Togo

Togo is a small country in Africa.

It is long and thin. Its south touches the sea. Its north is far from the sea. The capital city is Lomé.

Togo is a small country in West Africa, shaped like a long, thin strip. Its coast on the Gulf of Guinea is only 51 kilometers long, but the country stretches about 515 kilometers north to Burkina Faso, with Ghana on one side and Benin on the other.

Lomé, the capital, is the largest city and the main port. About 8.6 million people lived in Togo in 2025, and they belong to about 30 different ethnic groups. French is the official language, and Ewe in the south and Kabiye in the north are widely spoken.

Togo extends about 515 km north from its 51-km Gulf of Guinea coastline, between Ghana to the west and Benin to the east, to Burkina Faso in the north. Until 1884 it was an intermediate zone between the states of Asante and Dahomey; it then became part of the German protectorate of Togoland, and after World War I its eastern part was governed by France. Togo became independent in 1960.

The economy rests largely on agriculture, which employs more than half the labor force, and on phosphate mining near Lomé. The World Bank counted 8,591,626 people in 2025; almost two-fifths of Togolese are under 15. Under a constitution promulgated in May 2024, Togo became a parliamentary republic: the president, Jean-Lucien Savi de Tové, is a largely ceremonial head of state, and Faure Gnassingbé, president since 2005 under the old system, became president of the council, the head of government, in May 2025.

Lomé is a busy city by the sea.

It has a big port for ships. In the north, the Batammariba people build tall mud houses. The houses have pointed grass roofs.

Lomé, the capital, spreads along the coast. It became the capital in 1897, and its harbor, opened in 1968, is a busy port for Togo and for neighboring countries that have no coast. Kpalimé, Atakpamé, Sokodé and Kara are towns at the foot of the Togo Mountains.

In the northeast lies Koutammakou, the land of the Batammariba people. Their mud tower-houses, called takienta, have become a symbol of Togo and Benin. The name Batammariba means those who shape the earth. UNESCO made Koutammakou a World Heritage Site in 2004.

Lomé, at the western end of the coast, was chosen as the German colonial capital in 1897 and laid out as a modern town; a jetty followed in 1904 and an artificial harbor in 1968. It is the largest urban center and a transit point for landlocked neighbors, with an international airport at Tokoin; Kpémé, about 35 km to the northeast, ships phosphate. Aného was once the leading European trade center. Other towns, Kpalimé, Atakpamé, Sokodé, Bassar and Kara, lie along the base of the Togo Mountains.

UNESCO inscribed Koutammakou, the Land of the Batammariba, in 2004; the property today also covers part of northwestern Benin. It is a living cultural landscape of fields, terraced hills, water-retaining walls, groves and the sikien (singular takienta), circular or elliptical mud tower-houses that serve technical, practical and symbolic purposes. UNESCO notes that only small game remains in Koutammakou today.

Togo has sandy beaches and lagoons.

In the middle are green mountains. The north is grassy savanna. A dry, dusty wind blows there for part of the year.

Togo's narrow coast has sandy beaches backed by shallow lagoons. The largest is Lake Togo. Inland are low plateaus, and then the Togo Mountains run across the middle of the country. Mount Agou, 986 meters high, is the tallest mountain in Togo.

The south has two rainy seasons, and the area near Kpalimé is the wettest. The north has one rainy season, from June to September, and for the rest of the year a dry, dusty wind called the harmattan blows. Grassy savanna covers most of Togo, with forests in the southwest highlands and mangroves on the coast.

Britannica describes six regions: a narrow coast of sandy beaches, tidal flats and lagoons, the largest Lake Togo; the Ouatchi Plateau with its reddish lateritic terre de barre; a tableland drained by the Mono River; the Togo (Togo-Atakora) Mountains, part of a chain from Ghana's Akwapim Hills to Benin's Atakora, crowned by Mount Agou (Baumann Peak), 986 m; the Oti sandstone plateau, a savanna drained by a tributary of the Volta; and a granite and gneiss upland in the far northwest, with the cliffs of Dapaong.

The south has rains from mid-April through June and mid-September through October; the coast is driest, with about 890 mm a year, while the area near Kpalimé gets about 1,800 mm. The north has one rainy season (about 1,150 mm) and is dominated by the harmattan the rest of the year; March and April maxima reach the high 30s °C there. Savanna predominates, forests cover less than one-tenth of the land, and deforestation for slash-and-burn farming and fuelwood has been heavy.

Hippos live in Togo's rivers.

Monkeys, snakes and lizards live in many places. Buffalo live in a forest reserve in the north. Many birds and insects live there too.

Togo does not have large herds of wild animals, especially in the south and center. Hippopotamuses and crocodiles live in its rivers, and monkeys, snakes and lizards are common in many areas. In the north, the Kéran reserve has buffalo, warthogs and antelope.

Togo also has many kinds of birds and insects. Along the coast, fishing boats bring in fish such as mackerel, red snapper and sole, as well as shrimp and lobster.

Britannica notes that wild animals are not numerous, especially in the south and center, though hippopotamuses and crocodiles are plentiful in the rivers and monkeys, snakes and lizards are common. The Kéran Forest Reserve near Sansanné-Mango in the north has buffalo, warthogs and antelope, and there are numerous bird and insect species.

Coastal fisheries land mackerel, bass, sea bream, red snapper, triggerfish, dorado, ray and sole, plus shrimp and lobster; most of the catch is eaten locally. Forest loss is the main pressure on habitats: forests now cover less than one-tenth of Togo, and UNESCO notes that only small game remains in Koutammakou.

About 8.6 million people live in Togo.

People speak French, Ewe, Kabiye and other languages. Many families grow corn, cassava and yams. Togo also sells cocoa and coffee.

About 30 ethnic groups live in Togo. The Ewe are the largest group. Others, such as the Kabre in the north, are among the peoples who have lived in Togo the longest. French is the official language, though it is used mostly in business and government; Ewe is widely spoken in the south and Kabiye in the north.

Most people live in small villages and farm. Families grow corn, cassava, rice, yams, sorghum, millet and peanuts, and cocoa, coffee and cotton are grown to sell abroad. Almost two out of every five people are under 15.

Britannica counts about 30 ethnic groups, many descended from immigrants from elsewhere in West Africa. Gur-speaking peoples such as the Kabre, Moba, Konkomba, Tamberma and Basari live in the north, and Kwa peoples such as the Kposo, Adele and Ahlo in the southwest; the Ewe, the major group, migrated from present-day Nigeria between the 14th and 16th centuries. French is official, while Ewe and Kabiye, Niger-Congo languages, are widely spoken. Almost half the population is Christian, about one-third follows ancestral beliefs and more than one-eighth is Muslim.

Most people live in small rural villages. Staples include corn, cassava, rice, yams, sorghum, millet and peanuts, and exports include cocoa, coffee, shea nuts, cotton and palm kernels. Phosphate, mined at Hahoétoé and Kpogamé northeast of Lomé, is a leading export, and Togo is one of the world's largest phosphate producers. More than three-fifths of its electricity is hydroelectric.