Togo Facts

"One of the greatest stumbling blocks to understanding other peoples within or without a particular culture is the tendency to judge others’ behaviors by our own standards."

– James Downs

Below is some information I found interesting from the Human Development Report 2011. This report “argues that the urgent global challenges of sustainability and equity must be addressed together…”

Togo's Human Development Indicator is 0.435, which gives the country a rank of 162 out of 187 countries with comparable data, leaving it in the bottom 30 of member nations.  And can anyone guess which country is ranked #1?? I’ll give you a hint…it’s not the US.   Actually, Norway is ranked 1 out of 187. (For those of you dying to know where the US ranks, go to http://hdr.undp.org/en and check it out. So, I’m going to compare Togo and Norway a bit.

• Life expectancy at birth in Norway: 81 years; Togo: 57 years (WHO)
• The average daily wage in Norway is $170 per person per day; in Togo it is $2.31 per person per day (and 38.7% live on less than $1.25 per person per day.
• In Norway: there are 4,445 dentists for 5 million people (1 dentist for every 1,125); in Togo: there are 18 dentists for 6 million people (1 dentist for every 333,333)
• In Norway: 20,000 doctors for 5 million people (1doc per 250 people); in Togo: 318 doctors for 6 million people (1 doc per 18,868 people).

The West African worldview is intensely religious; people’s thoughts and actions are inspired or influenced by a religious point of view. Religion can not be isolated or separated from the worldview or life of the African.

Togo religion consists of:

African Traditional Religions: 51%

Christianity: 29%

Islam: 20%  

(US Dept of State)

African Traditional Religion (ATR): is an umbrella term that encompasses many different expressions of indigenous religious beliefs and practices. It is comparable to the variety of different expressions/denominations/doctrines that co-exist under the umbrella of Christianity. A few of these include animism, voodoo/voudon, idol worship, witchcraft, magic/ju-ju. It is the belief in a Supreme/Creator God; divinities (lesser gods who act as intermediaries); spirits; ancestors (intermediaries); the practice of magic and medicine. The ATR central point is that the Supreme God is distant and controls the universe through lesser gods and the ancestors. The goal is to minimize suffering/harm and maximize prosperity/success.