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Republique de Djibouti
The French Territory of the Afars and the Issas (French Somaliland) became Djibouti in 1977. Djibouti occupies a very strategic geographic location at the mouth of the Red Sea and serves as an important location for goods entering and leaving the east African highlands.
Rochet d'Hericourt's exploration into Shoa (1839-42) marked the beginning of French interest in the African shores of the Red Sea. Further exploration by Henri Lambert, French Consular Agent at Aden, and Captain Fleuriot de Langle led to a treaty of friendship and assistance between France and the sultans of Raheita, Tadjoura, and Gobaad, from whom the French purchased the anchorage of Obock (1862). Growing French interest in the area took place against a backdrop of British activity in Egypt and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.
In 1884-85, France expanded its protectorate to include the shores of the Gulf of Tadjoura and the Somaliland. Boundaries of the protectorate were marked out in 1897 by France and Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia.
September 21, 1989
London Daily Mail, London, United Kingdom
FRANCE IN AFRICA
Her Struggles After a Colonial Empire
("Daily Mail" Special)
There is perhaps no international subject of greater interest at the present moment than French progress in Africa, and two articles in the current number of the "Board of Trade Journal" will therefore have a special interest.
One of these articles relates to "the trade of the British, French, and German Possessions in West Africa," and is accompanied by a coloured sketch map of West Africa (a new departure for the "Board of Trade Journal"); the other article relates to the development of Djibouti, in East Africa.
From the first of these articles it seems apparent, judging from the trade figures given, that West Africa is decidedly not booming just now. With the exception of small increases in the exports from the Gold Coast and Gambia, British West Africa is under a commercial cloud; the German colony of Togoland is in a most serious way, the exports having declined from a value of £152,000 in 1895, to £39,000 in 1837; and French Guinea and Dahomey also report decreases in the reports of 1897 compared with 1896, though these decreases are more than compensated by increases in the exports from Senegal and the Ivory Coast,
But, notwithstanding the above-mentioned decline in the export trade of French Gumea, it is contended that the colony is, on the whole, in a condition of
GROWING PROSPERITY;
the imports, at any rate, are increasing. French Guinea, it is well to bear in mind, is a standing menace to our own colony of Sierra Leone, the coast line of French Guinea is, roughly, about the same length as that of Sierra Leone, which it adjoins. But the convenient hinterland doctrine has been exploited to such an extent by the Frenchmen that their colony has enveloped the back regions of Sierra Leone, and includes the sources of the Niger, from which it shuts off the British colony. The mischief to Sierra Leone does not end here. On the French Guinea coast there is a port called Konakry, which the French have been" careful to improve, with the result, according to "La Politique Coloniale," that this port is atitracting much of the trade which hitherto was done by Sierra Leone. A road is being constructed from Konakry to a place called Farana on the Niger in the hinterland behind Sierra Leone. And when it is finished, "La Polititjue Coloniale" asserts, the merchandise of Timbuctoo, Segu Sikano (farther down the Niger in the French Sudan), and other important places on the Niger, will reach the French port of Konakry by an easily traversed and all-French route.
France seems equally enterprising higher up the Coast in Senegal, where she is busy with the establishment of a coaling depot and port of call at Dakart; and the writer in the "Board of Trade Journal" apprehends that in consequence Dakart" is destined to become one of the most important ports on the West Coast of Africa. Nor has France forgotten tho eastern side of the Continent. In French Somaliland, on the Gulf of Aden, are the two ports of Obock and Djibontil, of which the latter is
THE MOST IMPORTANT
and from which a railway is being constructed to Harrar, whereby it is hoped to open up an important trade with the whole of Ethiopia. According to the "Politique Coloniale," the population of Djiboutil, which a year ago numbered 85 Europeans and about 4,000 natives, now numbers upwards of 1,400 Europeans and 8,000 natives; and if M. Beduel, of the French East Africa Company, is to be trusted, Djiboutil is likely to continue its development. This gentleman declared Djiboutil to be th eonly safe anchorage on the Red Sea, and of great importance as an outlet for the trade of that part of the African Continent.
