This article is about the Somalian city. For the ancient Indian tradition of honorary self immolation, see Jauhar.

Jowhar
Jowhar Location in Somalia
Coordinates: 2°47′N 45°30′E / 2.783°N 45.5°E / 2.783; 45.5
Country	Somalia
Region	Shabeellaha Dhexe
District
Elevation	328 ft (100 m)
Population (2010)
- Total	62,000
Time zone	East Africa Time (UTC+3)

Jowhar (Somali: Jowhaar, 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 / 2.78°N 45.5008°E / 2.78; 45.5008Coordinates: 2°46.8′N 45°30.048′E / 2.78°N 45.5008°E / 2.78; 45.5008). Along with Baidoa, it used to form the joint administrative capital of the Transitional Federal Government, which captured it from the Islamic Courts Union.

The town lies 90 km (50 mi) along a major road north of the national capital of Mogadishu. There is also an airport in the northern part of the town.

History

Jowhar was founded by a senior member of the Italian Royal Family, H.R.H. Principe Luigi Amedeo, Duca degli Abruzzi, who first came to the African continent in 1873 and liked the place. The Duke raised funds to build dams, roads, a railway, schools, hospitals, a church and a mosque. He eventually married a Somali woman and died in his village.

Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi

As already stated, the Duca degli Abruzzi founded the eponymous Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi in 1920 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 (formerly Giohar), Italians like the Duca degli Abruzzi started to take the local farmers and resettle them in specific new villages in an attempt 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 had some food industries..

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.

In 1940, the Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi (usually known in Italian simply as "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 railway 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 élites in charge, as the latter deemed the cattle trade and urban assets more profitable.

After World War II

Political map of Somalia showing the location of Jowhar (here spelled "Giohar"), north of Mogadishu, with a red dot.

Jowhar changed name from the Italian Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi to the actual name in 1960, when Somalia gained its independence.

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.

Administrative capital

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. 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 history

On December 27, 2006, the internationally-backed transitional government forces, united with Ethiopian troops, recaptured Jowhar from the Islamic Courts Union.

On May 17, 2009, the Islamist al-Shabab militia took of the town, and imposed draconian rules, including a ban on handshaking between men and women.

See also

• Italian Somalians
• Railway Mogadiscio-Villabruzzi

• 2°46′47″N 45°30′11″E / 2.779823°N 45.503139°E / 2.779823; 45.503139

Notes

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)