Togo 2004 – seminar report

Dates of seminar: The anamed seminar in Natural Medicine was held from Monday 1^st to Friday 5^th November 2004. Two further days on forestry and solar energy were organised by Salem.

Location: Bassar, Togo, 400 km north of Lomé, in the gymnasium of the secondary school.

Organiser: Bruderschaft Salem, based in Stadtsteinach, Frankenwald, Germany. I was together with the Director, Samuel Müller, Jonas Lange from Salem Germany and the local Salem organiser, Gbati Nikabou.

Background:

a)     The country. Togo is a small French speaking West African country with a population of about 5 million sandwiched between Ghana to the West and Benin to the East.

Local affairs are controlled by a “Prefect”, a government administrator, who must approve any new activity or any meeting in his “Prefecture”.

No conference or seminar had been held in Bassar for several years. Salem had had to do a tremendous amount of public relations work to gain approval to run this event. In fact, permission was only finally given two days before the seminar began.

b)     Salem. With projects in several countries, Salem has an emphasis on peace, compassion, tree planting and vegetarianism. In Togo, Salem supports an elderly and extremely fit German lady doctor, Dr Heimer, who for about 15 years has been working with only local colleagues in a rural setting near Kpalime in the south-west. She uses aloe a great deal, and now, thanks to Salem, has many moringa trees. Since 2001, Salem has also supported Gbati Nikabou, a Togolese former teacher in Bassar who has been promoting tree-planting in that area.

c)     The seminar. Following increased contact and cooperation between Salem and anamed over the past two to three years, Salem invited anamed to run a week-long seminar to stimulate a programme of Natural Medicine to run alongside its tree planting programme in the Bassar area.

Because of the lack of tradition in Togo of training events, seminars or conferences, and therefore the lack of any suitable conference centre, Salem had to organise absolutely everything. Preparations began two years ago by identifying a possible seminar venue and finding suitable accommodation for participants from farther a field. Then the minutiae of organising tables and chairs, working out how to set up a temporary kitchen with cooking facilities, finding volunteers willing to do the catering, hiring a generator to cover power cuts, finding cutlery and crockery, repairing the broken toilets, arranging overnight security and so on. It was a mammoth job, but, in the event, everything ran superbly.

The participants

There were 33 participants. They were all men, 7 from Lomé, 1 from Gabon and 25 from Bassar. All were French speaking, and the vast majority were well educated. All seemed to be highly motivated. They had all responded positively to the invitation to attend.

Of the Lomé people, three were from a project connected to ULOG in Switzerland, and brought two solar ovens with them. Two paying guests came as a result of information on the internet, one from Lomé and one from Gabon.

The majority were Christian. Five or six were Moslem.

The seminar was held in the sports hall of the secondary school, which had 1500 pupils and 27 teachers, including the Head. Ten of these school staff members, including the Head, attended the seminar for the entire week. The others were healers, agriculturalists or belonged to a relevant NGO.

In addition there were 5 “observers”, students who had been told that they may sit on the sidelines and watch what happened. Also 5 “helpers” were there to do the fetching and carrying of tables, chairs, materials etc. As the week went on, it became more and more difficult to differentiate between participants and those in other roles, as they all became fully engrossed in the programme.

Six volunteers from Lomé did all the catering. They produced excellent and varied vegetarian meals. Each day they successfully fed 54 people, having been asked to cater for 38!

Included within the participants were a representative of the Ministry of Home Affairs and a journalist (for the Government controlled newspaper). Also, on the first morning, 3 policemen were present – though thereafter we scarcely saw them. The seminar was officially opened by the Prefect, and he also officiated at the closing ceremony when participants received their certificates.

The seminar content

The five days followed the pattern:

Mornings: A substantial theory input, e.g. malaria, HIV/AIDS, diarrhoea, wounds and skin care.

Afternoons: Practical work.

Early evening: Groupwork or pictures.

