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Sylvanus Olympio was shot on January 13, 1963. He was two days away from pulling Togo out of the CFA franc, when the imperialists struck. The story that gets told is simple. A group of Togolese soldiers, led by Sergeant Étienne Eyadéma, stormed the presidential residence in Lomé. Olympio fled, hid in a car outside the US embassy, and was found and shot at the gate. Eyadéma admitted it: "He could not stay there. There would have been demonstrations. He would not move. I shot him" .‌‌ That is the version that fits the official record. It is also incomplete. Olympio was not killed over a military pay dispute, though that is the trigger the soldiers used. He was killed because he was about to sign Togo's withdrawal from the CFA franc zone and launch a national currency backed by the Deutsche Mark. He had already founded the Banque Centrale du Togo in 1962. The agreement was days from being signed .‌‌ France had reasons to want him gone. De Gaulle's Africa advisor, Jacques Foccart, said it plainly after Olympio's death: "Sylvanus Olympio was not one of our friends" . The French ambassador in Lomé knew the coup plotters personally. They were former French army soldiers. France opposed an independent investigation into the assassination .‌‌‌ After Olympio was killed, his brother-in-law Nicolas Grunitzky was installed as president. He immediately abandoned the national currency plan and signed cooperation agreements reaffirming Togo's use of the CFA franc. The currency Olympio died trying to leave is still in use today .‌‌ The scholarship is careful. Historians like Skinner and Glasman argue the coup was rooted in the discontent of ex-French soldiers Olympio refused to integrate into Togo's tiny army. The monetary story is "an underlying factor," not the single bullet . But the timing is hard to ignore. Olympio was killed while negotiating monetary independence. The negotiations ended with his death. Togo stayed in the franc zone.‌ His brother-in-law took power. The man who pulled the trigger, Eyadéma, ruled Togo for 38 years after overthrowing Grunitzky in 1967. Olympio's chair at the founding of the OAU in May 1963 was left empty. It was meant to be a warning. It became a template .‌‌