Losso
Encyclopedia
Kara Region
Kara is one of Togo's five regions. Kara is the regional capital.Other major cities in the Kara region include Bafilo, Bassar, and Niamtougou.Kara is divided into the prefectures of Assoli, Bassar, Bimah, Dankpen, Doufelgou, Kéran, and Kozah....
in Northern Togo
Togo
Togo, officially the Togolese Republic , is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, on which the capital Lomé is located. Togo covers an area of approximately with a population of approximately...
, West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
. The district capital is Niamtougou
Niamtougou
Niamtougou is a market town in Doufelgou District , Kara Region, Togo. It is located north of Kara on the nation's main North-South road, the Route Nationale No. 1. It is also the district capital and houses facilities of the Interior, Education, and Rural Development Ministries. There is a modest...
which is also an important regional market town
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
. The Lossos live on a plateau in the Togo Mountains
Togo Mountains
The Togo Mountains is a mountain range which stretches across the central region of the West African country of Togo and across the eastern and western borders of that country into Ghana and Benin. In Ghana, the range is also known as the Akwapim Hills, and in Benin it is also known as the Atakora...
between two mountain ranges: the Kabiyé Mountains to the South and the Défalé Chain to the North. They occupy the communities of Niamtougou, Koka, Baga, Ténéga, Siou, Djogrergou, Sioudouga, Kpadeba, Hago, Koukou, and Kounfaga. The Doufelgou District is bordered by the Kozah District to the South, by the Binah District to the East, by the Bassar District to the West, by the Kéran District to the North, and by the international border with Bénin to the Northeast.
People
The Lossos are primarily engaged in subsistence farming and small animal husbandry, especially chickens, guinea fowl, goats, pigs, and sheep. They grow milletMillet
The millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal crops or grains, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. They do not form a taxonomic group, but rather a functional or agronomic one. Their essential similarities are that they are small-seeded grasses grown in difficult...
and sorghum
Sorghum
Sorghum is a genus of numerous species of grasses, one of which is raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants either cultivated or as part of pasture. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide. Species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of all continents...
that they make into a thick porridge (la pâte) that is the staple of their diet and that they brew into a thick low-alcohol beer called daam. They also grow yams
Yam (vegetable)
Yam is the common name for some species in the genus Dioscorea . These are perennial herbaceous vines cultivated for the consumption of their starchy tubers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania...
and cassava
Cassava
Cassava , also called yuca or manioc, a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae native to South America, is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates...
, groundnuts (peanuts), beans, and fonio
Fonio
Fonio is the term for cultivated grains in the Digitaria genus. These are notable in parts of West Africa and one species in India. The grains are very small.-White fonio :...
. In the late 1800s, early European explorers such as the ethnographer, Leo Frobenius
Leo Frobenius
Leo Viktor Frobenius was an ethnologist and archaeologist and a major figure in German ethnography.-Life:He was born in Berlin as the son of a Prussian officer and died in Biganzolo, Lago Maggiore, Piedmont, Italy...
, baptized them the "palm tree people" because of the concentration of oil palm
Oil palm
The oil palms comprise two species of the Arecaceae, or palm family. They are used in commercial agriculture in the production of palm oil. The African Oil Palm Elaeis guineensis is native to West Africa, occurring between Angola and Gambia, while the American Oil Palm Elaeis oleifera is native to...
trees in their home area.
The Lossos have migrated in search of fertile available land to the area along the North-South National Road No. 1 between Sokodé
Sokodé
Sokodé is the second largest city in Togo and seat of the Tchaoudjo and Centrale Region in the center of the country, north of Lomé. With a population of 86,500 , currently at around 113,000, the city is situated between the Mo and Mono rivers, and it is a commercial center for the surrounding...
and Notsé
Notsé
Notsé is a town in the Plateaux Region of Togo. It is the capital of Haho Prefecture and is situated 95 km north of the capital Lomé. The town was formed around 1600 by the Ewe people, after they were displaced westward by the expansion of the Yoruba....
, where they have founded numerous communities. In addition, they have migrated to Togo's capital city, Lomé
Lomé
Lomé, with an estimated population of 737,751, is the capital and largest city of Togo. Located on the Gulf of Guinea, Lomé is the country's administrative and industrial center and its chief port. The city exports coffee, cocoa, copra, and palm kernels...
