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Djibouti
Two rigged referendums kept the Red Sea garrison French in 1958 and 1967; under UN pressure and a united Afar-Issa front, a third vote on 8 May 1977 chose independence almost unanimously and the republic was proclaimed on 27 June.
- Independence
- June 27, 1977
- Before
- French Territory of the Afars and the Issas (French Somaliland)
- Metropole
- France
- Leader
- Hassan Gouled Aptidon
- Transition
- Negotiated
- Movement
- Ligue Populaire Africaine pour l'Indépendance (LPAI), led by Hassan Gouled Aptidon
A Coaling Station at Bab-el-Mandeb
France bought the anchorage of Obock in 1862 and between 1883 and 1887 signed treaties with Afar and Somali sultans to extend a protectorate around the Gulf of Tadjoura. Léonce Lagarde founded a permanent administration at Djibouti in 1894 and named the colony the Côte française des Somalis. The railway to Addis Ababa, completed in 1917, made the port Ethiopia's outlet to the sea and the colony's reason for being. Its value to France was strategic: a garrison guarding the strait between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.
Two Referendums Kept French
In 1958 the territory voted to remain within the French Community. A second referendum on 19 March 1967 returned about 61 percent for continued association, but the roll had been shaped to favour the Afar over the Somali Issa: some 14,700 Somalis were registered against 22,000 Afars. Riots followed the result; French forces killed at least a dozen Somalis, and several thousand were expelled. In July 1967 France renamed the colony the Territoire français des Afars et des Issas and governed through the Afar politician Ali Aref Bourhan.
The LPAI and the Vote of 1977
Hassan Gouled Aptidon, an Issa who had campaigned against the 1967 result, founded the Ligue Populaire Africaine pour l'Indépendance in 1975, bringing Afar and Issa nationalists together. The UN General Assembly pressed France to leave, Ali Aref resigned in July 1976, and on 8 May 1977 a referendum approved independence with about 98 to 99 percent of votes cast; a single LPAI-led list took all 65 seats of the constituent assembly the same day. Elected president by the assembly on 28 May, Gouled proclaimed the Republic of Djibouti on 27 June 1977. France kept its base.
Chronology
- 1862 — France buys the anchorage of Obock
- 1894 — Permanent administration at Djibouti; Côte française des Somalis
- 1917 — Railway from Djibouti reaches Addis Ababa
- 1958 — Referendum keeps the territory in the French Community
- 19 March 1967 — Second referendum: about 61% for France; riots and expulsions follow
- July 1967 — Renamed French Territory of the Afars and the Issas
- February 1975 — LPAI founded under Hassan Gouled Aptidon
- 8 May 1977 — Referendum approves independence; LPAI list wins all 65 assembly seats
- 27 June 1977 — Republic of Djibouti proclaimed
Aftermath
Gouled's LPAI government kept close ties with France, which retained a large garrison. Prime Minister Ahmed Dini resigned in December 1977 in protest at the treatment of Afars, and in 1981 Gouled made his Rassemblement Populaire pour le Progrès the sole legal party. An Afar insurgency, the FRUD, fought the government from 1991; a multiparty constitution followed in 1992 and peace agreements in 1994 and 2001. Gouled retired in 1999 in favour of his nephew Ismail Omar Guelleh, and the port's strategic position later drew American, Japanese and Chinese military bases alongside the French.
Legacy
Djibouti's late exit shows how a colony valued as a garrison rather than a possession could be held by manipulating the franchise, and how independence, when it came, was negotiated to preserve the base that had made the colony worth keeping.