The oral tradition
It was rumored that an ogress roamed the region. With the body of an old woman and the head of a hyena, Bouti would devour a lone child here, and spread terror and confusion there. When she killed an entire family, the wise men gathered and summoned the warriors to put an end to her actions. A myth was born of the vengeance obtained, that of the defeat of Bouti (Djab-Bouti), which the French understood - phonetically - as Djibouti. Legends cohabited with anecdotes among the nomadic peoples who constantly roamed the Horn of Africa, but the rich oral tradition also implied rules and metrics that make it impossible not to compare it with the art of poetry. Like the Afar verses, where the rhythm, though intuitive, advocates harmony, or the Somali poems, both epic and political (gabay), which are constructed as responses between two interlocutors and whose length defies the best memories. Last but not least, we must not forget the songs that punctuate the day's walk or are dedicated to the herd according to a precise ritual, and those that punctuate daily activities, from churning to putting the little ones to sleep. This intangible wealth - isn't a clan member judged by the number of worms bequeathed to him by his parent? - was belatedly recognized, but with the advent of writing threatening oral traditions, researchers are now keen to preserve it. Perhaps one of the most eminent of these is Ali Moussa Iye, who coordinated Unesco's Culture of Peace program and wrote about Xeer Issa (customary law) in the best-selling book Le Verdict de l'arbre. He also prefaced the miraculously preserved account of a little shepherd boy, born around 1917, who left the desert for the coast. Houssein Meraneh Mahamoud's magnificent account, published in 2005 by Editions Menaibuc, can also be found on the Internet under the title Dardaaran: testament d'un nomade revenu des mers.
At the beginning of the 20th century, in this territory occupied by the French since 1884, writing was the prerogative only of colonists or travelers. This was all the more true in the 1930s, when several authors evoked the small country, following in the footsteps of Arthur Rimbaud at the end of the 19th century. These included the journalist Joseph Kessel and his colleague Albert Londres, who published a report entitled Pêcheurs de perles (Pearl Fishers) in 1931; Henry de Monfreid, who began to forge a reputation as an adventurer with his first autobiographical account, Les Secrets de la mer rouge (Secrets of the Red Sea), published the same year; and the young Paul Nizan and his Aden Arabie, whose famous opening line (" I was twenty years old. I won't let anyone say that it's the most beautiful age in life "). During the same period, a few timid attempts were made at a local level: small theatrical productions sprang up and a tiny elementary school was created in 1921. But conflicts, whether regional - the Italians occupied Ethiopia in 1936 and banned the use of French - or international - the Second World War led to a blockade - put a stop to these literary processes, both external and internal. It was not until 1949 that a sixth grade class was opened, and it was not until ten years later that what is considered the first Djiboutian work was published by Présence Africaine: Khamsine by William J.-F. Syad. Prefaced by Léopold Sédar Senghor, this collection of poems evokes the destiny of a people in search of its identity. Another decade passes and finally the press, created by and for the colonists, opens up to local talent. In 17 episodes, Abdoulahi Doualé Wais portrayed the falsely humorous adventures of Gel-cun, which can be read as a sharp critique of the fate reserved for nomadic peoples. In 1972, another schoolteacher, Houssein Abdi, devoted thirty pages to a description of the country as seen through the eyes of a child. In 2020, Jean-Dominique Pénel, a doctor of literature specializing in the region, published a new edition of his reference work dissecting this pivotal period: Djibouti 70, repères sur l'émergence de la littérature djiboutienne en français dans les années soixante.
Independence
Following three referendums, in 1958, 1967 and 1977, Djibouti finally gained independence, and literature was gradually freed from its shackles, although the country was still plagued by political crises. The most famous of these emissaries is Abdourahman A. Waberi, born in 1965, who, after studying in France, now divides his time between the United States, where he teaches. His first book, Le Pays sans ombre, was published in 1994 by Serpent à plumes. In this patchwork of seventeen short stories, the author evokes both the past of his native country and the torments of his present. This uncompromising portrait was continued in 1996 with Cahier nomade, followed by Balbala in 1998. Although Waberi went on to explore other horizons, notably Rwanda, he never lost sight of the question of his country's place in the world, multiplying references to the original myth and the inhospitable environment. This perpetual exploration was published by Gallimard in 2003(Transit), Zulma(La Divine chanson, 2015), Lattès(Passage des larmes, 2009) and Vents d'ailleurs, where he allowed himself a poetic incursion with Mon nom est aube in 2016. Together with his friend Alain Mabanckou, he has also written a playful Dictionnaire des cultures africaines to be published by Fayard in 2019.
Although his fellow countrymen are less well known in our latitudes, Djiboutian literature has enjoyed a real revival since the 1990s, thanks in particular to the associations set up to promote young authors and encourage theater groups to develop. Some of these writers, such as short-story writer Idriss Youssouf(La Galaxie de l'absurde, 2000), Chehem Wattam (who depicted the confrontation between nomadic peoples and modernity in Pèlerin d'errance in 1997), poet Isman Omar Houssein (born in 1980) and Ilyas Ahmed Ali (who imagined extraordinary stories in Le Miroir déformant), are all published by L'Harmattan. Women are not to be outdone, following in the footsteps of playwright-turned-minister Aïcha Mohamed Robleh and Mouna-Hodan Ahmed, who published Les Enfants du khat in 2002.
