie of which lies in the manifold activities thereby made possible. For this reason it has been decided that at regional and district level maximum support should be given to inter-regional cultural meetings. They will mainly be aimed at strengthening national cohesion and helping the different cultural communities to know each other. These inter-regional meetings could cover certain fields of art and will constitute a more elaborate form of the cultural exchanges that take place between the different districts: exchanges of theatre groups, ballets, vocal ensembles, orchestras, exhibitions of craftwork or historical objects specific to a particular district or region, etc.

SHORT-TERM P R O G R A M M E

A programme for cultural action is based in principle on four essential operations: (a) the formulation of policy (in relation to the other economic and social spheres); (b) the establishment of adequate, decentralized supporting machinery for the planned activities; (c) the training of staff capable of devising and carrying out the programmes and; (d) the activities themselves (with the necessary financial support), representing the creative synthesis of personal experience and reflection.

In the last resort, a programme of this sort is only viable if it constitutes a body of activities reflecting the positive aspirations of the Togolese people.

49


But first of all it must reflect also a project devised in association with other ministries which deal with various aspects of cultural action. A waste of energy and funds often results from a lack of concertation among the decision-makers. Dispersed action sometimes leads to identical achievements which could have been carried out simultaneously and at less expense.

The Ministry of Culture, in setting up the National Committee for Culture, has therefore m a d e a point of seeing that it represents all the administrative and socio-cultural authorities w h o should combine their action. There is no letting-up in the effort to co-ordinate, and it can be expected to bear fruit. In practice, ‘cultural action’ is so fluctuating and has so m a n y forms that it is impossible to plan a cultural policy without appealing to other ministries such as those of information, finance, planning, social affairs, national education, public works, or rural economy, not to mention the political structures which form an excellent framework for the dissemination of ideas. In the field it is easy to see the complementary nature of all these institutions. T h e channels for joint action should be consolidated so as to pass from mere efficacity to real eficiency.

In most administrations there is inevitably a tendency towards compartmentalization and parochialism which, against the dictates of reason, attempts to stake out exclusive departmental claims over the work one has been given to do. T h e RPT national programme has deplored this state of affairs and advocated the concept of planned, co-ordinated development in the service of the people.

It is only, in the last analysis, natural that the Ministry of Planning should be left responsible for co-ordinating and harmonizing all development efforts. The long-term programme of the Ministry of Culture will come to fruition as a result of the integration of individual projects for areas for priority development on the socio-economic plane. The harmonized nature of development will then be properly respected.

It therefore seems reasonable as far as the short-term programme is concerned, to refer only to those actions which figure in the third five- year development plan and those for which funds have been earmarked or which for their tangible success depend almost exclusively on the organization and initiative of the Ministry of Culture.

A m o n g these actions m a y be mentioned first those which have already been begun and the viability of which is not open to doubt.

The National Museum of Togo- a real focal point of culture

H u m a n activity, whatever the technical level attained, always has cultural aspects which play a harmonizing role in the life of the citizens.

In order to give these cultural aspects of h u m a n activity a more or

50


less permanent educational character, and to enable future as well as present generations to trace easily the origins of their civilization, most countries set up museums in which to conserve their cultural and artistic treasures.

In general these museums consist of a single building in which are arranged in a certain order all the works considered to have historical or artistic value. Unfortunately, most people only enter them on tiptoe. Togo wishes to do better. The Green Book provides for the building of a n e w kind of m u s e u m and the National Committee for Culture has warmly favoured the idea.

Under the banner of the Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais, a n e w dynamic movement has been born-the ‘ N e w March’-which seeks to m a k e Togo a country of union and progress, with its o w n originality, and equal rights for all Togolese people.

Togo therefore wishes to create a m u s e u m which speaks to one and all, from the youngest to the oldest, whatever his region of birth.

The National Museum of Togo will provide a wide conspectus of the arts and traditions of the whole country. In the words of an eminent m u s e u m curator, it will be: ‘Living Togo in a pocket handkerchief‘. It will reconstitute the ethno-historical world of most of our regions. It will be a meeting place for all Togolese people.

It will fall into the ecomuseum category, i.e. will be built in a large open space, with exhibition and conservation pavilions, where most of the ethnic groups will find reconstructions of their dwellings, works of art, crafts, costumes, etc.

It will be set in a vast leisure garden, planted with the flora of the country, and will be a centre for popular events.

The National M u s e u m of Togo is to be a national achievement, created by the people for the people, with the participation of all sectors of society, of all the ministries and possibly of other interested countries.

This project for an open-air m u s e u m is the result of a study lasting several years which required the sending of missions abroad and visits by foreign experts to Lomé. An interdepartmental commission finally decided on the design of the museum. Its creation was then the object of a decree signed by the president of the republic in April 1974.

Characteristics In fact, it would be more appropriate to find a n a m e other than m u s e u m to designate this complex, which is a small cultural world, both an open- air ecomuseum and an oasis for relaxation and recreation with facilities for training and cultural dissemination.

It covers about 30 hectares. It will be open to all and easily accessible to young as well as old. It is intended as a meeting place where foreigners and Togolese can congregate without discrimination of any kind. Special features. The m u s e u m will include, in particular: a vast public

51


recreation park with refreshment areas stretching over several hectares (such unbuilt areas will occupy about eight-tenths of the total space allocated to the museum) ; permanent exhibition pavilions containing traditional cultural objects (pavilions for ethnography, history, traditional art, traditional costumes) ; a pavilion for temporary exhibitions which will house temporary international exhibitions or exhibitions of Togolese paintings and works of art; a pavilion for the sale of art objects made at the museum; a ‘traditional dwellings’ section, where most of the traditional types of dwelling will be reconstructed, complete with customary household objects ; a centre for training and demonstration in craftwork in which visitors will be able to watch the craftsmen following their century-old crafts; a zoo with cages and ponds, with examples of Togolese fauna; a botanical garden; an aquarium containing only Togolese fresh-water fish; aviaries with large and small Togolese birds ; a restaurant serving Togolese and European dishes; a play ground for children; a traditional hairdresser for plaiting hair; an open-air theatre surrounded by vast terraces for the organization of receptions and popular events; and a hall for listening to texts from popular literature.

Ancillary facilities. The Initial Art Training Centre for Children will act both as a play area and as a school for initial art training. Small children will be able to spend the whole day here drawing, painting, cutting out, etc. On Saturdays and Sundays and whenever they are free, the centre will be open to pupils from nursery schools and primary schools.

The National Arts Institute described above will be established on this site and will draw maximum benefit from the other facilities. Some of the works of art produced at the Institute will be used to decorate the environment.

The Training Centre for Organizers of Cultural Activities will also be able to benefit from the other facilities: museum, National Arts Institute, open-air theatre, etc. The training provided will not be onerous and the full-time use of the facilities will undoubtedly help to keep the price-down.

The library, in this environment, will play its full role as a centre for the dissemination of culture. The children’s section will be specially arranged to suit children’s needs. People visiting the museum pavilions will take the opportunity to pick out a book and, if they so wish, sit and read it outside, anywhere on the lawns or under the trees. The students from the training centres attached to the museum will also not have far to go to consult whatever reference material they need.

The museum will have a cinema. As well as an ordinary public hall it will have a smaller hall for avant-garde films.

Relaxation and recreation areas will provide facilities for canoe racing, water-skiing, swimming or simply relaxation near the fishermen’s huts which will be built on the edge of the lakes dotted throughout the park.

52


Visitors will therefore be able to spend the whole day at the museum without getting bored, alternating visits to the pavilions and ‘traditional dwellings’ section with refreshments, meals (Togolese or European menus), films, entertainment, sport, etc. Meanwhile, their children will be taken charge of by the nursery staff.

In this cultural macrocosm, at night ablaze with light (with the possibility of ‘sound and light’ shows), with traditional Togolese music broadcast throughout the gardens and parks, interspersed with sequences of tales, legends and national epics, the visitor will be able to relax and enjoy life.

The various non-traditional pavilions and buildings will be inspired mainly by the architectural design of the traditional dwellings. The construction of the traditional dwellings will respect the basic principles in use in Togolese villages.

Functions of the museum The role of the national museum is to contribute to national unity. The museum will be the result of team-work. The reconstruction of the traditional dwellings will be carried out by members of the ethnic groups concerned. Thus, in order to build a soukala, traditional masons will be called in. The best craftsmen from all the regions will come and work here.

All sectors of the population in Togo will feel involved. This museum will be their museum; each ethnic group will find something of its o w n there; this broad amalgam of national cultures will be seen by each citizen as a symbol of national unity, of the N e w March, in short, as the Togo of yesterday and today in miniature.

Although the museum is considered first and foremost as benefiting the Togolese people, it will, in so far as it represents a synthesis of Togo, attract tourists from other countries. It will be easily accessible to the public. A day’s visit will be enough to give the tourist a rapid idea of the country.

In point of time, the construction of the museum coincides conve- niently with the commendable efforts under way to promote tourism in Togo.

The museum will also enable craftsmen to earn a better living by presenting their work to the public.

As entry to the museum will be free, it will be open to a large public. This is a key factor in the choice of the site, which will be decided finally after technical studies and topographical surveys have been carried out.

Thus children, students and adults will be able to drink freely at this spring of national culture. Visiting the museum will help to make young people more aware of the real problems facing Togo.

In order to introduce the population to the idea of the national museum, the project was officially launched by the Minister of Youth, Sport, Culture and Scientific Research on 26 April 1975, during the

53


festivities to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of Togo’s independence. This campaign was organized at the headquarters of the Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais and included exhibitions of ethnographic objects, works of art, information panels and a projected scale model of the museum. The objects exhibited included works which had been selected at the cultural weeks held throughout the territory, exhibits from the former Kponton M u s e u m (a private m u s e u m bought by the State two years ago) and works presented by the French Embassy after the France- Togo exhibition organized in 1972.

Financing The local authorities. For the reconstruction of traditional dwellings, each district will build dwellings and provide various household objects typical of the locality. This has the double advantage of reducing the cost and ensuring the authenticity of the construction, while giving the builders a feeling of pride and satisfaction.

Public participation. As the m u s e u m is a national undertaking, public participation will be sought at all levels. A public appeal for funds could be launched.

