Gandalf Around The World: Kara, Togo

2019-07-21: Evala Festival.

It is mainly in the prefecture of Kozah, home of Kabyè people, that Evala held annually in July. Originally initiation, they became a national cultural festival with concerts, participation of folk groups and fashion shows, taking place over one week in the Kara region.

Kara Evara Festival.

Evala is a form of wrestling whose purpose is to overthrow his opponent. It is the very first initiation into the adolescent man life of Kabiyé.

The traditional aspect of the ceremony is revealed by the presence of community elders. It is these wise men who ensure compliance with the rules, ensuring the management and arbitration of tournaments.

The Togo includes forty ethnic groups whose Kabyè Kozah, peasants, living in the North East to nearly 430 kilometers north of Lome.
Covering an area of 1075 km2 the Kozah Prefecture, capital of the region of the Kara, count approximately 225 259 inhabitants, city of Kara included.

It should be remembered that it was in the middle of the 18th century that the first Evala events as a challenge took place with the coronation of two atypical characters: a certain Tchablime from the village of Kpédaw and his adversary, Fawokézié de Kolidè. It was strange to note in these two precursors Evala wrestling that: the first had a size of more than 2m, with a Herculean body size, while the second measured only 1.40m. Thus, the first traditional wrestling recorded in Kabyè countries date back to 1785 with the fight between Tchablime and Fawokézié. At the end of this historic duel, it was the myrmidon that defeated the colossus. Throughout the village, the giant will be booed and mocked. From that moment, with the intention of washing away such an affront, the virus of competition then spread throughout the Kozah.

Today is the last day of Evala festival that began on July 11 this year. And today the champion will be decided.

Entrance is free. First we try to orient ourselves a bit, Christine's instinct leads us directly to the right place. Chairs are being installed, the first two rows are for the protocol but the others are free. So we will sit there in the third row with four or five young ladies, French and German, who works in a village north of Lome for N.G.O.

The Festival begins with traditional dances.

The show begins with some traditional dances before the wrestling champions from the different cantons enter the fray. There will be a total of 18 fights since the knockout stages until the final. Each fight consists of a first round of six minutes, if the round ends without a winner a six minutes second round will follow after a one-minute break and if at the end of the second round there is still no winner a third round will follow without time limit until one of the opponents is down.

Champions motivate themselves by dancing until they enter a trance!

We will see practically all types of scenarios: very fast victories, victories in the first round after a few minutes of observation, victories in the second round and even a very long fight during a quarter-final which will be decided by drawing by lot after three quarters of an hour of fight.

Injuries are quite common: strains, dislocated joints or even fractures are not uncommon.

An injured champion must be taken out on a stretcher!

The awards ceremony is very long and a bit chaotic. Police formed a security cordon to keep spectators at bay.

We managed to advance to the grandstand with the VIPs.

We bought a CD from the gospel singer who made a small performance during an interlude. It is a famous singer in Togo, Cecile Meba. Christine takes the photo when it passes us, which encourages the upcoming sit with us to chat a bit and especially to have their picture taken with us. Christine takes the opportunity to have her autograph our CD.