Islam spread its prayer rugs from around 825 AD in a region that was then used as grazing lands by several tribes, including the Afars from eastern Ethiopia and the Issas from Somalia. Arab traders controlled the region until the 16th century, but the Afar sultans of Obock and Tadjoura were in charge by the time the French arrived in 1862. The French were seeking to counterbalance the British presence in Aden on the other side of the Bab al-Mandab Strait and, after negotiating with the sultans for the right to settle, they bought the place for 10,000 thalers.

In 1888 the French started building Djibouti City on the southern shore of the Gulf of Tadjoura, a region that had mostly been settled by Somalis. French Somaliland began to take shape. Djibouti was soon designated the official outlet of Ethiopian commerce, and the French-built Djibouti-Addis Ababa railway became - and remains - of vital strategic and commercial importance to the Ethiopians.

The Issas demonstrated against the colonial powers in 1949, agitating for reunification of Italian, British and French Somaliland and the expulsion of all colonial powers. The Afars supported French rule, so not surprisingly the French favoured them, putting Ali Aref and his fellow Afars in control of local government.

A 60% vote for continued French rule in 1967 was achieved largely by the massive expulsion of ethnic Somalis and the arrest of opposition leaders, and caused serious riots in the capital. Colonial authorities conceded something needed to be done, so they changed the colony’s name to the ‘French Territory of the Afars and Issas’, hoping that would do the job. But Djibouti by any name had become a hornets’ nest, and by the early 1970s many of those expelled had joined the Somali Coast Liberation Front and begun chucking bombs.

Ali Aref and his party were on the nose by 1976, following further huge demonstrations in support of the opposition. Aref resigned, and France reluctantly granted independence the following year. The People’s Progress Assembly (RPP), led by Hassan Gouled Aptidon, won the elections, and Hassan Gouled became president. Djibouti was the last French colony on the African mainland to win independence.
During Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Hassan Gouled played a tricky double game - giving lip service to opposition to the military buildup (Djibouti had signed a military pact with Iraq only a few months previously), while allowing France to considerably increase its military forces in Djibouti. He also allowed allied forces to use Djibouti’s naval facilities.

In November 1991, Afar rebels launched a civil war in their traditional territory in the north of the country. They accused the Issar-dominated government of favouring Issars, and after four months of bloodshed and hundreds of casualties, Hassan Gouled’s government finally agreed to concessions. The people approved a new constitution at a 1992 referendum, and a peace accord was finally signed in 1994 despite simmering ethnic hostilities, particularly in the north and in border regions.

As Djibouti geared up for the 1997 general elections, renewed fighting between Afar sepratists who had opposed the peace negotiations and government forces broke out along the Eritrian border. Hassan Gouled systematically squashed the rebels, and after winning the election turned his attentions to the Isaak-Somalis, who wanted their own breakaway republic of Somaliland recognized. With the help of Ismael Omar Guelleh, who became president in 2000, the Isaak-Somalis were also defeated. Since his election, Guelleh has moved to strengthen ties with France by siding with Ethiopia in its dispute with Eritria and allowing a buildup of French soldiers within Djibouti.

Culture

The people are about evenly divided between the Issas, whose links are with Somalia, and the Afars, with links to Eritrea and Ethiopia. There are about 150,000 refugees from Ethiopia and Somalia, as well as a small population of Yemenis. The population is overwhelmingly Muslim, and Arabic and French are the two official languages. The men and women wearing shorts are the French: local men, by contrast, all wear either trousers or a futa, Djibouti’s version of the sarong. Women wear modest, long dresses or skirts and drape themselves with a gauze-thin, brightly coloured fabric called shalma.

The food is French-influenced in the restaurants, but food you buy on the streets is typically North African. Lentils, flat bread, chicken, fried meat and fish are common ingredients in dishes, and Red Sea fish, baked or barbecued in a spicy sauce, is a real treat. As in many Muslim countries, alcohol is not freely available, but locals use qat widely. Qat is a mild stimulant grown in the highlands, and one of the few things that runs to schedule in Djibouti is the daily Ethiopian Airlines cargo plane that arrives punctually at 1 pm, bearing the day’s shipment. Fresh supplies are on the street no more than an hour later, and you will see piles of it under wet cloths at the market.

Environment

Djibouti is a little bigger than El Salvador but nowhere near as green; it is mostly a hot desert waste with virtually no arable land. Vaguely foetus-shaped, you can divide it into three regions to make sense of its geography: the coastal plain, the volcanic plateaus in the south and centre, and the mountain ranges up north. It shares borders with Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia on the Horn of Africa, and you can make out the coast of Yemen across the waves of the Red Sea.

Lac Abb? is where you’ll see flamingoes feeding in the mornings, and while it’s not designated as a national park it’s one of the few places where you will see wildlife of any kind. When you consider Djibouti’s weather, ‘torrid’ and ‘dry’ come quickly to mind. It’s too hot and there’s too little water anywhere to support much more than the odd nomad’s camel. The cooler season, which sometimes brings rain, averages 25?C (77?F), but at the peak of the hot season the mercury nudges 45?C (113?C).

Tag: Djibouti