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Djibouti: Afars
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Djibouti had a one-party political system until the promulgation of the 1992 constitution, which allowed for the existence of a maximum of four political parties. A 2002 constitutional amendment removed the limit on the number of political parties. The main political party is the Rassemblement Populaire pour le Progrès (RPP; Popular Movement for Progress), whose mostly Issa leadership has relied on a system of patronage to rule Djibouti since independence. The Front pour la Restauration de l’Unité et de la Démocratie (FRUD; Front for the Renewal of Unity and Democracy) represents the Afar minority. The Parti National Démocratique (PND; Democratic National Party) and the Parti du Renouveau Démocratique (PRD; Democratic Renewal Party) are both small opposition parties favoring democratic reforms.
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The history of Djibouti as recorded in poetry and songs of its nomadic peoples, goes back thousands of years to a time when Djiboutians traded hides and skins for the perfumes and spices of ancient Egypt, India, and China. Through close contacts with the Arabian peninsula for more than 1,000 years, the Somali and Afar tribes in this region became among the first on the African continent to accept Islam.
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Djibouti has been run by the Issa president Hassan Gouled Aptidon since its independence in 1977 in spite of strong Afar opposition which flared into armed rebellion in 1991. A truce was signed in 1994 but peace remains fragile.
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People have lived in what is now Djibouti for more than 2,000 years. The Afar were the first of the present-day inhabitants to arrive. Amid the European “scramble for Africa,” the port of Djibouti was created in 1888 by the French. Soon afterward it became the capital of what was known as French Somaliland until 1967. The rail link to Addis Ababa was completed in 1917.
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Djibouti’s official languages are French and Arabic, but Somali is the most widely spoken language in the south, including the capital. The Afar language prevails in the north. Almost all Djiboutians are Sunni Muslims.
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In early November 1991, civil war erupted in Djibouti between the government and a predominantly Afar rebel group, the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (FRUD). The FRUD signed a peace accord with the government in December 1994, ending the conflict. Two FRUD members were made cabinet members, and in the presidential elections of 1999 the FRUD campaigned in support of the RPP.
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