Mahamoud Harbi

Mahamoud Harbi Farah (* 1921 in Ali Sabieh ; † 1960 ) was a political leader of the Issa - Somali in Djibouti and an important spokesman for the movement for the country's independence from France .

Life

His father Harbi Farah belonged to one of the most influential families in the region. Mahamoud Harbi spent the first years of his life in Dikhil , where his father became Okal and he himself completed a Quranic - Arabic training and together with the other students learned the French language from the then administrator of the area . In his parents' house he caught political discussions early on. At the age of 14 he moved back to Ali Sabieh.

After his father's death on November 22, 1938, Mahamoud Harbi went to Djibouti City , where he worked as a waiter in a restaurant for two years. In 1940 he traveled to Aden in Yemen . After the outbreak of the Second World War he joined the French Navy and was one of the few to survive the shipwreck of his warship in the Mediterranean . He then went to France, while his family in Djibouti initially thought he was dead.

After his return to Djibouti in 1946, Mahamoud Harbi began campaigning for the rights of the natives (called "autochthonous" ), whom he saw as being oppressed by France. He became active in the Club des Jeunes Somalis et Danakils , of which he became president, and coined the slogan “La Terre est à nous!” (“The land is ours!”), Which was especially popular with the youth. 1949–1950 he founded the first trade union in the area, which was based on the Forces ouvrières in France, and thus won the support of large parts of the workforce. In 1952, after several strikes, the union achieved substantial wage increases and an improvement in the status of state employees.

In 1956, when the loi-cadre Defferre introduced greater autonomy and self-government in Djibouti, Mahamoud Harbi was elected a member of the Assemblée Nationale . In 1957 his list of Union Républicaine received 30 seats in the Assemblée Territoriale , and he became Vice-President of the Governing Council of the Overseas Territory and Minister of Port.

When a referendum was scheduled for 1958 in which Djibouti would vote on any independence, Mahamoud Harbi resolutely advocated independence and the connection of the area to Greater Somalia . He was among the leading politicians of the French colonies in Africa at the time, the most resolute supporter of independence alongside Ahmed Sékou Touré from Guinea . France is said to have seen him as a threat and mobilized significant resources for the referendum campaign against him. The referendum was in favor of remaining with France.

In 1959 Mahamoud Harbi left Djibouti after an attempted arrest by the colonial power and stayed temporarily in Egypt , the Soviet Union and China , where he sought the support of these states for his concerns. From Somalia he founded the Front de Liberation de la Côte des Somalis (FLCS).

On September 29, 1960, he and his comrades-in- arms Djama Mahamoud Boreh and Mohamed Gahanlo disappeared on a flight from Geneva to Cairo . Officially, they died in a plane crash, but a possible role for the Organization de l'armée secrète is speculated.

Today Mahamoud Harbi is seen as a hero of the independence movement in Djibouti. A central square in Djibouti City , formerly called Place Arthur Rimbaud , was renamed Place Mahamoud Harbi after him .

Web links

• Curriculum vitae of Mohamoud Harbi in the state magazine La Nation , 2002 (French); offline
• Djiboutian page commemorating Mahamoud Harbi (French); offline