The State. T h e contribution of the State will be added to these various sources of financing, but it will be reduced over the years, as the m u s e u m will be expected to be partially self-supporting.

Aid from other interested countries and international bodies. Other interested countries or international bodies might be asked to provide the pavilions and some of the fixtures and fittings.

T h e construction of the National M u s e u m of Togo is a joint, cooperative endeavour, a work of national pride which ensures the perpetuation of authentic Togolese culture. Through its various functions described above, it fits into the framework of the economic, social and cultural development of the nation, and will have the effect of strengthening national cohesion, reinforcing inter-ethnic links and consolidating the feeling of national unity.

Regional and district theatre, music and ballet companies

Regional companies Like the National Theatre, Music and Ballet Company set up by presidential decree, each economic region will have its o w n company with three sections (ballet, music, theatre). The companies will be recruited from the best performers in the district companies and during the cultural weeks. Each company will represent its region at national events: Natio-

54


nal Arts Fortnight, festivals, inter-regional cultural meetings, etc. There are already some companies in existence, but coverage will be complete by the end of 1976.

District companies

Like the regional companies, the district companies will have three sections. Candidates will be selected during various cultural events, particularly during the district cultural weeks. Each company will represent its district at regional or national events. Members m a y have their contracts renewed each year according to their performance. These district companies are to be established by the end of 1976.

Some major achievements envisaged in the third five-year plan

Taking into account the trends of the third plan and the priorities defined by the Ministry of Culture, it m a y be hoped that a number of key projects in the long-term programme will be carried out in the period 1976-80. These include: the Artists’ Club, which will also be the headquarters of the National Theatre, Music and Ballet Company; the National Institute for Music and Dancing; participation in an African publishing company; the recording studio ; a financial endowment for specific activities (support for the National Theatre, Music and Ballet Company and Amuze-Keté operations, presentation of popular theatre forms, aid for the organization of cultural weeks).

Construction of the national m u s e u m will begin on the site set aside for this purpose. The Togolese Government wishes to pay for the first phase of work itself, as a tangible illustration of its determination to stimulate economic and socio-cultural development.

It will do so because it considers culture as an instrument, a n essential ingredient of development, the nugget which will lend special brilliance to economic and technical progress. Moreover, it is determined to keep Togo well clear of integrationist imperialist systems, whatever their nature. It must at all costs depend primarily on its o w n resources, its own capacity to solve, even if only partially, its own problems, for in the words of the Togolese saying; ‘Lift your burden as far as your knees and G o d will help you put it on your head.’

It is hoped that other countries will provide assistance provided it involves no obstacles to the exercise of national sovereignty.

It is obvious that such a programme could not be fully carried out during the space of a five-year plan. To each development plan and each budgetary year will correspond a specific stage of the work, to be determined in agreement with the Ministry of Planning and the Ministry of Economics and Finance.

55


In other words, implementation of the blueprint for culture is a collective undertaking in the full sense of the word.

In this cultural development the people have an irreplaceable role to play. The time for idols is past. Only through intense participation can the people prove their resolve to take responsibility for their future. Once the blueprint has been drawn up in a rational manner, on the basis of the needs expressed, its realization will be all the more exalting and enriching for the community to the extent that the latter accepts partial responsibility for it (for example by taking an active part in the construction work-transport of sand, stones, clearing of the site, etc.). Those w h o have joined together in constructing a m u s e u m or other cultural facility are more likely to m a k e judicious use of it once it is opened, as well as to play a more active role in cultural affairs in general.

56

Souvenir of a ritual (lamp-vase) by P. Ahyi.

Buffalo-horn player.

Rholution, sculpture by P. Ahyi. An artist singing in the theatre of the RPT headquarters at Lomé, on the occasion of the third Folksong Festival.

Adjogbo, a dance of rejoicing among the Ewes and Minas of Southern Togo.

. - .

" " . I " . " "% A

A scene during a popular theatre festival. The actors are women dressed as men.

A traditional band during a popular theatre festival.

- .

7% " f

r i ," _" . "f

. . " I b f r

Ancestral chair, carving by a young student. Ekué Adama.

Ritual dance mask.

(Photos: Department for Cultural Affairs. Togo)

II. Artistic creation and the executive machinery for cultural action

Artistic creation and training

Creation is only possible if one possesses the instruments for creation. One factor which must be taken into account in this connexion, as poten- tially favourable or unfavourable to creation, is the impact of the environment, which m a y dull or heighten latent talent.

The social and political system and socio-economic structures should be such as to promote suitable conditions for artistic creation. They should enable latent talents to emerge, develop and rise to the highest level which the artist can attain. This is linked automatically with the concept of freedom in creation, which is recalled on almost every page of the RPT programme. In the cultural field, freedom retains its inalienable rights.

The free creative movement stems from the individual artist’s personality and natural gifts. Inevitably, works of art differ in conception, form and type, as well as in artistic merit, from one artist to another, whatever field one is considering.

In the same way, the relationships between individual artists and their work and between them and society are very far from uniform. Each artist has his own view of the world. It is this diversity which forms the nobility of art, ensures its development and stimulates artistic research.

This very variety is a unique asset. Even the least understood styles are worthy of respect, for any artistic judgement is aleatory in nature. Posthumous recognition is frequent. Artistic tradition must relate only to the mastering of a creative technique, not to the actual process by which a work is conceived and produced.

The village community, a centre of artistic creation

The impact of the environment on creation has been mentioned above. In their heyday the traditional structures favoured a certain kind of creativity.

59

Artistic creation and the executive machinery for cultural action

For in traditional society the child interiorizes from an early age both economic and socio-cultural roles. H e gradually assumes these roles through a series of initiation ceremonies and being given more and more responsibility. His social and cultural personality takes shape during his play activities (free and organized games).

There are certainly constraints in all social structures but in the traditional environment the process of socialization takes place at an earlier stage. The density of social relationships makes for a more coherent harmonization of roles. And very often the conscious mind does not establish a clear distinction between them.

The creative imagination is stimulated by meetings at which stories and legends are told, by visits from the griots, plaintive ballads, etc. The imagination is also influenced by the various ceremonies, whether sacred or not.

And so the child rapidly acquires landmarks which give him a legitimate place in most customs (social, economic and cultural) and have enormous influence on his imagination. H e takes part in all kinds of activities. H e has no need to be told to divide time up into recreation time and work time. All activity marges together in an atmosphere of global participation.

In these conditions, latent artistic talent can take shape. A person is a dancer and/ or singer, story-teller, sculptor, etc. The ‘artist-peasant’ or ‘peasant artist’ is freed from the material difficulties which determine the path of many artists today. In the traditional community, the sculptor was not necessarily the dullard any more than the dullard was the griot, or he who could do no more than sing and dance.

Each day brings an event which is of cultural significance: a birth, a coming of age, a wedding, a funeral, which give rise to cultural expres- sions of all kinds: songs and dances, rituals, the fashioning of ceremonial instruments. And to enhance the cultural richness of the occasion, the arts of dressing, of hairdressing, of cookery all create something new.

But a new system of values is in process of sweeping away the natural cultural centres constituted by the village communities. Tech- nology is spreading and material requirements are so pressing that it is a case of damming the dyke wherever the need is greatest.

The Togolese Government, in launching the cultural weeks and the cultural surveys, wishes at all costs, though without slowing down the rural population’s advance to the better standard of living they deserve, to safeguard this climate of creativity and reaffirm its value. In contrast to the previous marked lack of interest, special attention is now being given to all cultural events, whether of a seasonal or occasional nature.

The various centres of culture must be revived. The Ministry of Culture is therefore giving its full support to the carrying out of surveys and the organization of cultural activities in rural areas. From 1976 onwards, organizers of cultural activities will be allotted to each region,

60


in order to give technical support to the survey agents who have been working in the area for the past two years.

Assistance for artistic and intellectua1 creation

Patronage is practically non-existent in Togo. The State is the prime supporter of the arts and tries to give aid and assistance to artists in one way or the other.

Art in Africa is not as profitable as one might imagine. This is perhaps due to its original functional character. Free, dynamic artistic production is only possible if the artist is released from material worries. It is true that in certain cases this situation m a y act as a stimulant and spur the artist on to greater effort, but in Africa artistic effort is becoming degraded and at some levels goes no further than the production of objects for passing tourists.

State aid is a necessity, almost a condition for reviving and stimulating artistic creation in accordance with the ideals of the N e w March.

At the popular level, this aid takes the form of prizes awarded on different occasions and in different fields: prizes for the best craftsmen, the best painters, the best sculptors, the best musical interpretation, the best composer, the best play, the best actor, etc.

Competitions and festivals with prizes are organized at different levels: festival of popular songs, people’s theatre festival, competitions for orchestras, plays, poems, hairdressing, cookery, etc.

In all fields of artistic creation, the State grants subventions to the most deserving artists on presentation of a work of value.

In the same spirit, the State provides them with technical assistance for organizing exhibitions and shows and for travelling. It facilitates the free circulation of artists and their works.

On the fiscal level, the ministry often intervenes with a view to granting the artist partial or complete exemption from charges to which he is liable. The State also grants aid in the form of equipment.

It helps artistic creation in another way by commissioning works of art, or by buying them at prices which are advantageous to the artists.

The best artists also take part in the decoration of public or semi- public buildings.

As regards the protection of the cultural heritage and of intellectual and artistic property rights, Togo has acceded to the Berne Convention and is a member of the African and Malagasy Office for Intellectual Property (OAMPI). The government is at present preparing a text on the protection of copyright throughout the territory.

61


Training of artists and executive personnel

In the Togolese education system, derived, despite itself, from the colonial system of schooling, which ignored the reality of the traditional communities as living centres of culture, arts training was long regarded as an accessory, a small area of remedial study for those w h o had been unable to follow the ‘normal’ courses. The place to which artistic training (drawing, music, etc.) was relegated in the school curriculum only encouraged the pupils to neglect it.

These subjects were mostly optional in examinations and the weight attached to them in the marking system was little short of derisory. Even if a pupil was recognized as having artistic talent, he was not regarded any the more highly, his ability in this field being deemed inessential for success in life.

This image of the artist prevailed for a long time, and had the effect of stifling artistic activity. There was little conception of the contribution which arts and crafts could m a k e to development.

