Togo
Capital: Lomé · West Africa
A narrow band from coast to savanna, uniting Ewe vodun coastlands with the Batammariba's remarkable takienta tower-houses of Koutammakou.
Ethnic communities
- EweCoastal communities; vodun shrines and complex drumming
- KabiyéTerraced farming and forge traditions of the north
- BatammaribaBuilders of fortified earthen tower-houses (takienta)
- Tem (Kotokoli)Central Islamic chiefdoms
More communities of Togo
- Mina (Gen) — Aného coast traders of Afro-Brazilian threads
- Moba — Far-north farmers of ancestral wooden figures
- Gourma — Savanna herder-farmers over the Burkina line
- Bassar — Iron-smelting furnace masters of the west hills
- Konkomba — Oti-plain yam farmers of fierce independence
- Lamba & Losso — Kara-region terrace and initiation cultures
- Akposso & Akebou — Plateau coffee-belt farming communities
- Adele — Border-forest people of old refuge migrations
- Ana-Ife (Yoruba) — Atakpamé's orisha-linked towns
- Ouatchi — Southeastern palm-belt Ewe kin
- Fon & Peul communities — Border Vodun towns and northern herders
Languages
Major languages: Ewe, Kabiyé, Tem, French
Language families: Niger-Congo (Gbe, Gur)
Historical kingdoms & states
- • Notsé (Ewe ancestral city)
- • Tado (Aja origin site)
Heritage sites
- • Koutammakou, the Land of the Batammariba (UNESCO)
Cultural highlights
Deep-dive community profiles
Ewe
The people of the Volta estuary and coastal lagoons whose polyrhythmic drumming, kente weaving and Vodu religion shaped three nations — bound by the memory of a shared escape from the tyrant king of Notsé.
Open deep profile →Fon
Founders of the Kingdom of Dahomey — the disciplined royal state of Abomey with its women warriors, appliqué chronicles and bas-relief palaces — and the heartland people of Vodun, the religion that crossed the Atlantic and reshaped the Americas.
Open deep profile →Yoruba
One of Africa's great urban civilizations — over 40 million people whose sacred city of Ilé-Ifẹ̀, orisha religion, divination science and bronze-casting mastery have shaped world culture from Lagos to Bahia and Havana.
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