Tag: Djibouti stamp

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Djibouti 1979, The French also learn to read the writing on the wall

In the late 1950s the French and the British colonial authorities realized there was no way to continue their colonial administration against the will of the African majority. What to do in a place that is majority Arab and welcomed French administration as a buffer between them and the natives. Will France spend up to continue the protection in Djibouti or leave the Arabs to their fate as the British did in Zanzibar in 1965? So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Already 2 years after independence, independent Djibouti was heavily into  licensing their name for topical stamp issues. Here we have what was already their second issue of sea shells. The Cypaecassis rufa, or more commonly the red helmet shell, was first cataloged in 1758. It is most common on the west coast of southern Africa in Natal and Mozambique but occasionally as far north as Kenya.

Todays stamp is issue A100, a 10 Franc stamp issued by independent Djibouti on December 22nd, 1979. It was a three stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents cancelled to order.

In colonial times Somaliland was divided into an Italian, a British, and a French part. For the most part the colonies were coastal trading posts with mostly Arab populations that had some affiliation with the Arab traders of Muscat in Oman and Aden in Yemen. The desert interior also held clans of mostly nomadic black Africans. During the war, Italian Somaliland was taken from them and the many Italians that lived there made a quick departure. Into this void the black Somalis arrived. In the late1950s it was decided to allow the British Somaliland to unite with the former Italian one as independent Somalia. France held a plebiscite to give the colony a choice whether to join Somalia. In the runup to the vote a large number of black Somalis appeared in Djibouti to turn the vote. France saw this happening and deported as many of the new arrivals as possible. They also required voter cards to be allowed to vote. It was now the turn of the blacks to claim voter suppression, noting the truth that the percentage of Arabs that voted was far higher than the percentage of blacks. The vote along racial lines was won by those that chose to remain French. Riots ensued and the French had to reinforce their military.

Ethiopia, Somalia, and Yemen were all quickly arming with mostly Soviet weapons. The British gave up in Aden in 1968. The French military deployment now had to consist of a full brigade of the French Foreign Legion backed up by French navy ships and a squadron of Mirage fighters. Meanwhile the UN was suggesting the French leave Djibouti anyway no matter the vote. The arms given to blacks in Djibouti by Somalia was now backed by further aid from the Organization of African Unity.

France decided in the late 1970s to go ahead and give up on the last European colony in black Africa. The expenses however continued. The new African government decided that it really had no desire to join the failed states of Somalia or Ethiopia. To keep them out, they requested that France keep up fighter planes and Foreign Legion Brigade in independent Djibouti. They stayed another quarter century.

The population of French Somaliland was only about 70,000 at the time of the first independence vote. Now it is about a million with less than a third Arab mostly in enclaves outside Djibouti city. Americans will of course be thrilled to learn that the French military presence was replaced by an American one. The USA deploys 4000 troops to Djibouti. Briefly Saudi Arabia considered building an 18 mile Bridge or the Horns that would connect Djibouti and Yemen and include new build twin Arab cities called Al Noor at both ends of the bridge. The estimates from 10 years ago is that it would cost 20 billion dollars. In 2010 the Saudis decided to indefinitely delay the project after reading their own writing on the wall.

The proposed site of the Bridge of the Horns as seen from space

Well my drink is empty and so I will have to wait until  there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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French Somaliland 1940, The colonials get taken advantage of in Djibouti

Ethiopia is landlocked. However there are trading posts on the coast that have been there forever. Controlling them goes a long way to benefiting from Ethiopian trade. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Todays stamp shows a Mosque in a French colony. In doing show it goes along way to describing the colonies purpose. Getting products into and out of African and Christian Ethiopia has long been a job of Arab traders. However progress meant that railroad construction would be helpful. To get that done, the French were invited in by the Arabs. Hence the area becomes French Somaliland and there is little effort put toward Christianizing. The target was Ethiopia.

Todays stamp is issue A24, a 3 Centimes stamp issued by French Somaliland in 1940. It shows the Sunni Mosque in Djibouti city. It was part of a 33 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents mint or used.