Undoubtedly France intends, by means of her possessions in Somaliland, to cultivate dose commercial relations with Abyssinia and the Eastern Sudan, and to drive a wedge of French —virtual or acfcoal—possession across the widest part ot the African Continent, in rivalry to England's Cape to Cairo scheme.
Monday, December 15, 1902
Fort Wayne Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana
DARK SOMALILAND
BUT LITTLE KNOWN OF THIS ODD CORNER OF EASTERN AFRICA
Inhabited by a Nomadic Race Descended from the Arabs--Their Strange Religious Beliefs--Why England Must Crush the Mollah
England seems never to be entirely at peace. Always there appears to be fighting in some one of her colonies or dependencies. Her latest trouble with the Had Mollah, by which two British officers and a hundred men were slain, has aroused the foreign office, and a punishing force has been sent to crush that troublesome individual.
General W. H. Manning, who will have charge of affairs in Somaliland, is the principal military officer in the foreign office and secretary of the protectorate of Somaliland. His familiarity with the land of the Mad Mollah augurs ill for the welfare of that fanatic. Arabs describe as "Bar Agan," or the "Unknown Land,"' that particular horn of Africa's eastern coast which lies directly opposite Aden, called Somali, and which from time immemorial has enjoyed so evil a reputation that not only has it been avoided by the vast majority of explorers of the Dark Continent, but has likewise in the partition of the latter by the great powers of Europe been left untouched save as regards the coast line, none of them caring to assume the responsibilities of the sovereignty of the hinterland. There is an Italian, an English, an Abyssinian and a French Somaliland. But the rule of none, of these four nations extends beyond the littoral, and as long as there is no undue attempt on the part of the natives of the hinterland to interfere with the trade that finds its outlet and inlet at the various stations on the coast the tribes of the interior are left to fight among themselves as much as they please, and no attempt is made to bring them under subjection.
The Somalis are a nomadic race and claim to be descended from fugitive Arabs who, abandoning their own country, landed on the Somali coast, subsequently intermarrying with the local tribes. The dawn of the Somali people coincides with the rise of Mohammed some 1,200 or 1,300 years ago. They, however, do not belong to the true African race, for they reveal no signs of the negroid type and from a slight resemblance in language are believed to be allied to the races of Hindustan.
The religion professed by the Somalis— that is to say, the most fanatical type of Islam—has the effect of keeping them engaged in constant warfare with their neighbors, the Abyssinians, who profess what is probably the lowest class of Christianity. Indeed, one of the most cherished objects of the Somali and, in fact, of all the warlike Mohammedan tribes of that portion of Africa, has been to prevent Abyssinia from securing or retaining possession of a seaport on the northeast coast of the Dark Continent.
This is due to an ancient Mohammedan prophecy, according to which Mecca, the most holy place of Islam, will one day be razed to the ground by the Abyssinians, an event which will be attended by the most disastrous consequences for the whole of the Moslem world.
It is owing to this belief that the British must crush the Mad Mollah, since to leave him unconquered would place them in bad light not only with the Egyptian army, but also in the eyes of the 80,000,000 Mohammedans in India.
To abandon Somaliland to his sway would work incalculable damage to her power and prestige in all other Mohammedan countries under her rule. Not only must he be defeated, but crushed absolutely. For in the case of Islam more than In in of any other creed the authenticity of the mahdis and prophets is gauged by the degree of their success against the infidels, and the leaders of any armed religious movement are not relegated to the ranks of false prophets until defeat, capture or death has convinced their coreligionists that they were frauds.
This is the task assigned to General Manning. To assist him he will have the troops already in Somaliland and an extra brigade from India. That he I will eventually succeed is certain, but at what cost remains to be seen.
