Kara & the North

The north's hills and valleys long served as refuges. The Kabye settled the steep hills around what is now Kara, farming them intensively in stone terraces, while the Batammariba built their fortified tower-houses in the Koutammakou, on the border with Benin, and resisted raids from their neighbours. In the plains to the north lived the Moba and Gourma, and the Anufo (Chakosi) settled around Mango. Bassar, to the south-west of Kara, was an important centre of iron smelting and trade.

German forces pushed north in the 1890s and met resistance from several northern peoples. The Kabye hills were crowded, and many Kabye have long worked as migrant labourers elsewhere in the country.

After independence the north gained political weight. Gnassingbé Eyadéma, who took power in 1967, was from Pya, near Kara, and under his rule Kara grew rapidly from the 1970s into a regional capital. The Kabye, Togo's second-largest ethnic group, are strongly represented in the government and the army. The Savanes region, on the border with Burkina Faso, has been hit by jihadist attacks linked to the war in the Sahel, and the government declared a state of emergency there in June 2022, extending it several times.

Kabye is the main language of the Kara region and one of Togo's two national languages, with Ewe, while French is the official language; Tem, Lamba, Nawdm, Ditammari, Moba, Gourma and Anufo are among the others spoken in the north. Traditional religion remains strong, alongside Christianity and Islam, which is the majority faith in trading towns such as Bafilo.

The Kabye mark the stages of life through initiation. The Evala, held each July, sees young men wrestle in a series of bouts that mark their passage to adulthood, while the Akpema is the equivalent rite for young women. Among the Batammariba, the takienta — a two-storey earthen house with granaries, sleeping rooms and shrines — is itself a sacred space, and building one is a communal act, with the form linked to beliefs about the family and the ancestors.

Crafts include the cotton weaving of Bafilo and the ironworking tradition of the Bassar country, which lasted into the mid-20th century. Markets rotate between villages on fixed days.

Kara, with about 95,000 people in 2010, is the north's main city, a regional capital with a university founded in 2004. Niamtougou, Bafilo, Bassar, Kandé, Mango and Dapaong are the other main towns, and most people live in farming villages.

The economy is farming: sorghum, millet, maize and yams, with cotton as the main cash crop in the Savanes, groundnuts, and cattle in the drier north. Women gather shea nuts and néré seeds. Many young people migrate south to Lomé or abroad, and the region remains poorer than the coast.

Life follows the farming season: busy during the rains, when fields are planted, and slower in the dry season, when markets, funerals and festivals fill the calendar. In the Savanes, insecurity has displaced people from villages near the border, and access to fields and markets has been disrupted.

The staple is pâte, a stiff dough of sorghum, millet or maize flour, eaten with sauces of leaves, okra or groundnut, often seasoned with fermented néré seeds, a pungent seasoning used across West Africa. Yams are grown in quantity around Bassar and are pounded into fufu or boiled.

Guinea fowl, goat and beef are grilled or cooked in sauces for festivals, and roadside grills in Kara sell brochettes of meat. Shea butter is used for cooking in many villages.

Tchoukoutou, a millet or sorghum beer brewed by women and served in calabashes, is the region's drink and part of every celebration; in Muslim towns, sweet millet drinks and bissap are more common.

The Koutammakou, north of Kandé on the border with Benin, is the north's great sight: a UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape of takienta tower-houses scattered among fields and shrines, where local guides lead visits to inhabited houses. Kara itself is a base, with its market and the surrounding Kabye hills, where stone-terraced fields and villages of round houses can be explored on foot, and where the Evala wrestling is held.

South of Kara, the Fazao-Malfakassa National Park covers wooded hills and savanna along the line between the Centrale and Kara regions. It is Togo's largest park, but wildlife is sparse and visitor facilities are limited. Bassar and Bafilo are small towns on the edge of the hills.

In the far north, Dapaong sits in the open savanna of the Savanes region, with baobabs, millet fields and rocky outcrops, and the cave granaries of Nok nearby. Because of the security situation, several governments advise against travel to the region.