Jowhar
Jowhar | |
|---|---|
| Country |  Somalia |
| Region | Shabeellaha Dhexe |
| Elevation | 300 ft (100 m) |
| Population (2005) | |
| • Total | 48,000 |
| Time zone | UTC+3 (East Africa Time) |
Jowhar ([Jowhaar] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help), Arabic: جوهر, Italian: Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi) is the capital town of the Shabeellaha Dhexe region of Somalia (located at 2°46.8′N 45°30.048′E / 2.7800°N 45.500800°E), and, along with Baidoa, used to form the joint administrative capital of the Transitional Federal Government, which has recently recaptured it from the Islamic Courts Union.
The town lies 90 km (50 mi) along a major road north of the nominal national capital of Mogadishu. There is an airport in the north of the town.
History
Jowhar has a recent history, that started after World War I during the Italian colonial period. It was founded by an Italian Duke, Luigi Amedeo Savoia, who first set foot on the African continent in 1883 and immediately took a liking to the place. With a burning desire to make a difference to the millions of poor people in the continent, he successfully raised funds to build dams, roads (and even a railroad), schools, hospitals, a Church and even a Mosque for a group of people living in a village that in 1920 he created and named Villagio Duca degli Abruzzi. He eventually married a Somali woman and died in his village[1].
Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi
Italian explorer and nobleman Luigi Amedeo Savoia-Aosta founded in 1920 the eponymous Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi as an agricultural settlement in Italian Somalia experimenting with new cultivation techniques. In 1926, the colony comprised 16 villages, with some 3,000 Somali and 200 Italian inhabitants.
Situated between the Darod and the Hawiye Somali clan strongholds, the area is of strategic importance. It is also of considerable economic value notably due to its banana, cotton and sugar plantations.
From 1911 in Jowhar (ex-Giohar), Italians like the Prince of Savoy, Luigi Amedeo, started to expropriate the local farmers and resettle them in specific new villages in order to improve the economy of Italian Somalia. The area around the Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi was the most agriculturally developed of Somalia before World War II and even had some food industries.[2].
In the 1920s, during the construction of a new dam, the Italians forced the local population of the area to resettle, and in the process generated resentment. As interaction between the Somali locals and the Italian colonialists increased, common understanding between the people of the Jowhar region and the Italians ensued. In fact, when the Italian explorer Luigi Amedeo was diagnosed an imminent death, he refused to go back to Italy to spend his last days in his native country. Instead he chose to die in Jowhar where he is still buried to this day.
In 1940, the Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi (called even "Villabruzzi") already had a population of 12,000, of whom nearly 3,000 were Italian Somalians, and enjoyed a notable level of development as a small manufacturing area.
The Italians, who believed in the economic potential of the region, also built a railroad system that linked Jowhar to Mogadishu for the next thirty years, and was used mainly to export bananas and coffee to Europe.
At independence, the vacuum created by the outgoing Italians was not filled by the new Somali elites in charge, as the latter deemed the cattle trade and urban assets more profitable.
After WWII
Jowhar changed name from the italian Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi to the actual name in 1960, when president Siad Barre started to fully decolonize Somalia. Unfortunately even the descendants of the Italian colonists moved away and so the area started to lose the huge economic development enjoyed in the late thirties.
With a "socialist" regime in 1969, such a fertile land was nationalized and was only available to cultivators through fifty years leases. The government fixed the prices of agricultural products and could purchase up to 80% of the harvests. Under Co-operative Act n°70 of 1973, petty farmers were expropriated again to leave place for the State orientated Fanoole Rice Farm, Mogambo Irrigation Project and Juba Sugar Complex.
Jowhar only became the regional capital in the mid-1980s when Mogadishu was taken out of Shabeellaha Dhexe to form its own region, Banaadir.
Role in Transitional Federal Government
As part of a 2004 agreement, Jowhar and the town of Baidoa were to form a joint administrative capital of the Transitional Federal Government, sited away from Mogadishu for security reasons. Continued fighting has threatened to derail the peace process, but in July 2005, transitional president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed relocated to the town from his base in Bossaso, moving the process forward, and joining transitional Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi, already resident in the town one month. Part of the parliament became based in Jowhar, while some ministries were established in Mogadishu.[3] By February 2006, despite Ghedi's security concerns[1], the two leaders had left to Baidoa, where it was decided the parliament would meet.
Recent fighting
In June 2006, the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism warlords lost Mogadishu after several months of sporadic fighting.[4] The victorious Islamic Courts Union was reported to be approaching the town, but Union chairman Sheikh Sharif Ahmed stated that they had no intention of attacking Jowhar, unless attacked themselves.[5] However, on 13 June 2006, the Union of Islamic Courts attacked the town from the north, clashing with the forces main local warlord Mohamed Dhere, quickly overcoming resistance and capturing the town.[6]
On December 27, 2006, the internationally-backed transitional government forces, united with Ethiopian troops, recaptured Jowhar from the Islamic Courts Union.[7]
External links
Notes
- ^ http://www.ultimateitaly.com/peoples/luigi-amedeo-giuseppe-maria-ferdinando-francesco.html
- ^ http://xoomer.alice.it/fernandotermentini/somalia.htm
- ^ Interim Somali government to relocate to Baidoa and Jowhar, Voice of Africa, 23 March 2005
- ^ US 'worried by' Somali Islamists, BBC News, 6 June 2006
- ^ US cool on Somali terror denial, BBC News, 8 June 2006
- ^ Somali Islamists capture key town, BBC News, 13 June 2006
- ^ Ethiopian, Somali Troops Regain Jowhar, FOX News, 27 December 2006
- ^ http://wikimapia.org/#y=2779823&x=45503139&z=13&l=0&m=a&v=2 Jowhar] Satellite photo at Wikimapia
Bibliography
- VILLES EN GUERRE EN SOMALIE :MOGADISCIO ET HARGEISA Marc-Antoine PÉROUSE DE MONTCLOS (http://ceped.cirad.fr/cdrom/integral_publication_1988_2002/dossier/pdf/dossiers_cpd_59.pdf)