There is a change of power in Togo as the the last president died (his son is succeeding him). I note that the end of the article about the transition notes this:
State television broadcast nonstop Christian hymns and prayers accompanied by an unchanging photograph of a blue-suited Eyadema, flanked by crosses.
Now, here is info on religion in Togo from The CIA Factbook, indigenous beliefs 51%, Christian 29%, Muslim 20%. The World Christian Database has the following numbers, Christians 45%, ethnoreligionists 35% and Muslims 20%. Togo’s International Religious Freedom Report 2004 profiles the dynamics of the society, and it is interesting, though not surprising, to note the general lack of recognition and support from the commanding heights to one of the most numerous religious groups in the nation. Practioners of traditional religions, often labelled “Vodun” (as precisely descriptive as “pagan”), might be numerous (official headcounts probably are low-balls due to the prestige of “world religions”) but they have little organized pull in the general society.
I have often made analogies between the late classical world in Europe and contemporary Africa and added that the presence of modern weapons has been a deadly intersection (imagine the Huns purchasing machine guns from rogue elements of the Roman bureaucracy). The state of Togo is in some ways a snapshot of a culture that is likely going to be fully Christianized and Islamicized in two generations. The world religions have the full backing of the elites, who promote it (7 official state recognized Christian holidays, 3 Muslim ones) and are at least nominal adherents. A similar process occurred in the ancient world, where Christian urban areas and manors served as nuclei from which the faith spread across Europe and eventually transformed itself into the Universal Church.
Posted by razib at 10:04 PM