Northern Togo: A bad place for a protest movement
Kparatao village in northern Togo has become the epicentre of a challenge to Africa's longest-ruling dynasty
With its dirt roads of red earth, children playing with old tyres and succession of dilapidated mosques, northern Togo is an unlikely home for a movement that's challenging Africa's longest-ruling political dynasty.
But small, out-of-the-way Kparatao is where Tikpi Atchadam was born to a local farmer and food seller in 1967 and spent his childhood.
Until just a few weeks ago, the former law student, hailed by his supporters as someone who "stops power from sleeping", was a relative unknown.
But the head of the Panafrican National Party (PNP) has become the new face of Togolese opposition after organising the recent mass protests against President Faure Gnassinge.
In Kparatao as in the neighbouring city of Sokode, most of the street lights don't work while the tarmac doesn't go beyond the main road linking Togo with Burkina Faso.
With its dirt roads of red earth, children playing with old tyres and succession of dilapidated mosques, northern Togo is an unlikely home for a movement that's challenging Africa's longest-ruling political dynasty.
But small, out-of-the-way Kparatao is where Tikpi Atchadam was born to a local farmer and food seller in 1967 and spent his childhood.
Until just a few weeks ago, the former law student, hailed by his supporters as someone who "stops power from sleeping", was a relative unknown.
But the head of the Panafrican National Party (PNP) has become the new face of Togolese opposition after organising the recent mass protests against President Faure Gnassinge.
In Kparatao as in the neighbouring city of Sokode, most of the street lights don't work while the tarmac doesn't go beyond the main road linking Togo with Burkina Faso.
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