Sokodé

Sokodé is the second largest city in Togo, with a population of about 189,000.[1] It is a commercial center for the surrounding agricultural areas, and seat of the Tchaoudjo Prefecture and Centrale Region. It is in the center of the country, 339 kilometres (211 mi) north of Lomé, between the Mo and Mono rivers. It is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious city, but is dominated by Islam. The ethnic majority are Kotokolis, who live alongside Muslims. Ancient indigenous stock of the region mixed with more recent migrants of Gurma, from the eastern part of the Niger Bend, between Ouagadougou and Niamey, who brought the political system of chiefdoms with them.[2] Added to this structure were Sudanese traders and craftsmen (the Mandinka, from historic Mali) and Hausa, a dynamic force since the 16th century. By choosing, in late 1897, to establish an outpost at Sokodé, Germans entrenched the role of the now dominant Kotokoli chiefdoms. The city developed in precolonial times as a commercial crossroads on the Kola nut route between Ghana and Benin. Currently it is center on the only north-south road in Togo, linking the capital Lomé to Burkina Faso. Urbanization accelerated during colonization. The city consists of older villages that have now become neighborhoods.[2]