Togo remnants

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The term Togo remnant peoples comes from the historical linguistics of Africa. It summarized all those ethnic groups of the former German colony Togo , which linguistically could neither be counted among the Gur- speaking groups of the north nor with the Ewe , Akan , Yoruba (here in the form of the Nago ), Ga and Guang . Together with numerous groups from the north and the Guang, they formed an older section of the population who probably already settled in these areas before the other groups immigrated here, mostly in the 17th and 18th centuries as a result of military unrest. Among the Togo radical peoples of the Africanist counted Diedrich Westermann with its made in the 1920 classification of African languages the Avatime (including Nyagbo-Tafi ) Akpafu , Santrokofi , Likpe (also Bakpele called) Borada , Lefana , Boviri , Tetemang , Lolobi , Kebu , Akposso and Adele , to name just the larger groups. But there are also numerous smaller groups, mainly in the mountainous areas of today's central and southern Togo, as well as in Ghana east of the central and lower Volta.

The linguistic similarities of the remaining Togo languages did not correlate with a social or political unit or with a common identity of their speakers, which is why the term peoples was misleading for the speakers of these language groups.

The individual groups of the remaining peoples of Togo differ both linguistically and culturally from the other ethnic groups. The main cultural characteristics with which they differ from the other ethnic groups are the (traditional) rice cultivation and the clay box house with flat roof. A nominal class formation, which takes place mainly through prefixes, is considered a linguistic characteristic.

In addition, there is iron production, which in history was mainly operated by the Akpafu and Santrokofi. Both peoples pride themselves on knowing the iron extraction technique as the oldest and it was not until the 19th century that this craft became unprofitable due to European imports. Iron ores that can be used today can be found in many parts of the mountainous system that runs through Togo, especially near the Bassari in the north and in the Boëm landscape in western central Togo (now Ghana), iron production still took place in the 19th century.

literature

  • Bernd Heine : The distribution and structure of the Togorest languages , Cologne contributions to African studies , 1968
  • Paul Hinderling, Notes from the Remaining Peoples of Togo , Tribus. Yearbook of the Linden Museum (Stuttgart), NF 2/3 (1952/53) 361–378
  • D. Westermann, The present and former population of Togo , Koloniale Rundschau (9–12) (1932) 489–495

especially on the topic of traditional iron extraction in Togo see:

  • Ms. Hupfeld, The iron industry in Togo , communications from explorers and scholars from the German protected areas, 12 (4) (1899) 175–193