, and to Accra
Accra
Accra is the capital and largest city of Ghana, with an urban population of 1,658,937 according to the 2000 census. Accra is also the capital of the Greater Accra Region and of the Accra Metropolitan District, with which it is coterminous...
, the capital of Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, in search of wage employment. They have also migrated to the Plateau Region of Togo and the Volta Region of Ghana where they work as sharecroppers in coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
and cocoa plantations. Losso men served in the colonial armies of Germany, Britain, and France as well as in the Ghanaian and Togolese armies in the years following the independences of the two countries.
Language
The Lossos call themselves Nawda (singular) or Nawdba (plural), and their language is Nawdm. There are approximately 200,000 native speakers of Nawdm in Togo and Ghana. Nawdm most closely resembles the Yom language of the Pila-Pila and Tanéka people who live near the city of DjougouDjougou
Djougou is the largest city in north west Benin. It is an important market town. The commune covers an area of 3,966 square kilometres and as of 2002 had a population of 181,895 people.-General Information:...
in the Donga Province (comprising the Southern portion of the old Atakora Department
Atakora Department
Atakora is the northwestern department of Benin, bordering Togo to the west and Burkina Faso to the north. Also, it borders the departments of Alibori, Borgou, and Donga. It is the most mountainous region of Benin, and the birth place of the president, Mathieu Kérékou...
) of Northern Bénin
Benin
Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...
. Nawdm and Yom, like Mòoré, the language of the Mossi people of Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...
, are classified under the Oti-Volta sub-group of languages in the Gur (or Voltaique) group of the Niger-Congo languages.
"Losso" is a name by which the Nawdba call themselves in dealing with non-Nawdba. The origin of the name "Losso" or "Lossotu" is unclear and may have its origins in the name that their Kabyé neighbors called them. Confusion arose and has continued when the name "Losso" was attributed by Togo's French colonial administrations to all residents of what is now the Doufelgou District, regardless of their ethnic or linguistic affiliation. Residents of Yaka, Agbandé, Kadjalla, Alloum, Léon, Défalé, Massédéna, Pouda, and other villages in the Doufelgou District speak languages generally classified together as Lamba, but have also been called Losso by the colonial administration. While there has been considerable mutual influence between the Nawdba and their closest neighbors, the Kabyé
Kabye
Kabye is the name for both the Kabye or Kabiyé language and peoples of the northern plains of Togo, West Africa. The Kabye are primarily known for farming and cultivation of the stony Kara Valley area of Togo...
and the Lambas
Lambas
The Lambas are an ethnic and linguistic group of people living in the Kéran and Doufelgou Districts of the Kara Region in Northern Togo and in the Atakora and Donga Departments of Bénin, West Africa...
, their languages do not resemble each other and are not mutually intelligible.
History
Like most of Togo's ethnic groups, the Lossos (Nawdba) claim to be the original inhabitants of their region. Also like other groups, their formal tradition states that the original Nawdba descended from the sky directly into two sacred forests - one in Koka and one in Siou. The original inhabitants were in each case a man replete with bow and arrows, hoe, and other tools of his gender and a woman also carrying the tools appropriate to her roles.Informally, many older Lossos stated that the Nawdba came "from the East, toward Djougou (in Bénin)." This statement is supported by the close relationship between Nawdm and the Yom language of the region near Djougou. The apparent similarity between the Yom-Nawdm languages and Mooré of Burkina Faso suggested that the Nawdba, Pila-Pila, Tanéka, and perhaps the Woaba peoples may have a common origin in what is today Burkina Faso. The Nawdba were thought to be the last elements of a migration from the East that infiltrated into the plateau between the mountain ridge home of the Lamba to the North and the mountain ridge home of the Kabyé to the South.
More recent scholarship has increased knowledge of the origins of the Nawdba. The founders of Niamtougou have been identified as a man named Kégidimgbada and his wife Iya. Researchers have concluded that the 35% lexical similarity that was identified between the Nawdm and Mòoré languages is sufficient to confirm a common ancestry between the Mossi and the Nawdba, Pila-Pila, and Tanéka peoples. It does not support the idea, however, that the latter are offshoots of the Mossi nor that their languages have their origins in Mòoré. Further study of the Nawdm language has determined that informants who stated that the Nawdba came from the sky may actually have been saying that they came from the North. Researchers have concluded that the Nawdba immigration into their present home area probably began in the 15th Century and came in waves from the North and East rather than in a single movement.
