No one is quite sure what was happening in Togo before the Portuguese arrived in the late 15th century. Various tribes moved into the country from all sides - the Ewé from Nigeria and Benin and the Mina and Guin from Ghana. All of them settled on the coast. When the slave trade began in earnest in the 16th century, several of the tribes - especially the Mina - became agents for the European traders, travelling inland to buy slaves from the Kabyé and other northern tribes.

Denmark staked a claim on Togo in the 18th century, but in 1884, Germany signed a deal with a local king, Mlapa, and 'Togoland' became a German colony. The Germans brought scientific cultivation to the country's main export crops (cacao, coffee and cotton) and developed its infrastructure to the highest level in Africa. The Togolese, however, didn't appreciate some of Germany's tighter reins on their lives, and when WWI broke out, they welcomed British forces with open arms. Encircled by British and French colonies, the Germans blew up their expensive radio station and surrendered - the Allies' first victory in the war. Togo was split between the British and the French by League of Nations mandates after the war.

During the colonial period, the Mina grew in political and economic influence by virtue of their coastal position and long association with Europeans. The Ewé, by contrast, were divided with the dissection of Togoland, and political groups on both sides began to agitate for reunification. Hopes for unity were dashed when British Togoland voted to be incorporated into Ghana, then on the brink of independence. When the French side declared its independence in April 1960, that half of the country became known as Togo.

In 1963, Togo became the first country on the continent to experience a military coup following independence (Africa has averaged at least two a year since then, plus many more unsuccessful attempts). All it took was a few shots to kill President Sylvanus Olympio as he sought refuge at the US embassy. Olympio's brother-in-law, Nicolas Grunitzky, returned from exile and was put in charge, but he too was deposed in January 1967 by Lt Colonel (now General) Etienne Eyadéma.

Eyadéma set out to unify the country, insisting on one trade union confederation and one political party. After nearly losing his life in a plane crash that he (at least publicly) chalked up to an assassination attempt by foreign 'imperialists,' Eyadéma nationalised the country's foreign-owned phosphate mines and ordered all Togolese with European first names to replace them with African ones. The decree included his own name, which he changed to Gnassingbé Eyadéma. It was, however, only a perfunctory strike against colonialism: Togo remained heavily dependent on the West.

From the late 1960s to 1980, Togo experienced a booming economy, built largely on its phosphates reserves, and Eyadéma tried to mould the country into a traveller's and investor's paradise. His plans proved overly ambitious, and when the recession of the early 1980s hit and phosphates prices plummeted, Togo's economy fell into ruin. The government - a victim of its own methods - was plagued by numerous coup attempts. True to form, Eyadéma himself fired many of the shots that killed 13 attackers in a 1986 coup.

In the early 1990s, the international community began putting pressure on Eyadéma to come out in favour of a multiparty democratic system, a notion he resisted with a few waves of his trademark iron fist. Pro-democracy forces, who were mainly southerners (especially Mina and Ewé), staged riots and strikes in protest of his authoritarian rule. Eyadéma met them with armed troops, killing scores of protesters in several clashes. The people of France and Togo were furious, and under their backlash Eyadéma gave in. He was summarily stripped of all powers and made president in name only. An interim prime minister was elected to take over command, but not four months later his residence was shelled with heavy artillery by Eyadéma's army. Their hardball tactics continued into 1993.

Terror strikes against the independent press and political assassination attempts became commonplace, while the promised 'transition' to democracy came to a standstill. The opposition continued to call general strikes, leading to further violence by the army and the exodus of hundreds of thousands of southerners to Ghana and Benin. Using intimidation tactics and clever political machinations that disqualified one opposition party and caused another to refuse to participate, Eyadéma won the 1993 presidential elections with more than 96% of the vote. In the years following, opposition parties have lost most of their steam and Eyadéma's control has become almost as firm as before the crisis began.

In August 1996, Prime Minister Edem Kodjo resigned, and the planning minister, Kwassi Klutse, was appointed prime minister. Eyadéma won another five-year term in June 1998 with 52% of the vote. Today, the country's human rights record is appalling enough that most Western governments have maintained their distance without having to decide whether Togo warrants being called partially democratic.

Approximately 20% of Togolese are Christians, 10% are Muslims and the remainder are animists. Most of the Christians live in the south, and many of them are Ewé. An equal number of Ewé are animist, however, and put some faith in reincarnation, a hallmark of that religion.

With about 40 ethnic groups and around 4 million people, Togo has one of the more heterogeneous populations in Africa. The two largest groups are the Ewé, who are concentrated in the south and comprised of many smaller groups (Anlo, Adja, Peda, Plah, Guin, etc), and the Kabyé, who are concentrated in the north and central parts of Togo and are known as skillful terrace farmers. Though French is the country's official language, about half of its people speak or understand Ewé, and the second most widely spoken African language is Kabyé.

Culturally, the various ethnic groups are quite distinct on a number of issues. The Ewé consider the birth of twins a great blessing and offer kola nuts and water to figurines thought to embody the twin spirit - you may see these figurines for sale in marketplaces. The same reverence, however, is not universal; the Bassari consider the birth of twins to be a grave misfortune and used to kill one or both of them. The same contrast between groups is seen with eating habits: in the south the Ewé eat cat and consider anyone who eats dog a barbarian, while in the north the Kabyé eat dog but not cat.

The food in Togo is among the best in West Africa, and there are lots of places to try it, especially in Lomé. Nearly everything is served in a sauce called, handily enough, sauce, and most dishes are accompanied by a starchy substance such as rice, pâte (made with millet, corn, plantains, manioc or yams), ablo (made with corn and sugar), monplé (made with fermented corn) or foufou (don't ask). One of the more common meals is rice with peanut sauce, known as riz sauce arachide. Each district also has its culinary specialities. Along the coast, lamounou déssi or sauce de poisson (fresh fish sauce) is most popular, but other sauces include aglan (crab), gboma (spinach), tomate (tomato), aubergine (eggplant) and épinard (spinach). Other Togolese dishes include abobo (snails cooked like a brochette), egbo pinon (smoked goat), koklo mémé (grilled chicken with chilli sauce) and koliko (fried yams), which you'll see everywhere on the streets. Palm wine and tchakpallo (fermented millet) are the brews of choice in the south and north, respectively.