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Sylvanus Épiphanio Olympio (; 6 September 1902 – 13 January 1963) was a Togolese politician who was prime minister, and then president, of Togo from 1958 until his assassination in 1963. He came from the important Olympio family, which included his uncle Octaviano Olympio, one of the richest people in Togo in the early 1900s.
After graduating from the London School of Economics, he worked for Unilever and became the general manager of the African operations of that company. After World War II, Olympio became prominent in efforts for independence of Togo and his party won the 1958 election, making him the prime minister of the country. His power was further cemented when Togo achieved independence and he won the 1961 election, making him the first president of Togo. He was assassinated during the 1963 Togolese coup d'état.
His early education was at the German Catholic school in Lomé, which his uncle Octaviano had built for the Society for the Divine Word. Following that, he began study at the London School of Economics, where he studied economics under Harold Laski. Upon graduation, he worked for Unilever first in Nigeria and then in the Gold Coast. By 1929, he was located to be the head of Unilever operations in Togoland.
In 1938, he remained in Lomé, but was promoted to become the general manager of the United Africa Company's, then part of Unilever, operations throughout Africa. During this time he married Dina Grunitzky, a woman of mixed Ghanaian and German Polish heritage. She was born in Keta (Ghana) as a member of the Amegashie royal family. They had five children together: Bonito, Rosita, Gilchrist, Sylvana and Elpidio.
During World War II, the colony came under the control of the Vichy France government which treated the Olympio family with general suspicion because of their ties to the British. Olympio was arrested in 1942 and held under constant surveillance in the remote city of Djougou in French Dahomey. The imprisonment would permanently change his view toward the French and he would become active in pushing for independence of Togo at the end of the war.
Olympio's party boycotted most of the elections during the 1950s within Togo because of the heavy French involvement in the elections (including the 1956 election that made Nicolas Grunitzky, the brother to Olympio's wife, the Prime Minister of the colony as head of the Togolese Progress Party). In 1954, Olympio was arrested by the French authorities and his right to vote and run for office were suspended. However, his petitions to the Trusteeship Council led to the 1958 elections where French control over the elections were limited, although involvement remained significant and Olympio's CUT party was able to win every elected position in the national council. The French were then forced to restore Olympio's right to hold office and he became the Prime Minister of the Togo colony and began pressing for independence.
From 1958 until 1961, Olympio served as the prime minister of Togo and also served as the minister of finance, minister of foreign affairs, and minister of justice for the colony. He connected with many of the other independence struggles throughout the continent; for example making Ahmed Sékou Touré, first president of Guinea, conseiller special to his government in 1960. In 1961, as part of the transition of power away from French control, the country voted for a president and affirmed the Constitution developed by Olympio and his party. Olympio defeated Grunitzky with over 90% of the vote to become the first president of Togo and the Constitution was approved.
Relations between the two countries became very tense after 1961 with multiple assassination attempts against each leader resulting in accusations against the other leader and domestic repression leading to refugees receiving support from the other country. Exiles opposing Nkrumah organized in Togo and exiles opposing Olympio organized in Ghana creating a very tense atmosphere.
His austere spending was most significant in the realm of military policy. Initially, Olympio had pushed for Togo to have no military when it achieved independence, but with threats from Nkrumah being a concern, he agreed to a small military (only about 250 soldiers). However, an increasing number of French troops began returning to their homes in Togo and were not provided enlistment in the limited Togolese military because of its small size. Emmanuel Bodjolle and Kléber Dadjo, the leaders in the Togo military, repeatedly tried to get Olympio to increase funding and enlist more of the ex-French army troops returning to the country, but were unsuccessful. On 24 September 1962, Olympio rejected the personal plea by Étienne Eyadéma, a sergeant in the French military, to join the Togolese military. On 7 January 1963, Dadjo again presented a request for enlisting ex-French troops and Olympio reportedly tore up the request.
At the same time, Togo largely became a one-party state during Olympio's presidency. Following a 1961 unsuccessful attempt on Olympio's life in which Grunitzky's Togolese Progress Party and the Juvento movement under Antoine Meatchi were accused, the opposition was outlawed. Meatchi was imprisoned for a brief period before being exiled and other opposition leaders left the country. The result was that Olympio maintained a significant amount of authority and his party dominated political life.
The assassination sent shock waves throughout Africa. Guinea, Liberia, the Ivory Coast, and Tanganyika all denounced the coup and the assassination, while only Senegal and Ghana (and to a lesser extent Benin) recognized the government of Grunitzky and Meatchi until elections in May. The government of Togo was excluded from the Addis Ababa Conference which formed the Organisation of African Unity later that year as a result of the coup.
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