T h e considerations which weighed on the authors of the RPT national programme in this field are fully reflected in the educational reforms just adopted.

From an early age the child will be taken in hand and introduced to various forms of artistic expression.

Until now, Togolese artists and craftsmen, with a few exceptions, trained themselves on the spot, in more or less difficult conditions. The less experienced learned from the more experienced, in the villages and the towns. There were however some excellent results.

At present a few Togolese students are trained in art schools in Africa and Europe. For some years n o w a tradition has been forming: in the plastic arts and architecture three or four scholarships are awarded to the best students for training in Europe.

This is also the case for drama and the cinema. Under the n e w Togolese educational system there will be crafts

centres, art schools, a national arts institute, a centre for lifelong training, etc.

Meanwhile, the best pupils will receive training abroad. F r o m 1976 onwards, a start will be m a d e on providing training in

the arts both for children (at the Initial Art Training Centre described above in connexion with the museum) and for professional artists and craftsmen (further training courses). Since the establishment of the Ministry of Culture, young amateur actors have been able to attend dramatic art courses in Togo and abroad. In this field of artistic training, the State has no preference for one country or another. It is sufficient if the school has a serious reputation and provides mainly technical training.

The executive personnel for these activities are trained abroad.

62


For the ‘men in the field’ (organizers of cultural activities, art teachers, survey agents, organizers of bookmobile and cinemobile services, film projectionists), courses were organized in 1974 and 1975 and others will be held in the years to come. Through this system of yearly courses, the personnel in question gradually reach a higher and higher level of competence. By alternating study courses with field work, the programme for each course can be adapted to realities, according to the difficulties encountered by the trainees in the field. Each cycle lasts four years, with eight months’ work in the field and two months of study each year. Further training courses of the same kind are planned for musicians, painters and decorators.

63

Artistic creation and centres for the dissemination of culture

The spatio-temporal conception of a community is derived from the ecological elements which condition its social organization. The concept of the spiritual family and clan-type relations are in direct relation to the geopolitics of a given community. The structures specific to each community are therefore not the result of chance. They are determined by the environment.

The study of spatio-temporal structures m a y throw light on the system of values underlying the life of a given community. To disrupt this universe without understanding its basic elements would be a grave mistake. For that reason the traditional communities’ conception of circular space should be regarded as an essential element in the whole network of structures which must be used for the dissemination of cultural activities. This seemingly innate conception, reflected in such things as the choice of the tree around which discussions are held, the layout of public places or the way people form groups when they happen to meet, possibly symbolizes the density of the relations linking the members of a community.

It is true that technology and industrialization are destroying spatio-temporal structures. But can this argument apply to the cases with which w e are dealing? W e can see that the highly industrialized countries, moved perhaps by the need to return to more natural forms, have for some years n o w been using circular spaces, for instance, circular or semi-circular theatres. It should also be noted that the use of circular spaces encourages participation, which is also one of the features of traditional communities.

The Ministry of Culture is therefore discouraging theatre groups in the schools and in the JRPT from using unquestioningly the structures of the classical, Italian theatre. It is urgent that this reflex always to use exogenous solutions should be broken. They are useful as a stimulus for the imagination, as a guide, but they are only an example, a point of reference for reflection and research.

64


In other words, it is not necessary to seek at all costs places which have been built specially for certain specific activities before undertaking the activities themselves. A change of attitudes must be brought about in this field. Weather permitting, shows and artistic events of high quality should be put on in the places traditionally used by the c o m m u - nity for its cultural activities.

In fact, places for cultural activities have always existed. It is preferable that each supporting facility should be the direct outcome of the extension and improvement of an action rather than the sine qua non condition for starting up cultural activities in a given place.

With this in view, the Ministry of Culture is redeveloping the traditional places for cultural activity, while adding elements to m a k e the events more attractive: projectors with their supporting platforms, spotlight towers and other audio-visual equipment. T h e programme for the extension of artistic activity will necessarily m a k e use of these traditional places to which the communities are accustomed. T h e people will then participate more easily. It is, moreover, in this way that most of the cultural weeks have been organized so far.

65

School reform and artistic creation

After five years of study and research, the educational reform recommended in the Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais programme has just been implemented. It marks a decisive step in the restructuring of education and progress towards a n efficient education system firmly anchored in Togolese reality.

A nation-wide information campaign, directed by the Minister of Education himself, with the help of the mass media, m a d e it possible to explain the reform to the people and increase their awareness of these problems at stake.

An independent country since 1960, Togo could not allow itself to continue to base its development on the highly selective education system in the colonial schools.

T h e striking element in the n e w Togolese education system is the concern to avoid arbitrary elimination of pupils in primary and secondary schools w h o would previously have been considered unsuitable to begin or continue studies at a higher level. Any excuse was good enough to eliminate those unable to reach the average in mathematics, physics or chemistry, geography, literature, etc. Those debarred from schooling often included pupils with artistic gifts which would only have needed favourable conditions in order to develop. Now, on the contrary, there is provision, at each level of education, for structures dispensing specialized training according to the aptitudes of the pupils.

In the n e w Togolese education system, arts and crafts are no longer disfavoured. A t each level the curriculum gives artistic subjects the place they deserve; in so doing, it is conforming fully with the recommendations of the Green Book.

If one wants to avoid education becoming a brake on economic and social development, an enormous waste of time and resources, a means of turning out more

66


and more unemployed, it is important.. . that a deep, fundamental reform should be carried out.

This reform must, first and foremost, make the children in primary and secondary schools aware of rural problems at a very early age and set up special training centres for those pupils, whether from the towns or the country, who do not or can no longer continue their studies after primary and lower secondary schooling. As social justice and equality of opportunity must be the absolute rule in this field, it will be necessary to strengthen considerably the administrative machinery for guiding the pupils at all levels. This reform must go hand in hand with the land reform described above.

Moreover, a special effort will have to be made to adapt curricula and teaching content to the problems of our country. This also applies specifically to the development of the teaching of national languages, with the basic aim of preserving and at the same time improving these important cultural elements which are an integral part of our personality.

The old schools were ill-adapted to the development of artistic talent. Moreover, their aims derived more from the system of values of the colonizing country than from the national quest for emancipation.

In this connexion, the text on reform states:

Our schools also produce uprooted and alienated citizens. They turn their backs on our cultural, philosophical, artistic and technological values. There is, of course, no question of reviving or encouraging out-of-date customs. For instance, those who hold the formulae of our rich pharmacopoeia must not be allowed to hide them under a deadening veil. On the other hand, the spirit of fraternity which characterizes the African civilizations must be maintained at the expense of the cold relations between wealthy empIoyers and exploited workers. It is therefore absolutely necessary to subject all our cultural values to rigorous critical analysis and extract and rehabilitate those which are compatible with the demands of modern scientific, technological, economic and social advancement.

Moreover, through its pattern of selection at every level of schooling, the present education system encourages élitism and develops an ever-increasing individualism. This produces, in the social behaviour of the educated, particularly among key personnel, a spirit of unscrupulous competitiveness accepting blindly all that comes from the western world. The schools thus contribute to the fragmentation of our traditionally communal societies.

At the critical stages in their school career the pupils must be guided, according to their individual abilities and interests, towards careers which feature in the development plans. Selection for the different careers must be made solely according to the objective criteria of vocational aptitude.

In order that the schools should not continue to ignore our specifically African culture, it is absolutely imperative to rehabilitate our languages and cultural values which are not obstacles to socio-economic development. All the positive philosophical values must find expression in the schools as well as all typically Togolese and African forms of expression: oral, plastic, musical, technological, etc.

'

67


The rehabilitation of our cultural values and our languages will prevent phenomena of alienation and rootlessness, while at the same time enabling each citizen to gain a better knowledge of the problems of the Togolese society and form an opinion as to how they should be solved.

It must encourage the development of the critical faculties, which are the basis of all modern cultures, and so lead to a critical appraisal of all conventions and traditions, while at the same time preserving those values which are not psychological or sociological brakes on development but can be incorporated in a national consensus, African and universal in character.

The n e w Togolese education system comprises four stages. The first stage has two levels: kindergarten and primary school. The second stage begins at eleven years of age and has two levels: the

‘observation course’ (common core) and ‘guidance course’, purveyed in lower secondary schools (general), lower secondary schools (technical), lower secondary schools (agricultural), arts and crafts centres, etc. T h e second stage covers four years and prepares pupils for entry to third stage (upper secondary) establishments or the specialized schools.

The third stage comprises upper secondary schools (general, agricultural and technical), art schools, etc, and specialized schools (teacher- training college, training colleges for physical education teachers, national schools for State midwives, etc.).

T h e fourth stage covers higher education and the National Arts Institute. At all stages, therefore, care is taken not to neglect teaching which encourages artistic creation. At present, an average of five hours a week are devoted to artistic subjects (drawing, music, etc.) in the secondary schools. In the primary schools, the teachers devote about nine hours a week to artistic activities (drawing, dancing, organized activities). In short, the n e w education system provides an excellent supporting structure for Togolese cultural policy. T h e Ministry of Youth, Sport, Culture and Scientific Research is, moreover, widely represented on the Higher Council for Education. There is therefore continuous contact which brings up to date and harmonizes the various points of view. Thanks to the n e w structures of national education and the programmes of action of the Ministry of Culture, Togo may, in a few years’ time, be expected to have all it needs for its cultural development in the w a y of personnel and supporting facilities.

68

The problem of disseminating culture

T h e problem of disseminating culture is linked to that of safeguarding the cultural heritage and to that of artistic creation, for a satisfactory policy for cultural dissemination presupposes the possession of inherited cultural values and the production of n e w ones.

Disseminating culture - a joint venture T h e culture of a country is the property of all its inhabitants. They must be aware of it and try to improve and refine it. Its past and present content must therefore be m a d e widely accessible if n e w creations are to enrich it.

All resources, both h u m a n and material, must be used to attain this end. No single structure or ministry possesses all these resources. More- over, they can only be effective in so far as each person considers the organization of cultural activities and cultural dissemination part of his duty as a citizen. The entire population would then be playing a fully active part in an over-all creative endeavour.

