June 21, the feast of martyrs

June 21, the feast of martyrs, is a holiday in Togo. Today, the Togolese have stayed at home and commemorate their martyrs, sons and daughters who fell under the bullets of the settler during the struggle for independence. What is this feast then?



Between 1956 and 1960, the French colonies of Africa had engaged in a struggle which should lead to their independence. Togo did not remain on the margins of this struggle. But France was reluctant to grant its colonies international sovereignty.

In 1956, by the framework law (also called Law Gaston Deferre), it decided to grant them autonomy. Togo was therefore a pilot country. A news received favorably by the then Prime Minister, Nicolas Grunitzky of the Autonomous Republic of Togo (RAT).

But the latter met the resistance of the nationalists of the CUT and the JUVENTO who had refused this proposal of France. "The nationalists have expressed their dissatisfaction to the UN forum in the form of a petition. Then the UN decides to send a mission on the spot to see how the Togolese live the status of autonomy. This mission led by the Liberian King has traveled all the Togolese territory, "says Maman Halourou, PhD student in history.


On June 21, 1957, these nationalists organized a demonstration at Lama Kara (in Pya Hodo, more precisely), in the presence of the UN mission, to protest against this status of autonomy that France grants to Togo. The colonial army, in stride, had fired on the crowd of protesters, killing about 20 people.

"It is therefore in memory of these fighting victims of the freedom of our dear Togo that the whole country celebrates every June 21," says Maman.

From the martyrs of Pya Hodo, they became heroes of the whole nation, besides all those who, in the struggle for the independence of Togo, fell under the bullets of the colonist.