The area had been ruled into antiquity by Arab sultans who pledged their allegiance to Egypt. The villages on the coast of the Red Sea were transshipment points  for camel trains of goods in an out of landlocked Ethiopia. Ethiopia was Christian and fairly uniquely in that period, African ruled. The trade in coffee and other goods was quite lucrative. It was thought that a train line from Ethiopia through the Ogaden dessert would be lucrative and the French were invited in to get one built.

The train was initially successful  with Djibouti experiencing a population and trade boom at the expense of other trading posts in British and Italian Somaliland. The new population however was largely Somali and therefore African and Muslim.

Eventually a second train line opened up through Eritrea to the coast and the train line to Djibouti failed requiring a French government bailout. When Somalia got it’s independence there was a push to join that was resisted. Eventually Djibouti achieved a measure of independence under a one party state headed by the French selected President and now his nephew. Independent Somalia did not fare much better after plunging into war with Ethiopia over the Ogaden desert.

The Sunni Mosque on the stamp still stands. The country of Djibouti today is 96 percent Muslim and it is the state religion.

Years go by and not much changes at the Djibouti Mosque

The railroad declined and the Ethiopian leg of the journey nationalized. The EU appropriated 50 million Euros to try to keep it going but it still closed in 2016. A new railroad company was set up 75 percent owned  by Ethiopia  and 25 percent by Djibouti. China was contracted to design, build, and train locals to operate a new train next to the old French line with construction finishing and a trial run happened in 2016. The Chinese got paid but the company found itself so deep in debt that there was no further capital to get the new train into commercial operation. One can imagine the railway company furiously calling China, France, the USA to help. Hopefully they no longer pay their phone bill.

A reminder of the old not operational French railroad to Djibouti
A reminder of the 2016 trial run of the not operational new Chinese train to Djibouti.

Well my drink is empty and to me the French come across fairly badly for getting sucked in to build the railroad. I doubt any profit from it ever made it back to France. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018

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85 years after crossing the channel, another place at a big crossing honors it

Welcome readers to todays offering from The Philatelist. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. We will remember a daring crossing of the English Channel, and ponder what it meant to a city state at a different crossing point.

The stamp today is 90s African from the city state of Djibouti. While the stamps from this period are vey attractive and well printed. They also strain credibility, The countries had farmed out their stamp issues and the issues became commemorative issues that appeal to some specialized stamp collectors but have nothing to do with the country of alleged origin. This to me is a big problem. I approach stamp collecting has a way to learn about far away places and different historic periods. I try to approach a stamp by trying to figure out what the stamp issuer was trying to get across with the stamp. So on a communist stamp I might be talking up the glories of the five year plan or on a mythical Donald Trump stamp, I might be telling how he hopes to make America great again. I am putting myself in their place. That is not possible on a stamp like this. Djibouti has gotten better about this. They have declared many recent commemoratives fakes and the few stamps issued in the last decade relate to things happening in the country. Progress!

Today’s stamp is issue C204, a forty franc airmail stamp issued by Djibouti on June 8th, 1994. It was part of a three stamp issue that celebrated the 85th anniversary of the first crossing of the English Channel in 1909 by Frenchman Louis Bleriot. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents used.

Louis Bleriot made a fortune in France by inventing the first useable truck headlight. Later in life he developed a passion for aviation and used his wealth to build gliders and then powered airplanes. His was the first monoplane, which means a single wing on each side of the plane. In 1909 an English newspaper had a 1000 pound contest on who could fly first across the channel in a powered airplane. 3 French aviation pioneers set up shop in Calais to try to win the prize. Bleriot flew at first light to be first. He had missed out earlier on the first cross country flight by one day. A French Destroyer ship would lead the way to Dover and fish you out when you crash. This did not work though as the plane was slightly faster than the ship and so was on its own to find its way. Winds were higher than Bleriot thought so he came over England off track and had to search until he found someone waving the French flag and directing him where to land. He won the prize.

Mr. Bleriot lived long enough to greet Charles Lindbergh when his plane made it across the Atlantic first in 1934. That plane was also a monoplane.

Well my drink is empty and so it is time to open up the conversation in the below comment section. I did end up learning much about early flight thanks to this stamp. Proving there is always a story to be learned from stamp collecting. Come again tomorrow.