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I am interested in following and understanding events in other parts of the world which often involves searching the internet for independent sources and reading lengthy documents, unfortunately, there is not a lot of information available from independent sources in a more easily digestible multimedia format.

The mainstream Television channels like the BBC or Sky provide us only what they want us to know, their world view is one that coincides with ‘western’ interests, ‘third world’ people are so often portrayed as the victims of their own ignorance, apathy or corruption, whereas, so often they are the victims of the collaboration between Western Governments and Corporations who install corrupt and repressive governments with whom they can do business.

Once in a while, it is a pleasure to discover a powerful and informative film like ‘Masquerade’ which documents the fraudulent presidential elections in the west African state of Togo in 2005, the film was edited and produced by Jaarice in Burkina Faso and released in 2007.

Gnassingbé Eyadema

Faure Gnassingbé
The background to the Presidential elections was that after the death of Togo’s dictator Gnassingbé Eyadema who had ruled for 38 years of rule without a formal opposition, an army coup then placed Faure Gnassingbé, son of Eyadema, in power, this coup d’etat was condemned by many African and international bodies, with the notable exception of France’ and as a result Faure Gnassingbé and his Party the RPT,  Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais (Rally of the Togolaise People) were forced by the weight of international pressure to hold elections on 24 April 2005.

‘Masquerade’ is the diary of Jaarice’s trip from Ougadagou in Burkina Faso, southwards across the length of Togo during the crucial presidential election. Jaarice visits massive opposition rallies in the outlying areas of Togo in support of the opposition Candidate Emmanuel Bob-Akitani for the Party, Union of Forces for Change (Union des Forces du Changement). Bob-Akitan was also supported by a wide coalition including Alliance of Democrats for Integral Development (Alliance des Démocrates pour le Développement Intégral), Action Committee for Renewal (Comité d’Action pour la Renouveau), Democratic Convention of African Peoples (Convention Démocratique des Peoples Africains) and Socialist Pact for Renewal (Pacte Socialiste pour le Renouveau).

Opposition rally

Jaarice informs viewers about the the brief history of the modern state of Togo from becoming the German protectorate of Togoland in 1884, it was occupied by French and British forces in 1914. Togoland was divided into French and British administrative zones in 1916, the division was to become permanent and later to be formalised by a League of Nations mandate which divided Togoland between France and the United Kingdom.

After World War II, the mandate became a UN trust territory, still administered by France and eventually in 1955, French Togoland became an autonomous republic within the French union, although it retained its UN trusteeship status.

Following a general election in 1958 won by Sylvanus Olympio, in 1960, Togo became fully independent under a provisional constitution with Olympio as president, but, by1963, President Olympio was overthrown and killed in a coup d’état led by the army, then in 1967 a further army coup installed Lt. Col. Étienne Eyadéma later to become Gen. Gnassingbé Eyadéma as President, who then ruled until his death in 2005.

Jaarice places the history of politics in Togo in the context of ‘Françafrique’ the term coined by François-Xavier Verschave as a parody of the term “France-Afrique” used by Félix Houphouët-Boigny, former president of Côte d’Ivoire (1960-1993), to boast the good relations between france and the formally independent independent African countries.

‘Francafrique’ relates to the sham of policies followed by the French Republic in the former French colonies, as in the lyrics of the song ‘Francafrique’ by Reggae artist Tiken Jah Fakoly “France Africa policy, It’s killing joke, They sell weapons, While we are fighting,They plunder our wealth, and say they are surprised to see Africa still at war”

The song ‘Francafrique’ by Cote D’Ivoirien, musician, Tiken Jah Fakoly was used as the background by Jaarice in another film “La vie, les gens” (the life, the people) which is a Cine montage exploring the theme of French postcolonial involvement in Francophone Africa.

The film ‘Masquerade’ quotes from Verschave’s book ‘Noir silence’, which criticized Jacques Chirac’s relationship with several African Dictators including Denis Sassou-Nguesso, head of the Republic of the Congo, Idriss Déby, president of Chad, and Omar Bongo, president of Gabon since 1967 as well as Gnassingbé Eyadéma.

‘Masquerade’ is a very down to earth documentary which features many interviews with Togolese citizens about their hopes and aspirations during the elections. As the timescale of the film moves towards election day, the journey reaches Lome the Togolese capital and the film records the evidence of political intimidation, the violence against the oppositions political activity by the military and security forces.

On election day the violence increases and we actually see film footage of the military attacking polling stations, gassing, shooting and beating the electorate, you even see the soldiers stealing the ballot boxes.

Following the election day, the victory of Faure Gnassingbé is announced: Gnassingbé claims to have won with 60.22% of the vote, with Bob-Akitani coming in second with 38.19%. he is then inaugurated as President, despite widespread denunciation of electoral fraud by the civil institutions.

The film finishes with the investigations and interviews by the independent media and the Togolese League of Human Rights, which reported later in May, that 790 people had been killed and 4,345 had been hurt in the violence and about 24,000 people are said to have fled into the neighboring countries

Even the UN records report that up to 400 people were killed in the political violence surrounding the presidential poll, according to the United Nations. Around 40,000 Togolese fled to neighbouring countries.

The film ‘Masquerade’ remains a powerful record of the record of the illegitimacy and the criminality of the Gnassingbé regime in Togo and the collusion of the international community with this sham electoral fraud which was perpetrated in the 2005 presidential election.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 8th, 2009 at 11:57 pm and is filed under Africa's forgotten wars, What is going on?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.