Hassan Gouled Aptidon was the first president of an independent Djibouti. He held power for 22 years before stepping aside (due to ill health) for his chosen successor. He was recognized as a peace mediator between neighboring states of Ethiopia and Somalia.

Date of birth: 15 October 1916, Garissa, Lughaya district, French Somaliland
Date of death: 21 November 2006, Djibouti City, Djibouti

An Early Life
Hassan Gouled Aptidon was born to a nomadic Issa family in Garissa, near Zeila in the Lughaya district of French Somaliland on 15 October 1916.

He left home at 14 for Djibouti city where he become a street peddler, supported partially by the local Catholic mission. Gouled worked his way up to being a contractor, and started in politics as a Issa nationalist working within in the Somali and Danakil (Afar) Youth Club, championing the cause of his people, the Issa, for greater representation in the Afar dominated administration of French Somaliland. He considered the relationship with France, however, to be mutually beneficial, and did not look towards independence as a way of solving the political dissonance.

Life in a French Colony
France had set up the colony of Côte Française des Somalis (French Somaliland) on the Gulf of Aden in 1888 to support its coaling station at Obock. Work began on the construction of a town and port at Djibouti almost immediately, and the capital was moved to Djibouti in 1897. Djibouti became more important with the completion of the Compagnie de Chemin de Fer Franco-Ethiopien de Jibuti à Addis Abeba (CFE, Franco-Ethiopian Railway Company) in 1917.

The railway, which connected Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa with the coast, ensured Djibouti's development as a trading center on the Red Sea.

France adopted a divide and rule strategy for its administration of the territory, siding with the pro-Ethiopian Afars of the north against the pro-Somali Issas in the south. It was reluctant to hand over power in an era of African nationalist and independence movements because of the colony's economic and strategic significance. In 1956, following the enactment of the Loi Cadre in France, French Somaliland became a Territoires d'outre-mer (TOM, Overseas Territory). It was given a representative territorial council and a deputy seat on the French Assemblée Nationale (National Assembly).

First Referendum on Independence
By 1957 Hassan Gouled Aptidon had obtained a seat on the territorial council. The following year he campaigned against Mahamoud Harbi Farah (who was vice-president of the territorial council) and Harbi's Union Republicaine (UP, Republican Union) party. The UP wanted to join French Somaliland to a proposed union of Italian and British Somaliland. (The United Republic of Somalia was ultimately created out of the former colonies of Italian and British Somaliland in 1960.) The prospect horrified the French and they gave their full backing to Gouled.

Gouled's party won the 1958 referendum through the combined effort of pro-French Afar and resident French settlers. (There were also suggestions of vote rigging and a mass expulsion of Somali residents before the vote.) French Somaliland had voted to remain an Overseas Territory; the opposing call for independence from France having gained only 25% of the vote. Mahamoud Harbi Farah's party collapsed and a new independence party, the Front de Libération de la Côte des Somalis (FLCS, Front for the Liberation of the Somali Coast) joined forces with what remained of the UP to protest, but the demonstrations turned violent. Fresh elections for the territorial council were called, and on 23 November 1958, Gouled's party took control away from Harbi. Hassan Gouled Aptidon became the council's vice-president. (Harbi's party was banned, and Harbi was exiled to Cairo.)

The vice-presidency of the territorial council passed to Ahmed Dini in April 1959 when Hassan Gouled Aptidon was voted as the colony's representative in the French Assemblée Nationale (National Assembly). Gouled remained a deputy until 1967. During his time in the National Assembly, Gouled proved to be a firm supporter of Charles de Gaulle (who had become the president of France on 8 January 1959). Although he was passionate about local autonomy for French Somaliland, he continued to publicly avoid support for independence.

Second Referendum on Independence
In 1963 Gouled was given the post of Minister for Education by Ali Aref Bourhan (who had become vice-president of the territorial council in 1963). But he was becoming less enamored of France; the slow pace of reform towards autonomy; and the excesses of French favoritism towards the Afar minority. By 1966 Gouled was more convinced of the need for independence -- the UN had made a recommendation to that effect, which was strongly condemned by France. When President General Charles de Gaulle made a state visit in August of 1966 he was met by mass demonstrations. The next month a newly appointed French governor for the colony, Louis Joseph Édouard Saget, announced another referendum.

In March 1967 Gouled voted for independence, but 60% of the electorate voted to remain a French Overseas Territory. Once again there was civil unrest. In an attempt to placate the people, French Somaliland was renamed the Territoire Français des Afars et des Issas (French Territory of Afars and Issas). Governor Louis Saget was given new title of High Commissioner, and the Executive Council was renamed the Council for Government (and reduced to only nine members). The colony was still being ruled by the pro-French Afar, and on 17 November 1968, elections for the Council of Government were decisively won by Aref Ali Bourhan's Rassemblement Démocratique Afar (RDA, Afar Democratic Rally).

The Eve of Independence
In 1972 Hassan Gouled Aptidon took control of the predominantly Issa based Union Populaire Africaine(UPA, African People's Union).Three years later, sensing a change in France's opinion on independence (under its new president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing), Gouled joined the UPA with Ahmed Dini's predominantly Afar Ligue pour l'avenir et l'ordre (LAO, League for the Future and Order) to create the Ligue Populaire Africane pour l'Indépendance (LPAI, African People's League for the Independence). It was the territory's first multi-ethnic party, and one which could potentially combine the voting power of both the Afar and Issa electorate on the issue of reform and independence. In 1976 France relaxed the requirements for citizenship in the territory, and the number of Issa voters increased.

In May 1977 a third referendum was held. Gouled and the LPAI campaigned for independence and they were overwhelmingly successful (99% vote). In elections that followed, the LPAI won a majority, and Gouled was named prime minister. Independence was granted on 27 June 1977, the country became the République de Djibouti (Republic of Djibouti), and Hassan Gouled Aptidon was appointed president.