Word: olympio
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...figure of Nkrumah no longer looms so large as it did, for Nkrumah's highhanded suppression of those who oppose him has offended other leaders. "Ghanocracy," snorts Premier Mamadou Dia of Senegal, "does not interest us." And Premier Sylvanus Olympio of Togoland, on Ghana's border, wants to delay his own country's independence until Nigeria gets its in 1960, on the simple theory that Nigeria's 34.7 million people would never bow to Nkrumah...
...ended there, it would have had its share of irony. The Premier of Togoland, Sylvanus Olympic, against whom the plot was presumably directed, has long been a thorn in the French side. A graduate of the London School of Economics and a top African executive in Unilever (Lever Bros.), Olympio lobbied so successfully in Paris and at the U.N. that he wangled from a reluctant Paris the promise of independence...
...vociferous Juvento Party, Olympic had turned out to be a moderate. The Juvento demand ouster of the French and union with Ghana. It was strange, of course, that the Ghanaians, who had so much to gain from Togoland's Juvento and so much to lose with Olympio, should be the very ones to warn of a Juvento plot against him. But the French apparently did not take time to think about that...
...Olympio was right, and four days later the French withdrew with what dignity they could. But what about the Ghana story of a plot? Was it just a trap to embarrass Olympio? In Accra officials said nothing, and Paris thought it best to do the same. Sighed one Parisian official helplessly: "Charmant...
Last May, after his party was swept into power, Olympio proclaimed: "We are masters of our own house." Last month he flew up to Paris to make sure. Though the De Gaulle government has always been sympathetic to his demands, he was sternly told: "If it is independence you have come for, you can have it now and face immediate withdrawal of French administrative and financial aid." Olympio protested that this was no way to treat a U.N. trusteeship. Agreeing that Olympio had a point, the French promised to help train the Togolese to take full control of currency, defense...