France, April 19 -- Leaving the hustle and bustle of a street lined with tailors' shops and turning down a narrow alleyway, visitors arrive at one of the traditional wooden townhouses for which Harar is famous.

Since 2000, it has housed the Rimbaud Museum. However, the famed poet, who lived in Harar on and off from 1880 to 1891, never actually resided in the building.

"This house belonged to an Indian merchant," explains Abdulnasir Garad, the museum's director. According to its research, Rimbaud lived first in a building belonging to the governor of Harar and then in a smaller Hariri house.

He was 26 when he arrived in the trading town, employed as an agent for a French coffee exporter based in Aden, Yemen. By the time he lef...