Dogo du Togo

Togo sits between Ghana and Benin, overshadowed for decades by nearby musical powerhouses such as Ghana, Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire, despite a wealth of little-known local traditions. A handful of Togolese singers, among them King Mensah and Bella Bellow, have carried some of that music abroad before. Serge Massama Dogo, born in Lomé in 1972, grew up learning from elder musicians and playing in local bands as a teenager, despite his father's objections.

In 2000 Dogo moved to the United States and settled in Washington, D.C. In 2006 he founded the band Elikeh, mixing Afrofunk and rock with Togolese polyrhythms. Elikeh released three albums and an EP, drawing coverage from The Washington Post and NPR for its live shows.

Dogo's solo sound centers on alagaa, a rhythm whose name means trance in the Ewe language: a rapid interplay between snare drum and rhythm guitar modeled on the interlocking patterns of gankogui iron bells. He layers in bobobo, kamou and kpanlogo rhythms and melodies drawn from Vodun ritual music, building arrangements from repeating, circling guitar figures, vocals sung in local languages, and a rhythmic pulse carried by percussion.

Before 2020, Dogo began splitting his time between Washington and Togo, reconnecting with musicians in Lomé. He recorded his first solo album, Dogo du Togo, in 2022, which topped radio charts at home and drew critical notice in Europe and the U.S. For 2024's Avoudé he formed the Alagaa Beat Band, recruiting his former guitar teacher Oya Yao and childhood friends he once played with on the streets of Lomé.

The project stands as one of relatively few from Togo to reach audiences beyond West Africa. Dogo appears internationally as a performer and advocate for these traditions, bringing alagaa's polyrhythms to listeners who have had little exposure to Togolese music.