RIMBAUD HOUSE

If Rimbaud is known as one of the greatest poets of the ^19th century, Harar is part of another facet of the character: that of a businessman, adventurer, eager to discover the world, after having definitively given up writing at the age of twenty-one.

After a detour via Cyprus, Arthur Rimbaud left for Aden, before reaching Harar in 1878, where he became the representative of Alfred Bardey, a French merchant based in Yemen. A skilful trader, Rimbaud made business prosper by organizing caravans to the sea or inland. He even engaged in the arms trade for Menelik, then King of Choa, circumventing the embargo imposed by the Great Powers. But the organization of his trade was also the pretext for countless expeditions in the region. The "man with soles of wind" is a tireless traveler, capable of covering 40 km in a day, braving the dangers of a hostile environment. "I'm planning to leave Harar soon and go into the unknown This sentence from one of his letters perfectly sums up his insatiable thirst for new horizons, a thirst that led him to become the first foreigner to explore the Ogaden. Perfectly integrated into the populations whose desire for independence he supported, Rimbaud was a privileged witness to the competition between the great colonial powers - French, English, Italian and Egyptian - for control of Abyssinia. Fluent in Arabic, Amharic and Oromo, this accomplished explorer acquired an exceptional knowledge of the customs of the Harari, Afar and Somali populations, which is reflected in his correspondence. At the time, Harar was a sumptuous city, a commercial hub between the Arabian Peninsula and the kingdom of Abyssinia, from where coffee, incense, musk and cow and sheep hides were traded. After ten years of an adventurous life that testified to his uncommon strength of character, Rimbaud was forced to leave Ethiopia to treat a tumor in his knee that was degenerating. Suffering from gangrene, he was amputated after his arrival in Marseille.

Some time later, while he was organizing his return to Harar, death took him prematurely on November 10, 1891, at the age of thirty-seven. Thirty-seven years that would have given this sensitive, rebellious and passionate man the time to live two uncompromising lives, in which he was as intensely a poet of excellence as he was an exceptional explorer.

Visit the house. It's hard to find without a guide, in the narrow streets of old Harar. This beautiful wooden edifice with its multicolored stained-glass windows, which probably belonged to a wealthy Indian merchant in the ^19th century, was never home to the poet, whose place of residence has never been precisely identified. However, the house, which has been completely renovated, houses a library and photo exhibitions retracing the expeditions of successive explorers and ethnologists to the region. The house also pays tribute to the famous poet by displaying several photos of Arthur Rimbaud in Harar, as well as extracts from his works. Photographs by Austrian photographer Philipp Paulitschke are also on display. From the first floor of the building, there's a beautiful view of the city and its surroundings. Hararis basket store on site.