Background
Joachim Hunlede was born on February 2, 1925, in Anecho.
Joachim Hunlede was born on February 2, 1925, in Anecho.
He trained first of all as a teacher, and then took a law degree. He was Assistant Inspector of Schools in northern Togo, and teacher at the Ecole Normale in Atakpame from 1953 to 1956. In 1958 he graduated from the French National Overseas College in Paris and entered the administration, first as Deputy Mayor of Lome, then as Commandant de Cercle and Mayor of Tsevie.
In 1960, on independence, he was appointed by President Olympio as Ambassador to France and was also accredited to Great Britain and the EEC, concentrating a major portion of Togo’s overseas representation in the hands of one man. He remained in the job under President Grunitzky, who thought so highly of his abilities that he brought him back to become High Commissioner for the Plan. It was Eyadema who brought him in as Foreign Minister when he took over as head of government (after three months as Head of State), and has found him so useful that he has never had cause to dispense with his services.
Believed by some to work closely with the French, Hunlede has nonetheless been associated with such moves as the development of ties with Nigeria and staying out of the Francophone West African Economic Community. The boosting of Eyadema as an African figure, which culminated in Lome’s hosting of the Afro-Malagasy Joint Organisation summit in 1972, was in part Hunlede’s work. Initially doubtful about the party decision to recognise Peking, he later went there himself and helped negotiate a large loan.
One of the better known figures on the international diplomatic circuit, he has a reputation as an accomplished negotiator and technocrat. The most important civilian in the government of General Eyadema, he is often regarded as an “eminence grise”.