ADZALLA, HOLA
Hoja Adzalla was born in June 1950 and died in 1996. Among his contributions to the Nawdba and the Nawdm language is the elaboration of a calendar in the Nawdm (or Losso) language.ALASSOUNOUMA, BOUMBÉRA
Boumbéra Alassounouma was born in Niamtougou, Doufelgou District, on December 31, 1942. He completed primary and secondary school in Togo before attending the University of Caen in France, where he obtained his licence in psychology. From 1973 to 1978, he was Director of the Pedagogical Institute. From 1978 through 1982, he served in the Cabinet of President Eyadéma as Minister of Labor and the Civil Service and as Minister of Education and Scientific Research. From 1983 through 1985, he was Ambassador to China, North Korea and Japan. From 1985 to 1992, he was Ambassador to France, Spain, and Italy. He was a technical advisor in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation from 1992 to 1994. He was named Foreign Minister in 1994 in the coalition government of Prime Minister Edem KodjoEdem Kodjo
Édouard Kodjovi Kodjo, better known as Edem Kodjo , is a Togolese politician and diplomat. He was Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity from 1978 to 1983; later, in Togo, he was a prominent opposition leader after the introduction of multiparty politics. He served as Prime...
. On June 2, 1995, Alassounouma was killed in a freak accident at the construction site of his new home in Lomé.
BARANDAO épouse BADJASSEM, BAKÉLÉ KOHOGLAMA
Mme. Bakélé Kohoglama BARANDAO épouse BADJASSEM was named Chef de Canton of Siou on May 12, 2004, one of only three women Canton Chiefs in Togo at that time. She succeeded her father as Chef de Canton. He had encouraged her to become chief of the canton that is composed of fourteen villages and two hamlets. She was born in Siou in 1942 and received her primary school education there. After professional training at l'École Pigier in Lomé, she entered the Togolese civil service in 1967 as Executive Secretary at the Ministry of Health in Lomé. She occupied several other posts in the Health Ministry before retiring in 1997. While assigned to Atakpamé, she served as Secretary of the Board of Directors of the National Union of Togolese Women (l'Union Nationale des Femmes du Togo, or UNFT) and as Treasurer of the Health Ministry Personnel Union (Syndicat du Personnel de la Santé du Togo, or Synpersanto). She was a City Council member for fourteen years beginning in 1987, concentrating on environmental and social welfare issues.BARANDAO, JEAN-MARIE
Jean-Marie Barandao was born in 1937 in Siou Birgou, Doufelgou District, and educated in Bénin (at the Ouidah Seminary) and in Togo. Barandao joined the Togolese Statistical Office in 1962. With the arrival of the Éyadéma regime in 1967, he was appointed interim Directeur de Cabinet (Permanent Secretary) the Ministry of Finance. Between 1967 and 1969, Barandao served as Préfet of Bafilo and Aného. In 1969 he was appointed Ambassador to France, returning to Togo in 1974 to continue his career in the civil service.BIRREGAH, EMMANUEL
Emmanuel Birregah was the son of the Paramount Chief (Chef Supérieur) of the Lossos (i.e. the inhabitants of the Doufelgou Prefecture). In 1952, during the final years of the French mandate in Togo, he was one of the founders of the Northern regional political party, the Union of Chiefs and Populations of the North (L'Union des Chefs et des Populations du Nord - UCPN) that was allied with the Togolese Progress Party (Parti Togolais du Progrès - PTP) of Nicolas GrunitzkyNicolas Grunitzky
Nicolas Grunitzky was the third president of Togo. He was President from 1963 to 1967.-Biography:He was born in Atakpamé to a German father and a Togolese mother. He studied civil engineering at the ESTP in Paris and was a public administrator before leaving to form his own company...