It is with this in view that the Ministry of Culture, w h e n setting up the National Committee for Culture, called on the services of administrators, artists, craftsmen and m e n of culture. Culture must be spread through joint action at all levels. In the regions and districts the cultural commissions are following the same procedure.

For a long time it was thought that culture could only be spread through the cultural centres. Government action is n o w tending to use for the purpose all places and environments where cultural activities are organized: radio clubs, social-welfare centres and social centres, schools, vocational centres, political units, etc. All these various channels are collaborating and co-ordinating more and more effectively, and are poten- tially capable of serving as channels for the over-all promotion of development-oriented activities. T h e Ministry of Culture accordingly co-

69


operates very closely with the ministries of health, social affairs, national education, rural development and information, with cultural and ethnic groupings and with the JRPT.

The traditional and modern channels of cultural dissemination will dovetail harmoniously in a few years’ time, with the implementation of the educational reform and of the third five-year development plan. Inzthis connexion it is necessary to establish a flexible programme for gradual integration of the various channels.

Resources and opportunities for disseminating culture

In practice, the structures for training, dissemination and conservation are complementary elements of a good cultural policy. The traditional and modern dissemination channels are equally effective in different environments. Along with the administrative and financial structures they constitute real supporting machinery for cultural action. T h e various channels for disseminating culture receive every help and assistance from the government. M a n y joint activities have linked and still link the different national and local authorities and bodies concerned in cultural action.

The National Theatre, Music and Ballet Company. This company, whose responsibilities embrace both research and the dissemination of culture, seeks to put on theatrical shows inspired by Togolese culture. For the moment, its action is limited to the Togolese territory (except for the ballets, which have already participated in festivals abroad), but from 1976 onwards it will also look towards other countries. It is regarded as an ambassador of Togolese culture and a means of cultural exchange at international level. It includes three sections which combine to give performances of a variegated nature. T h e Ballet Section. Taking the cultural heritage as a source of inspi-

ration, this section engages in a variety of choreographic activities which aim to bring the Togolese cultural values to life (songs, dances, costumes, etc.).

The Theatre Section. This section works on all aspects of dramatic art. Its members are n o w attending a series of practical courses to develop their ability for real acting and not simply interpretation. This section draws its inspiration from the African heritage and produces shows which often m a k e use of the Ballet Section.

The Music Section. This section comprises the Vocal and Instrumental Ensemble and the National Orchestra. T h e Vocal and Instrumental Ensemble, traditional in type, is composed of a choir of thirty accompanied by traditional instruments, with a repertoire of Togolese and African songs. T h e National Orchestra

70


is being formed and will become operational in 1976. It is greatly inspired by traditional music. Later it will be able to approach classical music. The Music Section was set up a few months ago and is becoming one of the most sought-after sections in the company, since it acts as an invaluable complement to the two other sections. T h e structures of the company have been designed so as to m a k e music play this central role. T h e total character of the popular theatre, covering drama, singing and dancing, plays a major part in determining Togo’s conception of what the National Theatre, Music and Ballet Company should be.

Regional and district companies. Their role has already been described above. They constitute, at regional and district levels, a permanent nucleus of artistic research for spreading the revitalized values of the cultural heritage.

Theatre groups in the Youth Movement of the Rassemblement du Peuple

The sub-sections and regional sections of the RPT each have a theatre group with three sections: theatre, ballet, vocal and instrumental ensemble. For the past two years these groups have been producing various shows throughout the country, based on themes which often concern the political, economic and cultural problems of the country.

This action is being intensified and fruitful inter-regional exchanges are beginning to take place. The popular theatre groups give performances in the towns, in places ranging from café-bars and dance halls to theatres. They constitute a highly effective means of spreading culture, and inspire remarkable public participation.

Togolais

The school theatre groups of the J R P T . These groups, as was mentioned above, concentrate their cultural activities in a specific period of the year (cultural weeks).

In first and second-stage educational establishments (elementary and lower secondary), the Ministry of Culture launched a test operation a few months ago, consisting in the preparation of small shows on subjects selected and worked on by the pupils themselves, with the help of artists from the ministry. This project has already been highly successful. Moreover, these establishments receive invitations to special shows organized on their behalf by Togolese theatre companies and visiting companies from abroad.

Ethnic artistic groups. These groups, which m a y be predominantly ethnic- al or geographical in their structure, are formed in the villages and regional communities. Using such eminently popular media as village tomtoms, ethnographic dances and musical parades, they m a k e an invaluable contribution to the safeguarding of the cultural heritage.

71


All these centres for the spreading of culture receive, where possible, aid and assistance from the Ministry of Culture (loan of equipment, provision of travelling artists to organize the shows, etc.).

Traditional popular festivals. These perpetuate the cultural traditions of the village communities. Their contribution to the spreading of culture is important in so far as the popular shows produced on these occasions invoIve the effective participation of the whole population. They represent a model of what cultural dissemination at the community level should be. A s far as the cultural weeks are concerned, their smooth running owes m u c h to the organizing ability of the local RPT sections.

The Theatre of the Headquarters of the Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais and the dissemination of culture. This theatre, of international scope, is m u c h sought after for all kinds of cultural events. In order to preserve its special reputation, all proposed performances at the theatre have to be approved by a committee established by presidential decree. With its 3,000 seats, it represents the pinnacle of achievement for the best artists of the country. T h e Togolese shows put on at the headquarters of the RPT are also presented in other more popular places.

The social centres. These are attached to the Ministry of Social Affairs. Their programmes of action include certain cultural activities.

The museum. In its embryonic state, this open-air ecomuseum is arousing keen curiosity among the public, and a number of works m a y already be seen there. The interest which the Togolese are beginning to show in their cultural heritage is a sure sign of success for the museum.

The crafts centres. These privately run centres, scattered throughout the various cultural regions, put on the market works of art of unequal quality. Of the art galleries, which generally show works of doubtful quality, only two highlight the dynamism of Togolese creative art.

The cultural centres. T h e cultural centres in Togo, which are in process of becoming centres for the organization of cultural activities, offer the public a range of activities which will have to be conceived differently if they are to m a k e a n effective contribution to cultural development.

The libraries. Apart from the National Library and the school libraries, there are other libraries in various parts of the country. It is necessary, as was pointed out above, to establish within the libraries real popular centres for the promotion of literature, so as to encourage the collection of examples of the oral tradition, even if only, initially, in the mimeographed form. Care must be taken not to favour the development of a n

72


outward-turned, basically exogenous culture, to the detriment of Togo- lese and African culture, or to open the door blindly to consumer cultures which would tend to stifle African cultural traditions.

Exhibitions. The Togolese public is showing an increasing interest in exhibitions. Entry is free. In 1976 a test operation for street exhibitions will be launched.

Cinemobile and bookmobile. A cinemobile service functions regularly at the Ministry of Information. The Agouti operation (cine-cum-bookmobile and exhibitions), carried out jointly by the Ministry of Culture and the National Confederation of Togolese Workers, in association with the French Cultural Centre, is extending its scope.

Radio and television. Radio and television devote seven hours per week each to cultural programmes. Variety occupies seventy-five hours out of the ninety-five hours of broadcasting on Togolese radio. Sixty percent of these programmes consists of Togolese music. One hour is set aside each week for a broadcast on Togolese stories. Throughout the whole territory, the radio network (stations at L o m é and L a m a Kara) has set up radio clubs.

Cinema. The cinema industry is dominated by private firms. It would be useful to consider a national cinema company. For the moment, Togo must establish a bold policy in this field and give young film producers an opportunity to show their talents.

Youth, sport, culture and scientijic research. The grouping of these four fields under one ministry, the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Culture and Scientific Research, will inevitably make for closer linkage between what are, in the field, interlocking activities. Young people have an undoubted role to play in the creation and dissemination of culture within the framework of the movement for national unity that has been under way since 1969. As the ‘spearhead of the N e w March’, young people are beginning to become deeply imbued with our cultural values as well as revitalizing them, by dint of modern methods of cultural work through increasingly pertinent socio-educational activities.

Physical education and sport are activities which maintain the population in good physical condition, thus enabling them to develop more fully and to participate in economic and socio-cultural development. The enthusiasm of the Togolese people for sport (especially football) is well known. Sport has thus a notable potential for increasing mutual knowledge and awareness, in this way harmonizing with cultural action.

As regards the coupling of cultural issues with scientific research, this finds its justification in the context of the various activities directed to surveying and disseminating the arts, literature and the oral traditions.

73


In present circumstances, this grouping of youth, sport, culture and scientific research affords a useful basis on which to build in order to stimulate the interest of the most highly educated (in both the traditional and the modern sectors) as well as of the public at large.

Languages and the dissemination of culture

Languages constitute a prime vehicle for spreading culture, as can be strikingly iUustrated from the history of the colonial era. Through language, mental structures are built up and conditioned to a system of exogenous values.

There can be no satisfactory cultural dissemination where the language used for the purpose is inadequate or inappropriate. T h e structures of a language are related to the other structures governing a community.

T h e predominant languages are seeking more and more to invade fragile civilizations. Nothing could be more likely to engender alienation. Language predisposes to a particular type of consumption; it is a major asset for the economy of the country propagating it. A language deter- mines economic and socio-cultural behaviour.

In this field, everything possible should be done to promote the national Togolese languages. T h e literacy campaign, which wae begun some years ago, is giving tangible results. Written language is necessary, but for the moment oral language remains an important factor in Negro- African civilization. The people must be taught to use and appreciate it as a living entity and the paramount medium of cultural action.

Such is the relatively bold standpoint adopted in the Green Book, and subsequently reflected in the content of the n e w educational reform. Whatever its possible consequences, it presents enormous advantages for spreading Togolese and Negro-African cultures. In line with this, the district cultural weeks have included lectures and talks in Togolese languages. T h e popular theatre festivals in national languages should also be encouraged.

Perhaps one day a hybrid language will emerge which would be suitable for spreading Togolese cultural values and the positive values derived from other cultures.

F r o m 1976 onwards, the Ministry of Culture will begin the preparation of anthologies of popular literature in Togolese languages, especially in Kabre and Ewe.

74

III. Administrative and financial structures

Administrative structures

Historical summary of the administrative structures

Cultural affairs for a long time came under the Ministry of National Education.

