Sylvanus Epiphanio Kwame Olympio deserves a stele, a monument, a mausoleum ...

The question must make a lot of people smile. A stele or a mausoleum in homage to Sylvanus Olympio may be too much to ask the regime in place. Even if the sacrifices that the first president and the fighters made for the independence of Togo are invaluable. In many African countries, the value of the struggle of the fathers of independence is recognized, their tributes, stelae, memorials and other monuments erected in their name are celebrated. But the father of the independence of Togo is not the object of any consideration.



Stelae, monuments ... for the fathers of independence

In many countries, especially in Africa, where leaders have a sense of gratitude, they have not been asked to honor the memory of the fathers of independence. Even though most have been killed or fallen from power through coups, the people are grateful for their sacrifices and are regularly honored through various gestures. The common action consists in giving their name to public buildings, streets, schools, etc. in order to perpetuate them. Sometimes statues in their effigy are built to honor them. The most illustrative and close case is undoubtedly that of Ghana where a stele and a mausoleum were built in Accra in memory of Kwame N'krumah.

The latter is far from unanimous in Ghana. At a time after independence, he is accused of a certain authoritarianism, the cult of personality and many other detestable attitudes. But this did not prevent the people from honoring it. At each celebration of the Independence Day, deserved tributes are returned to him. Elsewhere, memorials or monuments have been erected in the name of the father of independence, their busts are enthroned in the squares of independence that house the official festivities ...

Nothing for Sylvanus Olympio in Togo

Who says independence of Togo, says Sylvanus Olympio inevitably. It was from his personal struggle that independent Togo, sovereign, was born on April 27, 1960. In any case, he was the incarnation of the struggle, at the head of a "battalion" of valiant combatants who had invested so much in money and in energy and other means to extract the freedom of the hands of the colonist and to give rise to the new Togo. And at the time, independence was not given on a golden plateau; it was necessary to confront the colonist who had everything in his possession - authority, financial means, weapons - and snatch it, at his own risk and peril. Many African leaders under domination had tempted him, but they paid the nerve (sic) of their lives.

Sylvanus Olympio deserves much recognition for his invaluable work for Togo. If the people fully recognize their sacrifices, it is the regime in place that tries to make it pass into oblivion. His name is attached to the University Hospital Center (CHU) in Lomé-Tokoin, in fact a ... muse, implicitly recognized by Faure Gnassingbe in one of his speeches. Far from what can be claimed, that is, life, healing, the image of the CHU Sylvanus Olympio rather carries death. It is clear that the intention of the ruling power, by sticking its name to this center of care, is far from honoring it; on the contrary, the idea is to degrade it. To find again the name Sylvanus Olympio, you have to go on the old Rue du Commerce to the big market of Lomé. And that's all. For a man who wrested independence from a whole people,


A stela for Sylvanus Olympio (also)!

In Togo, there were statues, not in honor of the father of independence, but his ... assassin declared, Etienne Gnassingbé EYADEMA and that of his supposed "mom" Maman N'Danida. Thanks to the political upheavals of 90 and the wind of the East, these infrastructures were destroyed by the populations. Nevertheless, Eyadema, in his lifetime, baptized full of infrastructure of his name: military camp, airport and others. Even deceased since "5 February" 2005, his son continued to worship him. A marble statue was built on the esplanade of the congress palace in Kara and inaugurated at the beginning of November 2016. The work carried out by the company Centro, with a Chinese mission, is built on an area of ​​1310 m2 and constituted, inter alia, of two large water basins fed by a drilling with a high water flow rate rhythmed by 374 lines of water jets and 332 lamps that draw light beams in the colors of the Togolese flag. The stele is intended to be "a symbol of the history of Togo immortalizing the journey of the father of the nation through this statue of marble", according to the owner of the work, Kao Badabazi.

While everything is done to immortalize Etienne Gnassingbé EYADEMA, the father of the independence of Togo, it is royally forgotten. His rehabilitation recommended by the commission that revisited the history of Togo is always desired. Everything is done to remove from history all traces of it. For the great service rendered to the Togolese people, Sylvanus Epiphanio Kwame Olympio deserves a stele, a monument, a mausoleum ...