The Unification Imperative: The 1956 Trans-Volta Togoland Plebiscite and the Forging of Ghana's Eastern Frontier

German Togoland was one of Imperial Germany's smallest African colonies, established on 5 July 1884 when Gustav Nachtigal signed a treaty with Chief Mlapa III of Togoville on the shores of Lake Togo. The colony stretched 90,000 square kilometres from the Bight of Benin inland to the Sahel, encompassing diverse peoples — Ewe along the coast, Dagomba and Konkomba in the north, Akan groups in the west.

When war erupted in August 1914, the colony fell within three weeks. On 26 August 1914, British and French forces captured the powerful Kamina wireless station near Atakpamé, severing Germany's communications link between its African territories and Berlin. The formal Anglo-French partition came on 27 December 1916 under the Milner-Simon Agreement: France received the larger eastern portion (roughly two-thirds, 60,000 km²), while Britain took the narrow western strip (33,776 km²) running along the Gold Coast border.

Under the League of Nations Class B Mandate (ratified 20 July 1922), British Togoland was administered as part of the adjacent Gold Coast colony, initially called Trans-Volta Togo (TVT). The capital was established at Ho, in the heart of Ewe territory. The British governed the territory through indirect rule, co-opting existing chieftaincy structures. The southern section was incorporated into the Gold Coast's administrative system, while the northern districts (Dagomba, Gonja, Mamprusi areas) were folded into the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast.

After World War II, the mandate converted to a United Nations Trust Territory (13 December 1946) under Chapter XII of the UN Charter. Unlike a mandate, the trusteeship arrangement required the administering authority to promote self-government and report annually to the UN Trusteeship Council. Visiting missions in 1952 and 1955 documented growing political consciousness among the territory's approximately 440,000 inhabitants.