In 1959 an Inspectorate for Youth and Sports was set up under the authority of the Chief Inspector for Education.

A Department of Youth and Sport, attached directly to the Ministry of National Education, was established in 1965.

A presidential decree, dated 30 M a y 1967, established the post of High Commissioner for Youth, Sport and Culture, attached to the presidency of the republic. T h e Office of the High Commissioner comprised three departments: the Department of Sport, the Department of Youth and Lifelong Education and the Department of Culture. Although these never really became operational, the creation of the office nevertheless showed the interest which the government attached to these problems.

In 1969 n e w political structures were laid down, with the founding of the Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais, as sole political movement, in order to curb speculation of all kinds.

Three years later, on 21 January 1972, the president of the republic signed a decree establishing the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Culture and Scientific Research. S o m e months later, a further decree laid d o w n the internal structures of this ministry, which n o w contains four departments: the Department of Youth, the Department of Sport, the Depart- ment of Culture and the Department of Scientific Research.

Present structures

In fact, the administrative and financial structures also constitute executive machinery for cultural action. If they are well designed and effective, they become a motive force behind that action. They must

77

Administrative and financial structures

therefore be the fruit of careful study and analysis, yet flexible and open to improvement. Their development should follow that of the activities themselves and they should be the dynamic expression of cultural action. They must therefore m o v e with the times. For this reason, the Depart- ment of Cultural Affairs was initially endorsed with a lightweight strut- ture, which the ministry subsequently filled out, after three years' experience.

The internal structure of the Department of Cultural Affairs n o w includes, apart from the central services (administration, personnel, accounting, management and equipment), the following five divisions: the Division of Cultural Policy, Planning and Surveys; the Division of External Relations and Training ; the Public Performances Division ; the Division of Plastic Arts and Crafts; and the Division for the Conser- vation and Dissemination of Arts and Literature.

These divisions are themselves subdivided into sections, which constitute operational units.

Division of Cultural Policy, Planning and Surveys. This division is responsible for establishing research plans corresponding to the cultural goals of national development and for encouraging the implementation of cultural research programmes and promoting the use of research in the field of culture. T h e division also collects and classifies data with a view to programming short and long-term activities.

Ditrision of External Relations and Training. This division is responsible for providing the other divisions with whatever documentation in regard to international co-operation they need for their work. It is responsible for contacts and liaison with national and international bodies active in the cultural field, the organization of working parties, seminars, etc., of international scope and arrangements for experts and technical assistance personnel working in Togo. This division is also responsible for studying draft agreements and conventions, administering copyright agreements and preparing regulations concerning the protection and exploitation of the cultural heritage, as well as for the training of executive personnel.

'T V

Public Performances Division. This division covers all problems concerning the dramatic arts, music and the national and regional theatre, musi; and ballet companies. It is responsible for encouraging, promoting and organizing activities in this field, and also seeks to promote the interests of orchestras, vocal and instrumental ensembles, singers, song- writers, etc. ; its competence further extends to problems of research and creation in music and drama.

Division of Plastic Arts and Crafts. This division deals with all activities relating to the plastic arts and crafts. It ensures the promotion of the

78


plastic arts through the listing of artists and their works and the planning and organization of national and international exhibitions. It is also responsible for the promotion of craft work.

The Division for the Conservation and Dissemination of Arts and Liter- ature. This division is responsible for all matters, events and activities relating to the conservation and dissemination of arts and literature. It is divided into four sections: museums, sites, monuments and architecture; audio-visual media; literary works, editing and publishing ; libraries, archives, centres for cultural dissemination.

The division plays a very important role in the propagation and effective presentation of the cultural heritage. In order to present the heritage in a contemporary light, modern techniques will have to be used: cinema, photography, recordings, sound techniques, etc. The division promotes and programmes activities in this field. The problems of editing and publishing are included in its functions and it is also responsible for the organization of archives and a programme of action on behalf of libraries and the various centres for cultural dissemination.

Further divisions can be established should this become necessary. Regional inspectorates for youth, sports and culture co-ordinate

cultural activities at regional level, cultural staff being placed at their disposal for this purpose.

Consultative machinery

The Ministry of Culture works in close co-operation with the other ministries. It has also established machinery for consultation which assists it in guiding and implementing cultural policy: The National Committee for Culture has its headquarters in Lomé and

holds periodic meetings. The regional and district cultural commissions play the same role as

the National Committee but at the level of the regions and districts. The Togolese Orchestras Federation comprises all orchestras and co-

ordinates their activities for the Department of Cultural Affairs. The Togolese Musicians’ and Song Artists’ Association, set up a year

ago, is trying to organize its activities on the basis of effective mutual assistance.

There are currently plans for setting up other associations, e.g. for plastic artists and craftsmen, writers, etc.

Cultural co-operation

Togo has a very open policy in cultural co-operation. It accepts co- operation with all interested countries, whatever their political or economic system, on the basis of mutual respect for the sovereignty of each

79


country. This co-operation takes two forms, the first of which has practically no texts to define it, while the second is based on cultural agreements. Agreements for cultural co-operation link Togo to several other African countries (Algeria, Ghana, Libya, Nigeria, Zaire).

Other countries which have cultural agreements with Togo include Canada, China, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States of America.

Under the third development plan, Togo will intensify its activities for cultural co-operation and integrate them more closely in the over-all development effort.

80

Financial structures

T h e budget of the Ministry of Culture is, like that of the other ministries, included in the State budget. T h e Department for Cultural Affairs and the other departments of the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Culture and Scientific Research, all come under the same heading but are listed separately.

In addition to the budget for operating expenses there is a capital investment budget. Investment projects are submitted to the Ministry of Planning, which, after consultations, decides on priorities in relation to the projects of the other ministries.

The Ministry of Culture was set up in 1972. A comparison of its budget for 1975 with that for 1973 provides undeniable evidence of growth, and in view of the government’s cultural policy each further year will see an encouraging increase in cultural appropriations.

In 1974 the operating budget for the Department of Cultural Affairs showed an increase of 118.08 per cent in relation to that for 1973, whereas the operating budget for the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Culture and Scientific Research as a whole increased by 85.67 per cent during the same period.

For 1975 the budget of the Department of Cultural Affairs shows an increase of 92.89 per cent over 1974, compared with an increase of 12.59 per cent for the ministry as a whole.

Appropriations for the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Culture and Scien- tific Research and the Department of Cultural Affairs represent 1.55 and 0.24 per cent respectively of the total budget in 1975, while the combined appropriations for the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Culture and Scientific Research, the Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Information represent 10.41 per cent.l

1. Leaving aside the investment budget.

81


As far as the investment budget is concerned, hopes are pinned on the third five-year development plan, implementation of which will begin in 1976.

82

Conclusion

The elaboration of a cultural policy for a young country is a difficult but noble task.

In Togo the launching of a vigorous cultural policy first adumbrated in 1967, was marked by the creation of the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Culture and Scientific Research in 1972, and each succeeding year sees this policy going from strength to strength.

This is reflected in the establishment of the necessary structures and supporting machinery; the clarification of the aims underlying cultural policy and its relationship to other aspects of development; its specific formulation and expression in contemporary forms through increasingly coherent cultural action; the proportionate growth in the resources earmarked for its implementation; and an ever heightening awareness of the problems its execution entails.

Thanks to its dynamic spirit and the institutions with which it is equipped, Togo will achieve its aim of arriving at an increasingly clear definition of its cultural policy, placing it high on the list of development priorities and bringing it constantly up to date, thus enabling all its manifestations, material, intellectual, moral and spiritual, to join together in building a culture based on peace and co-operation, m a d e by m e n for men.

83

Appendixes

Extracts from speeches by the representatives of the government and by members of the Political Bureau of the Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais on the occasion of the cultural weeks

Pagouda District Cultural Week

The government’s constant concern was to give cultural policy a new start, so that our country can recover its dignity and restore its despised or neglected cultural values.

I deplore the present state of Africa which is under the threat of losing its identity and seeing its culture slowly destroyed.

The RPT, as an avunt-gurde movement, was therefore right in deciding to organize a cultural week in each district, to shake the people out of the passive state of mind created by corrupt, imported habits.

This return to the fountainhead amounts to recognizing our identity and individuality in relation to others.

It should be noted that our cultural policy is in no way directed against anyone else. Our purpose is solely to remain as we are, to remind ourselves that w e must draw upon the wealth inherited from our forebears so as to ensure the permanence of the nation.

Tabligbo District Cultural Week

Om countries cannot be independent if we continue to follow other people’s patterns, to think like others, assume other people’s language and attitudes, eat, drink, dress and amuse ourselves like others.

Our tendency to expect everything from others, and depend on others, runs counter to our traditions. It is therefore an alien element introduced by others into our society.

W e have the necessary assets for success, our traditional societies do not include parasites-people who wish to live at the expense of others without working. Look at our villages-everyone is working.

That is what we must aim at: to provide work for everyone so that the whole nation is employed.

Niamtougou Cultural Week General Eyadema has given each district the opportunity to rehabilitate itself, to seek its original culture which is sinking into the depths of European cultures.

87

Appendixes

* Europe found in our civilization an opportunity to enrich its own humanity. The cultural weeks must therefore help us to unearth our rich past. Negritude or African personality-the terminology does not matter; the essential thing is to rehabilitate the Togolese who have long been neglected and treated like objects for sale. The main aim of these cultural weeks is to enable artists of all kinds to restore people’s confidence in horns, flutes, bells, skins, etc.

W e all have the urgent duty to seek to reconcile the present-day Togolese with their living environment, with their land and traditions.

Haho Cultural Week The time has come for us to refuse to let ourselves be considered and treated as if w e were still a colony in which to implant ideologies or interests. But those who do this will not cease to do so unless w e ourselves cease to encourage them.

The second war of independence must be a movement of self-civilization, that is, w e must make ourselves respected by achieving recognition of our full cultural independence alongside all other forms of independence ; that means that w e must think and act by ourselves as our ancestors did, think and act in a responsible manner, emboldened by our self-awareness as Togolese, rooted in African and Togolese values, but open to the contributions of the four other continents ; economic and social problems apart, that means the rehabilitation of our customs and traditions, which involves in turn a deep study of those same customs, habits and traditions, the revival, here on E w e soil, of the memorable past in which Brékété, Simpa and Atoupani filled our fathers’ hearts with joy, our fathers who sit by the fireside today and still remember dances unknown to us, seldom danced now, such as Dawui, Kpokpo, Ago, Djidjagni, Sakpata, to quote only a few.

