Tadjoura

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Tadjoura (Arabic: تدجورة‎) is the oldest town in Djibouti, and is the capital of the Tadjourah Region. Lying on the Gulf of Tadjoura, it is home to a population of around 25,000 people.

Tadjoura is home to an airstrip and is linked by ferry with Djibouti City, and is known for its whitewashed buildings and nearby beaches.

[edit] History

Tadjoura originally was the seat of the Afar Ad-Ali abli Sultanate as well as a port. Pankhurst notes that it differed from neighboring ports by handling almost entirely the trade of Shewa and Aussa, "rather than that of Harar or the Ogaden." He quotes W. Cornwallis Harris' description of an annual bazaar that started each September, when "for two months the beach is piled with merchandise, and the suburbs are crowded with camels, mules and donkeys." He also cites C.T. Beke that the trade with the inhabitants of the Afar Depression was handled entirely by women, "who loaded the camels, bought and sold while the men keptawat altogether 'to avoid bloodshed, this country being the scene of constant feuds among the different tribes.'"^[1]

By the mid-19th century, along with Beylul and Zeila, Tajoura was a major slave market; Pankhurst suggests that a rough estimate of 6,000 people a year left Ethiopia through those two ports.^[2] The other important commodity sold in Tadjoura in the 19th century was ivory, brought by caravan from Aliu Amba.^[3] Other goods exported included wheat, durra, honey, gold, ostrich feathers, senna, madder, and civetone. The value of trade in 1880-1 was estimated at the time as 29,656 rupees in exports and 18,513 rupees in imports.^[4]

Once Tadjoura came under French control, the slave trade was abolished there by decree on 26 October 1889;^[5] however, Noel-Buxton reported that Tajoura still remained a center of the slave trade, but "limited to small though frequent shipments."^[6] While during the 1880s the port served as a distribution point for rifles and ammunition to Shewa and Ethiopia, Tajoura's importance inevitably declined with the construction of the Franco-Ethiopian railway, which began service 22 July 1901, then extended service to Dire Dawa 17 months later, and finally to Addis Ababa 3 December 1929.^[7]

[edit] Notes

^ Richard R.K. Pankhurst, Economic History of Ethiopia (Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie University Press, 1968), pp. 429.
^ Pankhurst, p. 83.
^ Pankhurst, p. 249.
^ Pankhurst, pp. 429.
^ Pankhurst, p. 103.
^ Pankhurst, p. 123.
^ Pankhurst, pp. 304-334.