Labor Day “En Form”

May 1st is Labor Day in Togo. This national holiday is only outperformed by the week-long New Year's celebration. The Labor Day festivities begin with a parade. All the unions march together according to their trade and in matching outfits. Then, akin to our own labor day celebrations in America, the parade is followed by grilled meat and beer.

My counterpart, Foumilayo, invited me to join her family and friends for the holiday by dressing “en form” and sharing a roasted chicken. To dress “en form” each member of a group agree to buy a particular pattern of pagne (a square of fabric) and then have it tailored. Often, you choose to buy two or three pagne to make a full complet (a traditional outfit). If money is tight, though, one pagne will make do for a skirt or button-down shirt for a man. I splurged for two pagne and so far it is my favorite among the my six complets.

I wouldn't normally be so inclined to dress the same as my friends in the United States. However, it is the cool thing in Togo. Every special occasion calls for the selection of matching pagne—weddings, funerals, graduations, welcome home parties, etc.

Yet—as my Togolese friends do not usually think it is necessary to explain the details of any plans—I was caught off guard when my adoptive grandmother and fou fou lady, Adissetou, made me a second, purple complet for the same Labor Day celebration. So I compromised. I wore her purple complet in the morning when I went to her restaurant to have brunch. Then I paraded around the village center to show off a bit. In the afternoon, I changed into my other complet for the party at the village outskirts. When I ran into Adissetou's daughter, however, she was a bit upset not to see me in the purple complet that would have matched her own. I tried to explain the misunderstanding, but ...

Later I learned that two other Togolese friends were offended that I had not invited them to participate in the same form with Foumilayo. These social misteps began to remind me of a middle school dance. But after my first beer, Foumilayo served some delicious roasted chicken and I soon forgot my troubles. More of my Togolese friends arrived at the festivities and I continued buying rounds of drinks until well after sunset.