Is it possible to find in our regions, as here in Notse, examples of détitrétré (household and native dyeing work), pottery, carpentry, afokptawowo (shoe- making), while there are craftsmen, shoemakers and weavers unemployed and while imports of shoes, cotton and other materials are rising rapidly, to quote only a few examples out of many?

The time has come for us Togolese to record the different stages of our civilization, to provide a written memorial of the history that was formerly written only in our inner being, to pay homage to the realities of Togolese life, to our leader, our achievements, the natural beauty, products, religions, paganism and climate of our land. It is for you and you alone to find or provide the authentic sources.

Atakpame Cultural Week I said at the beginning of m y speech that it is not by chance that this vast campaign of cultural events is being organized throughout our country. It corresponds clearly to the viewpoint of the RPT, and fits into its objectives for the apotheosis of the Togolese people within a new Togo.

Following our long trials and tribulations in the colonial period which is now past, never to return, the African personality in general, and the Togolese in particular, has changed considerably, so that it is now no more than a kind of amalgam of other values which have gradually modified and falsified our way of living, reacting and thinking.

N o w that the time has come to change attitudes and accelerate the N e w March, it is only natural, clear and logical that w e should establish our identity

88

Appendixes

first among ourselves and then with regard to Africa and the world. It is only natural, I repeat, for we will never improve our relations with the outside world unless w e know ourselves, unless w e are familiar with our past and the whole of our cultural heritage. Otherwise w e shall be like outcasts, or those ‘new style’ citizens w h o m our old people term uprooted and lost.

The RTP wants to give each man, woman and child in the country an awareness of national identity, necessarily springing to life and taking clear shape within each of us, within our homes, villages, districts and regions. W e must assert our personality by rediscovering and renewing our customs, traditions and ways of life.

For w e are firmly convinced that Togo, and Africa, must not and cannot fail to take their place in the Civilization of the Universal.

Kan& Cultural Week At local dances and parties w e are quite familiar with the rhythms of the méringué and the jerk, but w e must give priority over all these imported dances to the sintou, the yente, and also the fanafa and the kounatou, our natural, traditional folklore, highly appraised for its cultural value. W e rightly welcome the benefits and techniques of modern medicine ; nevertheless w e must conserve carefully and develop our own richly varied pharmacopoeia, of which the importance and effectiveness are obvious to all.

Tchaoudjo Cultural Week W e are not called upon to undertake a non-selective undiscriminating return towards all that constitutes our past. In other words, our action will consist essentially in immortalizing the faith and soul of our civilization. A return to our traditions would not mean a refusal to use the results of modern world science. Going to the hospital or the maternity clinic does not amount to a rejection of our own culture. At the same time, however, to scorn the use of native medicine would greatly prejudice the existence of our own science. Indeed w e have ample proof of miracles wrought by our own healers, both African and specifically Togolese, where modern medicine has been helpless.

For instance, w e have seen children’s lives saved by our old women, in cases where the child has been suffering from gastroenteritis, while other children with the same infection, commonly known as koutolou, here at Sokode or magna elsewhere in the south, have perished because European medicine has been helpless.

Indeed, w e have a duty to extract from our traditional science and art the positive aspects and elements which it is essential to pass on to the new generations.

The organization of these cultural weeks is not the result of chance. They are intended to be a &st step towards a major change in our attitudes and a re- establishment of our own identity.

Anecho Cultural Week

The cultural week which has just closed is an unprecedented event, in that it constitutes for each one of us a real awakening of consciousness of our o w n identity and of the noble values of our own cultural heritage. Unprecedented, for w e were in danger of utterly losing our own soul. The meaning of the different

89

Appendixes

daily salutations, with their correct gestures and pronunciation, was unknown to many of us. As our esteemed friend and brother Kponton has so strikingly demonstrated, w e ourselves have come to regard the wearing of the traditional loincloth or the practice of certain dances in our villages as ugly, shameful things, reserved for ‘others’.

Ladies and gentlemen, I should like to conclude by saying that the week which w e have just spent together has many a lesson to teach us. Although it is over here, it must be taken up in the villages and settlements. Contact must be maintained if w e are to achieve the hoped-for results.

Kloto Cultural Week For the return to the fountainhead is in no way a regression.

W e must be very vigilant. We must take care that the cultural weeks are not used by certain people for their own profit, people who m a y try to resuscitate certain practices of pure sorcery and pass them off as being typical of our own culture. Our culture has no need of these negative and retrograde elements in order to assert itself. It moves with the times. The world is developing and w e must develop with it, while preserving our own identity. W e are Togolese, Africans, but also children of this century. We must therefore assimilate and dominate technical and other innovations so as to enjoy the benefits of such progress. The essential thing is that in doing so we should not lose our soul.

Baasan Cultural Week But when we speak of a return to the fountainhead or the rehabilitation of our traditional values, of freeing the overaccultured citizen of his complexes, of giving a place of honour to African or Togolese culture, when we speak of authenticity, w e mean being in an environment freed from practices harmful or danger- ous to the health and life of individuals or to the overall development of society.

I shall quote in passing an example to illustrate my meaning. In some African tribes and perhaps also in Togo the phenomenon of the

ordeal still exists, which is nothing other than a legal test during which the head of the tribe or the family makes suspects drink a poisoned beverage. After it has been drunk, supposedly only the guilty person succumbs and the innocent survive.

Assuming that a miracle happens and that death strikes the guilty party, that would hardly convince me, since it has been demonstrated that certain organisms which are sufficiently immune are able to absorb and eliminate certain poisons, and if that organism was in the body of a thief, the fact that the thief survived the ordeal would therefore exculpate him.. . And supposing that the innocent party was constitutionally weak and consequently died, he would be ipso facto regarded as guilty.

Fellow citizens, far from being traditional values, such practices are an offence against life ... they must be banned.

Akpsso Cultural Week This progress towards a better future is a whole. It requires that harmony in development without which we shall tomorrow become a modern people, but one without a soul, who have lost the very essence of their being. It has therefore emerged as an urgent necessity to show the Togolese, whatever his level, what

90

Appendixes

he really is, to explain to him that what he is, by virtue of his origins, is just as valid and just as fine, and has just as much right to exist, as what he covets in others, or what he has learnt to copy from others.

H o w sad we would all be if tomorrow w e saw our brothers, sisters and children acquire the most up-to-date techniques and the most enviable qualifications and then become strangers to our customs and habits, in short, strangers to our o w n traditions!

Our richness, our cultural heritage would disappear forever, to our grievous loss. Let not the obsession with development and modernization make us lose our fundamental essence, our humanism, for above all we are born Afi-icans, Togolese and Akposo!

Ba6lo Cultural Week If one defines negritude as the sum total of civilized values of the black world, there are two factors which seem to define these values from the start: spiritual life and freedom. Negro-African civilization is not only oral; it is also written, and its writing is our traditional art. In his contribution to humanist values and spiritual life, the Negro has no right to deny his past.

Dapaon Cultural Week Is it not this refusal to recognize the fact that we have a certain civilization that led the Europeans, at the moment when the African cake was divided up, to ignore the existence of organized social groups with their own form of government and culture ? Among the consequences of this diabolical colonialist attitude that which has affected us most is reflected in the fact that the Gourmanthé ethnic group, which once constituted one and the same people, is nowadays divided between four countries: Togo, Upper Volta, Ghana and Dahomey. You can guess the rest.

Vogan Cultural Week In deciding to organize cultural weeks throughout the country, it was not General Eyadema’s wish that the people should disjoin into its manifold aspects a global campaign which is intended to restore their very essence and true dimensions. It is not by chance that we are called upon today to reconstitute our cultural heritage, to rediscover our history, to identify ourselves in the concert of nations and to de-colonialize our attitudes.

Soutouboua Cultural Week A piece of wood can stay a hundred years in the water but it will never become a fish!

With this sally the European reminded our brother of what he seemed to forget, that whatever knowledge he might have learnt in the white man’s schools, he would never be a white m a n himself.

Even ifwe condemn the spirit in which these observations were made, w e cannot fail to recognize the measure of truth that emerges from them, namely that the European is condemned to remain European while the African is condemned to remain African, inasmuch as one is born European, Asian, American or African, one cannot become it.

91

Appendixes

The cultural week must therefore arouse us to a new awareness. From this day on w e must think and act as Togolese.

"Zara Cultural Week

This is the ambiguity of the cultural situation in which w e are living, like so many bats hanging from the branches, as far removed from birds with feathers as from animals with fur. In short, like figures in a shadow theatre, w e flit between two worlds, between two sets of values, and finally w e belong to neither of them.

Tsevie Cultural Week

There can be no question, under the convenient cover of our cultural weeks, of reviving practices which might maintain us in obscurantism and ignorance; charlatanism cannot usurp the place of religion founded on inner personal experience.. . . Certain customs and habits must not prevent modern medicine from being used for the welfare of the population.

W e are not seeking to bring back to life lock, stock and barrel a past in which the bad might well outweigh the good.

Our country, our regions, are facing grave development problems. The cultural promotion of our past can only have meaning if it is integrated into the over-all development effort. It must be possible to reconcile authenticity and modernism: indeed, authenticity is of no value if it acts as a brake on our forward march.

The N e w March is dynamic, creative, productive in nature and must remain so.... The N e w March must assimilate all the positive aspects of our culture and it is imperative that it should not allow itself to be halted by nonsensical obstacles.

Lama-Kara Cultural Week

Admit that the cultural weeks owe everything, as far as their conception, planning, organization and actual content are concerned, either to the heads of district or to the representatives of the government. My role today is simply to take up certain basic themes around which w e must construct a healthy and soundly based cultural policy.

Born black, w e must be proud of being black, proud of our black culture and our black civilization. This pride is a real source of spiritual strength which Africa vitally needs ifit is to rebuild, in dignity and serenity, a civilization which has, alas, been depersonalized, stifled and reduced to immobility.

