Togo is comprised of more than 35 ethnolinguistic groups, including the Ewe and the Mina in the south and various Voltaic-speaking peoples, the largest of which is the Kabre, in the north. Some 50% of the inhabitants follow traditional African religious beliefs, 30% are Christian (mostly Roman Catholic), and 20% Muslim. French is the country's official language and is used in business; Ewe and Mina are widely spoken in the south and Kabiye and Dagomba in the north.

Agriculture is Togo's chief economic activity, engaged in by about 65% of the workforce. The principal food crops are yams, cassava, corn, beans, rice, millet, and sorghum. The leading cash crops are cotton, coffee, and cocoa. Sheep, goats, hogs, and cattle are raised, and fishing is important. Large-scale mining of phosphate deposits at Akoumapé (in the southeast) began in 1963 and is now Togo's most important industry. Small quantities of chromite, bauxite, limestone, and iron ore are also mined, and marble is quarried. The country's other industries consist mainly of agricultural processing, handicrafts, and the manufacture of basic consumer goods. Attempts to implement economic reforms, begun in the late 20th cent. and including increasing privatization and foreign investment, have met with limited success.

A hydroelectric plant completed in 1988 on the Mono River was a collaborative effort between Togo and Benin. Togo's limited road and rail transportation facilities are concentrated in the central and southern parts of the country; Lomé is the main port. The cost of Togo's imports is usually much higher than its earnings from export sales. The main imports are machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, and petroleum products; the leading exports are cotton, phosphates, coffee, and cocoa. The principal trade partners are Ghana, Burkina Faso, France, and China.

Togo is governed under the constitution of 1992. The president, who is head of state, is popularly elected to a five-year term; there are no term limits. The prime minister, who is head of government, is appointed by the president. The unicameral legislature consists of an 81-seat National Assembly whose members are popularly elected for five-year terms. Administratively, Togo is divided into five regions.

For the history of Togo before it became independent on Apr. 27, 1960, see Togoland. At the time of independence, Sylvanus Olympio was the country's prime minister, and when Togo adopted a presidential form of government in 1961, he became its first president. Until 1966 there were tense relations with neighboring Ghana, led by Kwame Nkrumah, who sought to merge Togo with Ghana—a plan that Togo strongly resisted. The government's inability to find employment for most of the 600 men who had served in the French army and then returned to Togo in the early 1960s led to a coup on Jan. 13, 1963, during which Olympio was assassinated.

Nicolas Grunitzky, Olympio's brother-in-law and an important political figure in the 1950s who had gone into exile (1958) in Dahomey (now Benin), returned to Togo and became president. Grunitzky unsuccessfully attempted to unify the country by including several political parties in his government. On Jan. 13, 1967, he was toppled in a bloodless army coup led by Lt. Col. Gnanssingbé Eyadèma, who became president in Apr., 1967, after an interlude of conciliar government. Eyadèma was confirmed overwhelmingly as president in elections in 1972. He proved to be intolerant of growing opposition, repressing dissent in trade unions and other areas of public life. Government efforts to exert increased control over the economy in the late 1970s included land-reform projects and state supervision of the textile trade. A new constitution that was approved in 1979 ended emergency military rule, proclaimed the Third Togolese Republic, and renewed Togo's status as a single-party state. Eyadèma was also elected to another term as president.

Civil wars in neighboring Ghana and Burkina Faso resulted in large refugee migration into Togo; in addition, the revolutionary governments in those nations isolated Togo by closing their borders. In 1986, Eyadèma survived a coup attempt and was elected to a third term as president. In 1991, a national conference was convened to force Eyadèma to resign, to set up a transitional government, and to schedule multiparty democratic elections. The Togolese army then began a violent campaign on Eyadèma's behalf to return him to power. In 1992, Eyadèma was given back much of his power and the transitional government was dissolved. Nonetheless, a new constitution approved that year succeeded in somewhat reducing presidential power.

In 1993, Eyadèma won reelection in a contest that was boycotted by the main opposition parties. As a result, economic sanctions were imposed by the European Union. He won again in 1998, and in 1999 his party swept parliamentary elections; once again, the elections were boycotted by the opposition. The 2002 parliamentary elections were also boycotted by the opposition, and were again swept by the government party. Also in 2002 the constitution was amended to permit the president to seek a third term, and in the presidential election in 2003 Eyadèma was returned to office. The opposition accused the government of electoral fraud; the most popular opposition leader was living in exile and barred from running.

In Feb., 2005, Eyadèma died. The army engineered the appointment of Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé, Eyadèma's son, to the presidency, contrary to the constitution, which called for the speaker of parliament to succeed to the office. Parliament subsequently approved the move and amended the constitution to avoid a new election. These moves were protested internationally and sparked confrontations between Togolese demonstrators and police; Togo also was threatened with the loss of foreign aid. Under pressure Gnassingbé agreed at the end of the month to step down.

Abass Bonfoh was appointed interim president until the April presidential election, in which Gnassingbé was declared the winner. The election was denounced by the opposition as rigged, but other West African nations called on the two sides to compromise and form a national unity government. The electoral result sparked violence, in which several hundred died, between the opposition and the government's supporters and forces, and some 38,000 fled to neighboring Benin and Ghana, but Gnassingbé, strongly supported by the military, took office. The new government that was formed in June included some moderate opposition members but failed to be the broader unity government West African nations had encouraged, and the most powerful posts went to Gnassingbé's allies.

Negotiations in 2006 led to an agreement (August) that called for a government of national unity that included the opposition; in September, Yawovi Agboyibo, a human-rights activist, was named prime minister. In Oct., 2007, all political parties took part in the legislative elections, making them the first truly contested such elections in two decades. Observers said the elections were generally free and fair, but the governing party won an unexpectedly large numbers of seats (50) with not quite a third of the vote. leading to opposition charges of vote-counting irregularities.

See H. W. Debrunner, A Church between Colonial Powers: A Study of the Church in Togo (tr. 1965); S. Decalo, Historical Dictionary of Togo (2d ed. 1987).