. In 1969, he was one of a group of young men referred to as the "Group of Ten" (Groupe de Dix). They were called upon by President Gnassingbé Etienne Eyadéma to carry out the national public consultation campaign that led to the creation the single national political party, the Togo People's Assembly (Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais - RPT) on August 30, 1969. He was Chief of the Secretariat at the Ministry of Finance. He died on October 27, 1999.
DADJO, KLÉBER, COLONEL
Col. Kléber DadjoKléber Dadjo
Kléber Dadjo served as Interim President of Togo in his role as Chairman of the National Reconciliation Committee from 14 January 1967 to 14 April 1967 following the overthrow of President Nicolas Grunitzky's government....
, was born in Siou, Doufelgou District, on August 12, 1914. Col. Dadjo served in the British Army during World War II and in the French Army in the IndoChina and Algeria conflicts. At the time of Togo's independence in 1960, he was the longest-serving and highest-ranking Togolese in the French Army. He held the rank of Captain and commanded Togo's tiny defense force, the Garde Togolaise. He was promoted to Major and eventually to Colonel after the 1963 coup d'état and served as head of the military cabinet of President Nicolas Grunitzky
Nicolas Grunitzky
Nicolas Grunitzky was the third president of Togo. He was President from 1963 to 1967.-Biography:He was born in Atakpamé to a German father and a Togolese mother. He studied civil engineering at the ESTP in Paris and was a public administrator before leaving to form his own company...
. After the second military coup d'état on January 13, 1967, Dadjo was named interim President of Togo (as Chairman of the Comité National de Reconciliation), a position that he held until April 14, 1967, when Lt. Col. Gnassingbé Etienne Eyadéma was named President. From 1967 through 1968, he served as Minister of Justice. In 1968, he retired and returned to his home in Siou where he became Chef de Canton. He died in 1988 or 1989. In 2006, Col. Dadjo was recognized by the government of President Faure Gnassingbé
Faure Gnassingbé
Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé has been the President of Togo since May 4, 2005. A son of President Gnassingbé Eyadéma, he was appointed to the government by his father, serving as Minister of Equipment, Mines, Posts, and Telecommunications from 2003 to 2005...
along with former Presidents Sylvanus Olympio and Nicolas Grunitzky and former Vice-President Antoine Méatchi as part of a decision to rehabilitate the image of Togo's previous leaders. The former avenue de la Nouvelle Marche in Lomé was renamed avenue Kléber Dadjo in his honor. Col. Dadjo is frequently and erroneously identified in print as a Kabyé rather than a Nawde (or Losso).
NGUITA, ODILE BARARMNA
Mme. Odile Bararmna Nguita was named Chef de Canton of Niamtougou on May 13, 2004, one of only three women Canton Chiefs in Togo at that time.YWASSA, LÉONARD BAGUILMA
Léonard Baguilma Ywassa was born on December 1, 1926, in Koka, Doulfelgou Prefecture. Ywassa was an agronomist who graduated from the Agricultural College of Nancy (France). In the 1950s, he served in several positions of the agricultural services. He was active in the UDPT political party (l'Union Démocratique des Populations Togolaises) that resulted from a de facto fusion of the UCPN (Union des Chefs et des Populations du Nord) with the PTP (Parti Togolais du Progrès) of Nicolas GrunitzkyNicolas Grunitzky
Nicolas Grunitzky was the third president of Togo. He was President from 1963 to 1967.-Biography:He was born in Atakpamé to a German father and a Togolese mother. He studied civil engineering at the ESTP in Paris and was a public administrator before leaving to form his own company...
. He held a ministerial post under Grunitzky from 1956 until the latter's ouster in the elections of 1958. He was an opposition politician of the UDPT under Sylvanus Olympio
Sylvanus Olympio
Sylvanus Epiphanio Olympio was a Togolese political figure who served as Prime Minister, and then President, of Togo from 1958 until his assassination in 1963.-Political career:...
's CUT government until opposition parties were banned and a single-party state was created in 1962. When Grunitzky assumed power after the January 13, 1963, coup d'état, he served as Director of Agriculture and then Minister of Rural Economy until Grunitzky was overthrown in the January 13, 1967, coup. In 1968, he was named Ambassador to France, Great Britain and the European Economic Community and later served in several high-level positions in the Ministry of Rural Development until his retirement in 1986. He died in 2004.