But this pride, however justified, must not prevent us from recognizing the constant need for frankness and objectivity. The renewal or rehabilitation of our civilization through the organization of cultural weeks must in no way indicate a regression, i.e. a systematic return to all ancestral practices.

The return to the fountainhead does not and cannot mean that w e refuse to go to hospital, refuse to go to school, or, for those who believe in God, refuse to go to church, temple or mosque.

Our culture includes many practices of great moral and artistic value which w e should preserve carefully. W e will lose the meaning of our existence if w e lose, for the benefit of any civilization, our dances, songs and traditional music. W e will lose the meaning of our existence if w e abandon to any internal or external influence our tales, legends and proverbs, which w e must recognize as

92

Appendixes

an inexhaustible source of African wisdom. And it is here that teachers are facing a heavy responsibility.

The teachers, as bearers of fundamental knowledge, have the sacred duty to teach, in the primary, secondary and higher grades, those practices which make us different from other races. It is just as logical to explain, analyse and discuss one of our own proverbs as the thought of Kant or Bergson. It is as logical to teach pupils and students to play and dance, for example, the Moba talkoutk, the Basari djem or the Kabre kamou, as to teach them Beethoven or Mozart. It makes just as much sense to teach our pupils and students the popular folk songs as to think that the only songs worth knowing are those of the colonists.

Togolese teachers, on you falls the heavy responsibility, vis-ù-vis the nation and vis-ù-vis Togolese history, for reviving and keeping alive the essential elements of our culture.

Lomé Cultural Week

Even today, of all the peoples on earth, the black African alone can show conclusively the essential identity of his culture and that of Pharoah’s Egypt, to such an extent that the two cultures can serve as reciprocal systems of reference.

Each of the territories created by the arbitrary colonial frontiers has had its share of this heritage, despite the mingling of the races which has taken place and the vicissitudes undergone by the peoples of the territories thus formed.

Togo, for its part, is the result of a mixture of cultures and civilizations which each one of us should know in depth.

Nowadays, when the horizons of human possibilities are widening considerably, when man is gaining increasing mastery over his development, progress is becoming more and more an act of will and iron determination. However, if this ability to act has increased, it is not yet sustained by deep awareness or an adequate sense of conviction. For man, in his growing rootlessness, is no longer familiar with the rules of life that belong to his historical and geographical environment, of which he has lost that intuitive, immediate and total knowledge he once had.

It is therefore becoming the imperative duty of each citizen to revive and rehabilitate our culture. People will perhaps object to this, on the grounds that the resuscitation of traditions acts as a brake on development.

W e reject this argument categorically, for before speaking of reviving our cultural heritage, it is essential to know from the start that it is not a question of preserving at all costs everything which assumes the guise of tradition.

93

Some traditional festivals

B d o and Lama-Kara districte

Atondo (Bufilo district) Festivals to celebrate the end of Ramadan and ta6aski, known as the ‘feast of

Souwa traditional festival, held each year in December after the harvest (except

Kamou, festival originating from the Lama-Kara district, celebrated to varying

Godja, festival celebrated by the Fulani, which is ceremonial in character since

Dipontre or festival of the yams, celebrated in the first week of September.

Lama-Kara Combat of the Evalas Initiation of young girls (akpéma) These festivals are held in the different cantons between 10 and 25 July.

the sheep’, religious in character.

in years where the harvest is bad).

degrees throughout the region.

it is held on the occasion of weddings.

Bina district

Canton of Lama- Dessi Festival of the Efala. This is held every year in July. On this occasion the young boys, efala, undergo certain initiations.

Festival of the Sankaring. This consists of ceremonies practised by young people between 17 and 19 years of age, who have passed the stage of the Efala. On this occasion the initiates sing and recite poetry.

Hiling ceremonies. These are held especially in Pagouda and are characterized by a contest in which the initiates are divided into two opposing clans and fight with flexible roots and lianas. The Hiling form the final stage of the Sankaring and are held in November.

Festival of Don-Tou. These ceremonies are held each year in January, except for the year in which the W a h dance is held. According to the tradition, the Don-Tou ceremony helps to protect the community from famine and illness.

94

Appendixes

W a h ceremonies. These ceremonies are practised by adults who have gone through the stage OP Efala and Sankaring. They are held every five years in June and July. The initiates, or Condona, are expected to climb up specially constructed mounds, 5 to 8 metres high. On this occasion the strongestinit- iates are distinguished by wearing wild animal horns.

Canton of Kétao Festival of Toutou. This is held in January. It is the new year celebration. Festival of the Atamtouna. These are ceremonies held in M a y by young people of 17 to 19 years of age, the Atamtouna. The initiates visit the market of Kétao only twice during the period of the festival.

Festival of the Assassa. Dance for young people of 17 to 19 years of age. Kamou dance. The K a m o u dance (in November) is the harvest festival.

Canton of Boufale Laking Festival. This is a festival of celebration held in M a y each year for young people from 10 to 25 years of age. It lasts one week.

Hallh-la Ceremony. Traditional dance executed every five years by men of about 35 years of age. It lasts only three days. On the third day, during the final phase of the ceremonies, the initiates receive ritual tatooing around the loins.

Kouroutou Dance. Ceremony held every five years, during the same year as the Hallh-la, but in August. It is for m e n from 38 to 41 years of age. It ends with the Samah dance, which the initiates dance in a circle, wearing head-dresses of white feathers.

Soka Ceremony. This is a ceremony held every five years by those who took part, in the same year, in the Kouroutou Ceremony. During two months the initiates stay at home and do not work in the fields. They are well fed. During this period the ritual demands that they should be separated from their wives and that they sleep in the same room as a boy of 10 to 15. A special door in the back of the hut enables the initiate to go out unseen, to take a walk or to visit a fellow initiate. H e takes care to be seen by no one. T o visit his fellow initiate he goes through the bush and avoids the paths, so as not to be seen. After two months the initiates come out to receive initiation as the mature men of the village. One week after they come out, they take part in a race 3 to 4 kilometres long, on foot, up to the top of the mountain, which leads them to a monastery where the priests await them. O n the evening of the day of the race, the initiates dress carefully and wear a woven skirt decorated with cowri shells. The festival continues uninterruptedly for six days.

Canton of Sirka Festival of Labaa. This ceremony is held every year in March. It symbolizes

Festival of the Efala. This is a variant of the festival of the Efala in Kara. Don-tou Ceremony. This ceremony heralds the new harvest, particularly yams,

Lao Ceremony. Ceremony imploring the village gods to give an abundant harvest.

the start of a new year and heralds sowing-time.

and is held each year in August.

It is held every year in August.

95

Appendixes

Canton of Solla Ousséngbéni Ceremony. This is held every two years (in February) for boys from 12 to 15 years of age and is characterized by the practice of ritual tatooing around the loins.

Oussoua Dance. This is practised by the young Ousséngbéni every two years. During this period the young people wear a bag made of palmyra leaves, a hat decorated with feathers and a monkey or squirrel skin. They go from house to house and through the market places in their district begging for food. They go round in groups of three Ousséngbéni or more, never less, so as to ward off possible witchcraft.

Oulandjé. The last phase of the Ousséngbéni ceremony is called Oulandjé. The initiates then receive the name of Psaoua. They dress their hair intertwined with fibres into a kind of cushion on top of their head. This cushion is covered by a kind of tube made of red raffia and forms a kind of hair style. The initiates wear strings of pearls round their hips.

Idjombé ceremonies. These are practised by the initiates, the Oudjombé, every two years. They follow the Oulandjé ceremony. They are for initiates of 20 to 25 years who are preparing to be circumcised in March of the same year. At this period the initiates wear women’s jewels.

Festival of Assakou. This is a festival held every five years at which bulls are sacrificed. The man practising the ceremony kills as many bulls as he has wives who have borne him a child, even though they may be divorced.

Niamtougou district

Siou : Bê-&te. This festival is held in July to celebrate expiation and renewal. Pouda : Essako-Loré. Festival of the Evala. The ceremonies are heId in June. Massedena. Kouhang. Festival of expiation and renewal, held in January. Koutchaté. Festival of the yams, held in August. Mussedenu und Tumbermrs .- Boussétié. Harvest festival, celebrated in December. Kpaha, Defale-Bas and Kadjalla : Sintou. Ceremonies in honour of the Supreme God. Held from January to June. Defale-Bas : Lakro. Harvest festival. Dry season. Throughout the district Feasts in honour of the dead. These are held between February and June.

Haho district

Notse : Agbogbo. Each year, from first Thursday in September for four days. Invocation of ancestors at the place called Agbogomé. Meeting of entire Ewe people in the place where it was disbanded. Ceremony called ‘Tedudu’. Festival extremely rich in authentic folklore events.

Tado : Togbe-Anyi. Held in September each year. The day of the month is fixed after consulting the oracles. Same causes as Agbogbo, but as Tado was only the penultimate place of residence of the Ewe people, it is not regarded as the place of its disbandment Traditional festival held in secret, not exploited but rich in mystery.

96

Some typical programmes for district cultural weeks

Anecho district

Dress: traditional, free and original. Sunday (Koda), 9 Decem ber 7 30 p m Singing and dancing through the town. Monday (Dzoda), 10 December 6 a m. Firing of the salute. 8 a.m. Gathering of the population and the pupils of the Glidji farm-school. 9 a.m. Arrival of the head of the district and the government representative; libations; raising of the colours; national hymn; presentation of the public authorities ; visit by various dance groups ; speech by the head of the district; poems sung by the Gbandidi group ; speech by the government representative; Vodou dance (Anecho group); the great migrations on the Benin doast; Adifossi group (Anecho) ; talk on the origins of fa (system of reading oracles) ; exhibition-visit ; culinary art-visit ; lunch.

5 p.m. Hairdressing; stories and games (Anecho) ; river-fishing (demonstration) ; Togolese newsreel (cinema).

Tuesday (Brada), 11 December 4 p.m. Dances: Adononvi (Adjidogan), Novissi (Zébé), Kinka (Masséda), Gbékon

8 p.m. Drama (JRPT, Porto-Seguro). Wednesday (Kuda), 12 December 4 p.m. Dances: Djokoto (Badji), Fiossokpo (Fantékomé), Tchobo (Djéta), Adjogbo (Afagnagan), Aziboloe (Avoutokpa), Agbalioté (Atoèta), Gnowonou (Attitogon), Apounoukpa.

