German Togo_land_1885The Anglo-German boundary of 1890, had done much to separate many of the tribes of West Africa.

The Mamprussi and Dagomba in the east, and Wa and the Gonjas in the west and southwest, were among principal areas that had been organised into strong native states by descendants of the early invaders. Even these states, once so firmly knit, were now weakening. At the end of the nineteenth century, when the Germans annexed Togoland, and Nas (paramount chiefs or kings) of Mamprussi and Dagomba had lost considerable portions of their kingdoms. Ever on the outlook for an opportunity to regain these lands, during the world war of 1914-18, they eagerly supported the Anglo-French invasion of Togo.

As soon as war broke out in the summer of 1914, British forces from the Gold Coast Dependency and French forces from Dahomey co-operated in an immediate attack upon Togoland. The efficiency of their invasion and the limited strength of the resident German contingent combined to make possible its speedy reduction.

By August 7, 1914, the town of Lome was in the hands of the British and by August 26, after several engagements and the destruction of the great German wireless station at Kamina, the acting governor unconditionally surrendered the entire colony to the invading forces.(1)

The British and French then divided Togoland on provisional lines, and remained in occupation until the victorious Allied powers could make a decision as to its future status.

Before the German annexation of the territory in 1886, some of the tribes had acknowledged the protection of Great Britain. The British reports to the Permanent Mandates Commission stated that the inhabitants appeared more satisfied to return to their rule than to remain under German administration. One story is old, for example, of a Togo chief whose grandfather had buried the Union Jack rather than surrender it when the Germans annexed his land. Upon the return of the English, the old flag was dug up and proudly displayed. (2)

In the northern part of Togoland there were several native states that were split by the Anglo-German boundary. Among these the Dagomba kingdom was the largest. Its head chief or “Na” had his capital at Yendi, in German territory. After the British invasion, he signed a treaty acknowledging their sovereignty, and asking that his former state be reunited. (3) Mamprussi and a small part of Gonja had likewise been separated by the former frontier.

With this situation in view, it was decided at the Paris Peace Conference that Togoland should be divided in such a way as to reunite these tribes. (4)

The Supreme Council, therefore, mandated an area of some 13,000 square miles in the western portion to Great Britain, while the French received the larger and more important eastern section containing 19.960 square miles, having access to the coast at the port of Lome, and containing the railway, which the Germans had built. (5)

(1) Report of the British Mandated Sphere for Togoland for 1920-21, p.4: Charles
Lucas, The Gold Coast and the War (London 1920), contains a full account of the occupation of Togoland

(2) Br. Togo Mandate Report, 1923, p.38.

(3) Correspondence relating to the Military Operations in Togoland, cd. 7872, 1915, pp. 31-34.

(4) G. L. Beer, African Questions at the Paris Peace Conference (New York, 1923), pp. 31-34.

(5) The boundary between French and British Togoland was settled by the Milner-Simon Agreement of July 1919. See Official Journal of the League of Nations, August 1922, p. 883. Though the British administered the western portion as a mandate from 1919 on, and sent a 1920-1921 report on Togoland to the League of Nations, the actual document of mandate was not confirmed until July 1922. This postponement appears to have been due to difficulties over the boundary and to a delay in getting the consent of the United States.