From the beach, your feet buried in the sand, you look toward a long strip of land inviting you to take a day off to explore it from top to bottom – or from one end to the other. Aneho, to the east, is very beautiful. Between its ancient houses, the sea kissing the lake and its cultural waves, the faces allow us to glimpse the history of this land, a history of water, fire and winds from elsewhere. Lomé, the capital of these peaceful regions, is a port city like PE. You seldom hear the sirens of ships returning to the port there, which is at odds with the stories of mermaids that grandmothers tell their grandchildren. The interior is abuzz with the rhythmic patterns of rural activities that are still manual. Irrigated fields like those along the road to Somerset East are nowhere to be seen. Instead, there will be many familiar faces of workers, their backs bent to the ground, and you will stop to greet them as you go, thereby doubling or even tripling the actual travel time.
The first thing a Togolese will notice when arriving in South Africa is the immensity of the country. When you fly across the country, the feeling that a “full hour” has passed between the announcement of the landing and the landing itself surely has something to do with this. If luck is on your side, and you get a window seat flying to PE, the view of the mountain range and, upon arrival, the sand dunes will take your breath away. If you love nature, you will be reminded, when stopping to let a troop of baboons cross the road, that humans still share their environment with other species and that the pinnacle of humanity is finding harmony in this.
If Joburg is an Atakpamé with more buildings, a better infrastructure of roads and red roofs, the Togolese city of seven hills has the merit of having sheltered not Mandela, but Grunitzky, the illustrious politician who fought for the independence of Togo, his country. On this side of the Atlantic Ocean, the ocean that my country shares with South Africa, our country is one of the few exceptions that didn’t change their name when becoming independent. This makes the name changes in the country of Walter Battiss and Jakes Gerwel, though understandable, interesting. (By the way, did the two of them actually meet?) Nowadays you say KwaNojoli to refers to Somerset East. In my opinion, as long as running enthusiasts show up at the parkrun on Saturday morning instead of 20 km from Stellenbosch at my friend Willem’s home in search of wine, name changes don’t matter!
In Lomé, the consequences of drinking too much can come with a brutal reminder of the linguistic subtleties of the Ewe language. Especially on 13 January, your map can send you to Olympio’s grave in Agouegan instead of taking you to the ayimolou seller where your pals, each holding a bissap, are waiting for you in a narrow road in Agoé. Luckily there were enough roses in the garden at Paulet House for wreaths. And you start praying to the old gods that Asky, which connects West Africa to South Africa, will welcome some of these roses on board the airplane. If not, let them bloom in the streets of Soweto or see them light up the face of a hostess at Gqeberha airport.
What is a country without its inhabitants? Here, in Togo, they are my people. In my image. Men and women of culture. There, in South Africa, I found myself in the people too. Men and women of culture. With the same fears and the same hopes. Shows and theatres are absent from Togo, but abound in South Africa. On both sides, poetry is all-present. The earth binds us, the water solidifies us.
At Paulet House, your taste is always refined and the hands that do so are generous. Like all the souls who make stays pleasant, non-stop laughter and everlasting memories. A story of people who travel and who immigrate. Who sometimes feel at home and sometimes not. These traces that you may happen upon, during your readings, in the visitor’s book of Paulet House and not – perish the thought! – engraved in the mountains at the Glen Avon Falls, testify to this: From Togo with love …
Kwassi Logos, also known as Belizem on the internet, is an author, interpreter, blogger and columnist from Togo. As an Afro-pragmatist with years of experience in the mining industry, Kwassi Logos is very aware of the challenges that prevent the African continent from properly taking off and playing its part in the globalisation of our lives on all levels, especially where literature and the expression of new ideas are concerned. He joined PEN Togo in February 2022 to make his contribution to the association’s vision of ‘bringing together writers of all persuasions committed to the values of peace, tolerance and freedom, without which creation would be impossible’.