(Afagnangbléta), Kpegue (Zalive), Adjokli (Anfoin), Assankondji.

7 p.m. Selling scenes (Gahou and Ablo); tales (Afagnagbléta). 8 p.m. Drama (Aklakou Lower Secondary School (General)). Thursday (Yawoda), 13 December 8 a.m. Drama (Methodist Complementary Classes and Roman Catholic Comple- mentary Classes) ; tom-tom (Primary schools and Official Anecho Comple- mentary Classes).

97

Appendixes

4 p.m. Dances: Djokoto (Aklakou), Gbékon (Afagnagan), Agnélé (Atoéta), Gassou (Aklakou), Djigbodi (Djéta), Gomido (Djossi), Wowui (Dégbénou), Dounékpoè (Gounkopé), Amédjroviwo (Kpota), Agomeglozou; dramatic arts- Official Anecho Complementary Classes,

Friday (Fida), 14 December 8 a.m. At Kpémé Adjogbo (Afagnagan), Gbékon (Badji); at the lake, Kinka (Masséda), Adononvi (Adjidogan).

4 p.m. Adjoguin (Aklakou), Gbékon (Afagnagan), Kinka (Afagnagbléta), Kpe- guessou (Dégbénou), Léké (Nlessi), Akpè (JRPT, Anecho).

7 p.m. Lododo (proverbs). 8 p.m. Explanation of the different place-names in the district.

Saturday (Memlèda), 15 December 8 a.m. Laying the foundation stone of the Anecho Togolese Cultural Centre. 8.30 a.m. What is Sikodè? 9 a.m. Selling scenes (Akassanto, Gahouto, Abloto). 9.30 a.m. Dances: Azélé, Kpotiton, Djélè (Agbétiko), Nyali (Koukoutsè-Kondji),

8 p.m. Tales and games (Anecho). 8 p.m. Election of Miss Anecho.

Sunday (Koda), 16 December 6 a.m. Firing the salute. 8 a.m. Gathering of the population. 9 a.m. Arrival of the authorities; award and presentation of the prizes; closing speech by the government representative; speech by the head of the district; akpedodo (thanks) ; popular rejoicing.

Atchobo (Avémé).

6 p.m. Firing of the salute.

Haho district

In tribute to the president. Dress: traditional, free and original. Tuesday (Brada), 27 November 1973 6 p.m. Twelve-gun salute; Dédenofedo through the town (traditional procession) ; Gbolohè (Independence Square).

9 p.m. Local dance (Cultural Centre).

Wednesday (Kuda), 28 November 1973 6 a.m. Twenty-one-gun salute. 7 p.m. Gathering of the popdation and the pupils (Cultural Centre); interlude:

7.30 a.m. Arrival of the high Chief, the traditional chiefs and the political, admi-

7.45 a.m. Arrival: brékété. 8 a.m. Arrival of the head of the district; interlude: President Eyadema, Eweto Band ; raising of the colours ; interlude: brékété ; presentation of the public authorities ; interlude: akpesse alinou ; traditional prayer ; announcement of the programme; speech by High Chief Togbui Agokoli III; interlude: Roman

akpé na Eyadema.

nistrative, social and religious authorities ; interlude: simpa.

98

Appendixes

Catholic choir; speech by the head of the district; interlude: Evangelical choir; speech by the Minister of Culture and the head of the government delegation; interlude: simpa; procession: district rangers, local sections, sporting associations, pupils of the secondary schools; visit to the cultural groups and exhibitions ; Atoupani, Dawui, Kpokpo, Djidjagni, Ago; Tohoun Group: Sakpata fetish dance ; Kokou fetish ceremony; African medicine (snake-bite) ; griot: Sénou Midodji; Atigali; talks on charlatanism; Exhibi- tion: weaving, détitrété (household work and native dyeing), history of traditional costumes, pottery, carpentry, sculpture, children's work, children's drawings, Ewe books.

11.30 a.m. Reception. 6 p.m. Gbolohè (Cultural Centre). 8 p.m. The life of Agokoli, King of Notsé and legendary hero.

Thursday (Yawoda), 29 November 1973 8 a.m. Atrikpoé (Adjogo). 8.30 a.m. Lecture on the history and organization of the RPT by the head of

4 p.m. Mamano (Adimé) ; Djokoto (sabakomé), gbéko (wobédomé). 6 p.m. Gbolohè (Cultural Centre). 7 p.m. Miraculous healing; talk on witchcraft; Mamiwata, Djaminata, etc. ;

the Notsé district.

Ballets.

Friday (Fida), 30 November 1973 (Fourth anniversary of the RPT) 6 a.m. Twenty-one-gun salute. 7 a.m. Gathering at the Cultural Centre; Interlude: Eyadema w o ko, Eweto

7.45 a.m. Arrival of the High Chief and the authorities; interlude: brékété. 7.45 a.m. Arrival of the guests; interlude: simpa. 8 a.m. Arrival of the Minister of Culture and the authorities; interlude: Evan-

gelical choir; raising of the colours; interlude: Roman Catholic choir; traditional prayer; speech by the president of the National Union of Togolese Women; interlude: akpesse-alinou; speech by the head of the district; interlude: simpa; speech by the minister and the head of the government delegation ; interlude: brékété ; procession ; visits by the government cultural representatives ; tom-tom, chra, Awloékpo, Kpédomé; agro-culinary exhibition ; women's fashions, hairdressing.

6 p.m. Kouhé N'dihé; tales, griot concert, riddles, proverbs; talks in national languages (Ewe, Adja, Kabre, Ehoué).

Saturday (Memle'da), 1 December 1973 8 a.m. Visit to displays of work and exhibitions; Amaniabobo, burial; Ahakuku, marriage; Ahanono.

9 p.m. Ballet; local dance.

Sunday (Kosida), 2 December 1973 (Religion and culture) 8 a.m. Afan-kaka, Kpoli, Edu.

Band.

99

Appendixes

9 a.m. Religious services (Catholic and Protestant) (Cultural Centre). 10 a.m. Mosque (Cultural Centre); Adafo. 3 p.m. Tom-tom, amakpavé, dalia bégbé. 4 p.m. Ekpodada, adidada, atidada, evétété, zigidada. 7 p.m. Gbolohè; magic; explanation of names, first names and village names; procession of the chiefs (ceremonies) ; evéwowo (the twins).

Monday (Dzoda), 3 December 1973 4.30 p.m. Contests, Gadede, games typical of the region. 6 p.m. Gbolohè, Kouhè, N'dihè; evening recreation, tea and dancing.

Tuesday (Brada), 4 December 1973 7 a.m. Gathering of the population and the pupils (Cultural Centre); interlude: tom-tom, assitsa, kplotè, zibi, fetro, agbadja, attiogbe.

8 a.m. Arrival of the authorities; raising of the colours; traditional prayer; awarding and presentation of the prizes ; interlude: akpesse alinou; closing speech by the regional delegate of the JRPT; interlude: Evangelical choir; interlude: todomé, atcvé ; speech by the government representative; interlude: Roman Catholic choir ; tom-tom, fetro, assitsa, zibi, agbadja ; interlude.

6 p.m. Twenty-one-gun salute.

Lama-Kara district

Tuesday (Cila), 19 February 1974 8 p.m. Cinema show at the stadium behind the Post Office. 9 p.m. Aléwa by the Municipal Section of the National Union of Togolese Women. 9.30 p.m. Popular entertainment (Longossi) by the Yadé Group.

Wednesday (KGméa), 20 February 1974 4 - 5 a.m. Awakening by the Nondon and Egandié, flutes. 8 a.m. Gathering of the population who take their seats at the stadium. 10 a.m. Arrival of the official procession; libation; raising of the colours ; national hymn; seating of the guests of honour; interlude: announcement of the programme; speech by the High Chief of the Kabre; interlude by a group of pupils; speech by the head of the district; interlude by the Bohou Section of the National Union of Togolese Women; speech by the minister, representing the government; interlude by the JRPT; presentation of dances by the cantons.

1 p.m. Luncheon at the Upper Secondary School (on invitation). 3 p.m. Canton of Djamdé: Kabata; interlude by the Djamdé Section of the

8 p.m. Lecture: age-groups in the Kabre country.

Thursday (Maza), 21 February 1974 9 a.m. Canton of Sarakawa: Ayota, Ayota-Kounkpéyi, Aléwa, Tanguéma,

3 p.m. Canton of Yadé: Sagayin, Evala, Maré, Kpéndélé (archery); Canton

8 p.m. Lecture: Kabre folk tales; sketches by the pupils of Kouméa-sud.

National Union of Togolese Women; Fulani dance: the Tchabodjo.

Kpantchana, Tétékpé, Abra; Canton of Tchitchao: Kpindjao, Tchimou.

of Bohou: Kondona, Natchim, Kpédélé (archery).

100

Appendixes

Friday (Kujuka), 22 February 1974 8 a.m. Canton of Pya: Ayoza, Azakpa Wendou; Canton of Tcharé: Tchimou,

3 p.m. Exhibition: commentary and explanation at the information centre. 8 p.m. Conference: philosophical and spiritual thought among the Kabre.

Saturday (Hodo), 23 February 1974 8 a.m. Canton of Landa and Kpenzinde: Kpadja, Akpéma (marriage ceremony);

Canton of Lassa: Tchayago, Gnidikin, Lakin Wendou; Canton of Soundina: Aléwa; Ezakpa (Soundina type).

3 p.m. Canton of Kara: Hulutu, Kikpénleng, Kodjé; Canton of Lama: Malè- Malè, Aboyéé, Kpandaloko.

8 p.m. Lectures: intellectuals and national liberation; impact of western civili-

Habyè; Canton of Koumea: Azakpa, Anawaa.

zation on our culture.

Sunday (Pya), 24 February 1974 8 a.m. Festival of Kabre customs, by the pupils and the Kidawili Group; distribution of prizes; speech by the head of the district; speech by the minister, representing the government.

4 p.m. Kamou. 8 p.m. Cinema.

101

[B. 121 SHC. 75/XlX-35/A

some aspects of cultural policy in togo; studies and...

Documents