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Journal of African trips

Africa, spring 1999 part IV

Agelasto
2004-05-21 18:30:15

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government knows the phone numbers of all Togo?s police
stations, as the country has a single phone book). He tells me, yes, indeed, that USA
nationals have to pay for visas, that it does not really surprise him that border officials are
not familiar with rules that have been in effect for over a year. Though he has more tact
than to tell me what he thinks of Togo as a country, he seems to share my general
condescending observations.

So I pay for a visa, which is good only for 7 days, rather than the 30 days, that USA
citizens are entitled to. The staff of this police station tell me they only have one stamp,
that for 7 days, so they cannot issue the visa I am entitled to get. They suggest that I get
an extension in Lome, the Togo capital. (The US consular official tells me that the Lome
office almost never issues extensions; people overstay their visas and nothing much seems
to happen, he mentions). I had once met a traveler who had a similar problem in Ghana;
he told me that the way you get an extension in Ghana is to hide an Andrew Jackson (US
$20 note) between the pages of the passport, in addition to the required fee. Togo is
much less sophisticated than Ghana; I suppose that an Alexander Hamilton (US $10)
could buy a visa extension in Lome.

So that?s my story about arrest in Togo. After Togo we visit Benin (it used to be called
Dahomey). Its capital city, Cotonou, is the most disgusting and disfigured city I have ever
visited. It is crowded, noisy and smelly (on its good days resembling Taibei or Bangkok on their bad days). Cotonou has few busses or taxis; public transit is by way of motor
scooters called zimi-djans (the drivers of these mobylettes wear official yellow jerseys with
their assigned number), of which there are several hundred thousand producing plenty of
fumes and noise and scary rides. As one who ...