Afars, Issas... and the making of the "djiboutian nation": an historical view

Abstract

In 1977, the territory around the Gulf of Tajura, then Territoire français des Afars et des Issas, rose out the colonial situation divided into two groups, presented as irreducible and antagonist. This division is maintained after the independence. For instance, after the fight ruled by FRUD from 1991 to get integrated into the Djiboutian nation, it is because of their declared "afarity" that the civilians leaving North of the country are confronted to a military repression. If the official speeches denounce regularly "ethnicity" and “tribalism” – all the governments and their oppositions affirm themselves as "multi-ethic" since the first one in 1958 –, doing so is only putting on and reinforcing its obviousness. Truly, there are individual and collective circulation between the groups, and the making of a boundary between them have proved to be impossible. They are constructions lsinked to a political and social situation, ideological resources that can be mobilisable by the individuals according to their needs. This communication proposes to detail the history of some "ethnical" denominations in the Djiboutian area and the stakes they carry, from the first European descriptions in the middle of the 19th Century up to the independence.