'Good Muslim, Bad Muslim' in Togo: The Construction of a Religious Minority Amid a Constitutional Crisis (2017–2018)

Historically, Togo’s Muslim minority has played a negligible role in politics. However, the constitutional crisis that erupted in 2017 when unprecedented anti-government protests spread across the country, demanding an end to the fifty-years of rule by the Gnassingbé family, attracted attention as an apparent Islamic “awakening”. Tikpi Atchadam, the new opposition figurehead, built a strong popular base in the center and north of the country, especially among Muslims and his Tem ethnic group, in regions that were traditionally strongholds of the ruling regime. This paper will examine the “good/bad Muslim” rhetoric used by the Togolese state which has equated Muslims’ outspoken criticism of the regime with a dangerous rise of political Islam. Atchadam and his Parti National Panafricain (PNP) were regularly accused of links to violent Islamist radicals. Two well-known imams who were close to the PNP, were also imprisoned for issuing calls for jihad against the state. Furthermore, I argue that these events reflect latent intergenerational conflicts within the Muslim community. The tacit support given by Union Musulmane du Togo representatives—the “good Muslims”— to the regime on its management of the crisis has seriously undermined their credibility among youth and have contributed to the emergence of new voices.