A Different Kind of Union: An assassination, diplomatic recognition, and competing visions of African unity in Ghana-Togo relations (1956-63)

This chapter argues that the January 1963 assassination of Togolese President Sylvanus Olympio was significant in the debates and outcomes of the first meeting of the Organisation of African Unity five months later. The Olympio assassination raised fundamental questions for African leaders about the status of national borders inherited from the colonial era; the meaning of national sovereignty in situations where many new African states were tied to former colonial powers through currency, trade, budgetary, and defence arrangements; under what conditions the intervention of one African state in the affairs of another could be justified; and whether the diplomatic recognition of new national governments brought about through coups should be a matter for each African state to decide, or the subject of collective decision-making. (124 words)