Martin Aku

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Martin Aku (born September 25, 1913 in Lomé ; † 1970 ibid) was a Togolese-French doctor, author, politician and member of the French National Assembly .

Life

He was the son of the Togolese pastor Andreas Aku (from the ethnic group of the Ewe ) from Lomé. He was ordained there in 1911 by the North German Mission Society. In 1928 Martin Aku was brought to Bremen from his inspection trip to Togo by mission inspector G. Stoevesandt . There he attended high school and studied medicine in Tübingen from the winter semester 1935/36 . This was followed by a semester in Basel and two in Paris . Finally, Aku obtained his doctorate in 1944 in Marseille. med., married the later doctor Josèphe Etifier from Martinique and returned to Lomé in 1945. There he turned to politics and was a member of the French National Assembly from 1946 to 1951 as a representative of the Comité de l'unité togolaise party . In 1952 the French colonial administration prevented his re-election.

After his return to Lomé in 1951, Aku practiced in various places in Togo and Ghana , but fell ill and died at the age of 57.

There is a short autobiography by Martin Aku in the anthology "Africans tell their lives", ed. by Diedrich Westermann in 1938. It represents a unique testimony and is still awaiting thorough exploration.

literature

  • Firla, Monika: Siru Pedro Olympio, Matthias Yawo Anthony and Martin Aku. Three Togolese doctors in Germany 1914-38 and their further life. Stuttgart: Linden-Museum Stuttgart / Africa Section, 2005.