History of Djibouti
The Bab-el-Mandeb region has often been considered a primary crossing point for early hominins following a southern coastal route from East Africa to South Arabia and Southeast Asia.
According to linguists, the first Afroasiatic-speaking populations arrived in the region during this period from the family's proposed urheimat ("original homeland") in the Nile Valley,[1] or the Near East.
[citation needed] In the Gobaad plain (between Dikhil and Lake Abbe), the remains of an Palaeoloxodon recki elephant were also discovered, visibly butchered using basalt tools found nearby.
An Acheulean site (from 800,000 to 400,000 years BC), where stone was cut, was excavated in the 1990s[citation needed], in Gombourta, between Damerdjog and Loyada, 15 km south of Djibouti.
In the area at the bottom of Goubet (Dankalélo, not far from Devil's Island), circular stone structures and fragments of painted pottery have also been discovered.
Previous investigators have also reported a fragmentary maxilla, attributed to an older form of Homo sapiens and dated to ~250 Ka, from the valley of the Dagadlé Wadi.
The site's ware is characterized by punctate and incision geometric designs, which bear a similarity to the Sabir culture phase 1 ceramics from Ma'layba in Southern Arabia.
[6] Handoga, dated to the fourth millennium BP, has in turn yielded obsidian microliths and plain ceramics used by early nomadic pastoralists with domesticated cattle.
[7] The site of Wakrita is a small Neolithic establishment located on a wadi in the tectonic depression of Gobaad in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.
The 2005 excavations yielded abundant ceramics that enabled us to define one Neolithic cultural facies of this region, which was also identified at the nearby site of Asa Koma.
The region was populated by a very rich fauna: felines, buffaloes, elephants, rhinos, etc., as evidenced, for example, by the bestiary of cave paintings at Balho.
They "traded not only in their own produce of incense, ebony and short-horned cattle, but also in goods from other neighbouring regions, including gold, ivory and animal skins.
"[9] According to the temple reliefs at Deir el-Bahari, the Land of Punt at the time of Hatshepsut was ruled by King Parahu and Queen Ati.
[12] Historical accounts of the Macrobians also have much in common with the pastoral Somali figures who are similarly known to be tall, handsome warriors, that sustained themselves with a diet mainly composed of meat and milk.
This perspective that places the Macrobians in Somali territory was suggested by the German historian Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren in the 1800s, and later affirmed by Indian scholar, Mamta Agarwal, who wrote "these people were none other than the inhabitants of Somalia, opposite the Red Sea.
"[13][14][15][16] According to Herodotus' account, the Persian Emperor Cambyses II upon his conquest of Egypt (525 BC) sent ambassadors to Macrobia, bringing luxury gifts for the Macrobian king to entice his submission.
Between 1883 and 1887, France signed various treaties with the then ruling Somali and Afar Sultans, which allowed it to expand the protectorate to include the Gulf of Tadjoura.
The Franco-Ethiopian railway, linking Djibouti to the heart of Ethiopia, began in 1897 and reached Addis Ababa in June 1917, increasing the volume of trade passing through the port.
[34][a] By the end of June the Italians had also occupied the border fortifications of Magdoul, Daimoli, Balambolta, Birt Eyla, Asmailo, Tewo, Abba, Alailou, Madda and Rahale.
In response, the British blockaded the port of Djibouti City but it could not prevent local French from providing information on the passing ship convoys.
The referendum turned out in favour of a continued association with France, partly due to a combined yes vote by the sizable Afar ethnic group and resident Europeans.
[37] The majority of those who voted no were Somalis who were strongly in favour of joining a united Somalia as had been proposed by Mahmoud Harbi, Vice President of the Government Council.
[36][38] In 1960, with the fall of the ruling Dini administration, Ali Aref Bourhan, a Harbist politician, assumed the seat of Vice President of the Government Council of French Somaliland, representing the UNI party.
In August, an official visit to the territory by then French President, General Charles de Gaulle, was also met with demonstrations and rioting.
[40] However, the referendum was again marred by reports of vote rigging on the part of the French authorities,[42] with some 10,000 Somalis deported under the pretext that they did not have valid identity cards.
In 1976, the French garrison, centered on the 13th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion (13 DBLE), had to be reinforced to contain Somali irredentist aspirations, revolting against the French-engineered Afar domination of the emerging government.
Clayton writes that the French garrison played the major role in suppressing further minor unrest about this time, during which Djibouti became a one-party state on a much broader ethnic and political basis.
[51] In the presidential election held 8 April 2005, Ismail Omar Guelleh was re-elected to a second 6-year term at the head of a multi-party coalition that included the FRUD and other major parties.
The broad pro-government coalition, including FRUD candidates, again ran unopposed when the government refused to meet opposition preconditions for participation.
[52] Due to its strategic location at the mouth of the Bab el Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, Djibouti also hosts various foreign military bases.
