You have likely never heard of this tiny country in Africa called Djibouti, which became in 1894 a French protectorate with its first permanent administration in the city of Djibouti.
Its first colonial Governor named it “Côte française des Somalis” or French Somaliland, a name which continued to be used until 1967. Its tiny territory of 23,200 km marked out in 1897 by France and Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia, was later reaffirmed by agreements with Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia in 1945 and 1954.
On the eve of neighboring Somalia's independence in 1960, a referendum was held to decide whether or not to join the Somali Republic or to remain with France. The referendum turned out in favor of a continued association with France. On June 27, 1977, a third vote took place, and a landslide 98.8% of the electorate supported disengagement from France, officially marking Djibouti’s independence.
For many years Djibouti was a battered sleepy French outpost but there’s a palpable sense of change in the air with a new railway recently built connecting it to Addis Ababa the capital of Ethiopia, as well as a new additional dry port which have been completed with several others on the way.
Due to its strategic location at the mouth of the Bab el Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, Djibouti is also hosting various foreign military bases including France, the United States, Japan and the latest one being China. Yet under its veneer of urban bustle, the city remains a down-to-earth place with its lingering French colonial architecture from the 1920’s.
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