Particular features of this event were:

a)     The production of medicines; eucalyptus tincture, chilli and neem ointment, black stones, anti-amoeba tea, garlic oil, garlic honey, scabies oil, neem tooth powder and soap.

b)     The creation of a garden of medicinal plants in the grounds of the school, which the head teacher promised would continue to be looked after and used in the educationa of the school children.

c)     Each seminar participant contributed 1000 francs (about 1.5 Euro) to buy one of the solar ovens that had been brought from Lomé for the reduced price of 30,000. This was then given to the school, which promised to establish a “solar energy club”.

d)     In the solar oven rice and eggs were cooked, and bread was baked.

e)     Each morning we drank a different herbal tea, and each afternoon the juice of lemons, oranges or grapefruit.

f)       On the last afternoon the participants performed a remarkable number of songs and poems; and a good drama based on the story of Zamenga. This is the story of a child who suffered diarrhoea, who would have died had it not been for the knowledge of Natural Medicine.

g)     On the last afternoon of the seminar the participants elected a committee of 5 people to coordinate Natural Medicine activities in the Bassar region.

h)     I had a sense that a remarkable proportion of the participants would be implementing what they had learnt. Some said that they would establish a medicinal garden in each school and institution (e.g. the hospital) in Bassar.

i)       The Moslems expressed a deep appreciation that they had been treated with dignity and respect.

j)       At least one participant intends to document the locally used medicinal plants.

k)     Immediately following the seminar Salem organised two further days for a larger number of people which featured in particular tree-planting and solar energy. This included a symbolic tree-planting ceremony on the school campus.

Finance

All expenditure was covered by Salem Germany through the generosity of private supporters..

Acknowledgements

To Samuel Müller, Jonas Lange and Gbati Nikabou of Salem, who had the vision for this initiative, worked tirelessly to enable it to happen, organised everything to a high standard and, through their generous supporters, provided the necessary finance.

To the Prefect, who had the courage to allow our seminar to take place.

To the Togo Embassy in Berlin, who went to great lengths to support the application for permission to hold the seminar.

To the Head teacher of the school, who gave his full support, allowed us to meet in his school and who promises to develop environmental work further within the school.

Wider networking

With Gbati Nikabou and Jonas Lange I paid two visits to the Ministry of Health in Lomé. Dr Assih Palakassi, head of the Department of Traditional Medicine, showed great interest in our seminar, and in the anamed malaria programme.

The Future

Gbati Nikabou is a competent and devoted Salem worker who will continue his work with a tree nursery and tree planting. He will now also promote Natural Medicine. He will work together with the newly appointed committee.

Other observations

1.     Bassar is a big centre for the production and collection of charcoal. Many big lorries leave every week for Lomé, from where a lot of charcoal is exported (perhaps to Europe). Most trees used for this purpose are hardwood, slow-growing trees such as karité (the shea butter tree, Vitellaria paradoxa). Gbati Nikabou is doing his utmost to sensitise the population regarding how useful karité is and how important it is to plant new trees.

2.     Between Lomé and Bassar are an amazing number of teak trees. Managed by the state, they survive the frequent fires in the dry season.

3.     An old iron mine, which dates from before Christ, lies about 5 km from Bassar. The old kilns are protected by roofs provided by UNESCO. On a Sunday afternoon we were the only visitors. The site is scarcely known in the town.

4.     Although I had the impression that, as a whole, Togo has a higher standard of living than Uganda and Kenya, standards of hygiene are far from perfect. Samuel and I were accommodated in Hotel Bassar, the most “prestigious” hotel in the town. In the past there had been tourists, but today this state run facility is very basic, but it was clean and the toilet and shower worked. Next to the hotel drive was an open rubbish dump. Each morning children used this dump as a toilet. Only about 20 metres away, and below this spot, were the first houses.

5.     Several teachers had other interests. They were lively people, and probably needed a second income. Their salaries were being paid two to three months in arrears. Martin, my translator, worked on the local radio and his wife managed a beer bar. Another teacher ran the internet café and worked as a volunteer in an AIDS NGO.

Keith Lindsey

November 2004