Meet Her Majesty, a 53-year-old divorced French mother of two from Lyon who now reigns over the 4,500 residents of her canton grouping 11 villages in the greater administrative district of Ave.
Marie Claude Lovisa was crowned a couple of years ago as Queen Mawulolo, which means "God is Great" in the local Ewe language of the small West African country of Togo. In her former life, she worked for a French company as a training director for micro-processing.
"I was crowned traditionally, something really extraordinary for a European, a white woman in Togo." The French woman, who has lived in Togo for almost a decade, recognizes her situation is exceptional in a conservative country where female chiefs are extremely rare. Despite little financial backing — and, she said, without support for the moment from Togolese authorities — the queen has big ambitions for her village.
"I am from a poor family. I got the projects going thanks to my retirement money and the sale of my homes in Lyon," she said.