|
COMORO ISLANDS |
|
Les Comores |
Coelacanth -
Livingstone's Flying Fox - Shirazi - Volcano - Coral
Reefs - Islam - Western Indian Ocean - Ancient Maritime Trade - Ylang-ylang
The Comoros consist
of four islands and several islets in the western Indian Ocean. Three of the
islands are members of an independent country, The Union of the Comoros. These
islands have their names in the map above in the local languages of the
islands. The fourth island is a department of France and its name is in French.
In the following paragraphs, when the island name is in its local language its
French name appears in the following parentheses.
The Comoro Islands are
located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel between Madagascar and
Africa with each of them: Ngazidja (Grande Comore),
Mwali (Moheli),
Nzwani (Anjouan),
and Maore (Mayotte)
having distinct characteristics due to their different ages. Mayotte, the oldest
of the islands, is an ancient volcanic island with highly eroded mountains and
slow, meandering streams. Grande Comore, the youngest
of the islands has a massive, active volcano and recent lava
flows. The other two islands are mountainous but have had no recent volcanic
activity. The Islands occupy a strategic position in the western Indian Ocean
and have played an important role in the history of the area. They have been
involved in the ancient maritime trade of the Indian Ocean for many centuries
and this is reflected in the makeup of the population. Peoples from Africa,
Arabia, Asia, Europe, and Madagascar have all contributed to the mixture.
Ancient documents tell of large, seaworthy sailing vessels and a
widespread maritime trading network in the Indian Ocean. The tales of Sinbad
the Sailor are an entertaining and fanciful view of sailing in the Indian Ocean
but they are based on factual information about the centuries old maritime
trade. Sailors traveled between ports in the Comoros, the East African Coast,
Arabia, and India trading in a wide variety of goods including gems, rare
animals, slaves, exotic woods, and spices. Comorians were intensely involved in
this trade. The town of Domoni on the eastern shore
of the island of Anjouan was specifically mentioned
as a major trading center in the fifteenth century by Ibn
Madjid, the navigator who purportedly guided Vasco da
Gama, the first European to sail around the south of Africa into the Indian
Ocean. The legend tells that Madjid served as
navigator for da Gama and showed him the way to India from East Africa. Ibn Madjid visited the Comoros on
his travels throughout the littoral of the Indian Ocean and noted that Domoni was a port for African, Indian, and Persian sailing vessels.
Archaeological evidence,
furthermore, indicates that the town, founded before the 12th century, became
involved in a vast network of trade that stretched as far away as Japan.
Traditional sailing vessels of the Indian Ocean, much like the 60 foot merchantman pictured
at right, carried tons of cargo and were notably fast sailing ships. They were
especially remarkable in that nothing on a ship was made of metal. No metal nails, for
example, were used to construct the vessels. Their hulls were made of wooden
planks sewn together with rope made from coconut fiber. They were very
seaworthy, long lasting vessels well suited to the conditions of the Indian
Ocean maritime trade. They were flexible, shallow draft craft able to stand the
pounding of surf without breaking apart when they approached a landing spot.
Traditionally, few ports in the Indian Ocean had deep water facilities and
ships would be beached or anchored close to shore.
During the sixteenth
through the nineteenth centuries, large numbers of European and American ships
visited the islands. American whalers and pirates, including the infamous
Captain Kidd, would anchor in Comorian waters to restock water and food. The
island of Nzwani (Anjouan), in particular, was a
favorite stopover for reprovisioning. Occasionally,
ships would take aboard islanders as crew or American sailors that had been
sick or had been put ashore for other reasons and left there. It was also a
place where ships entering the Indian Ocean could trade mail with those
preparing to return to the U.S. The British navy had a coal refueling station
on Anjouan in the last half of the 19th century
and in the 20th century French colonial administrators, plantation
owners, and mercernaries were involved in the
Islands. But, with the demise of the whaling industry, the introduction of
steamships, and the opening of the Suez Canal, the Comoros ceased to be an
important port of call in the Indian Ocean. Today, outside of brief news items
or two words in The Book of Mormon, they are the "Forgotten Islands".
The mountainous
islands have diverse microecologies with spectacular
scenery, exotic plants and rare animals. Several species of animals are unique
to the Comoros. One, Livingstone's
flying fox, is a fruit bat that soars on wings spanning more than four
feet. It roosts in steep-sided valleys high in the mountainous forests of
Nzwani and Mwali. With disappearing forests due to
increased human population and demands for timber, however, the bat's habitat
is rapidly diminishing and the species is endangered.
Several different
kinds of insects and over a dozen bird
species are also unique to the islands. Many are now are facing extinction.
In the waters around the islands, lives the coelacanth, a species
of fish with
an amazing history. It was once thought by western scientists to have been
extinct for 60 million years. But it was discovered in 1938 that they still
exist and in the 1950s an ichthyologist learned that local fishermen catch
coelacanths in deep water close to the Comoro Islands. Several specimens have
since been caught, preserved, and sent to museums around the world. Today,
Comorian fisherment still catch coelacanths. To learn
more about this remarkable story visit the National Geographic web site.There
are also videos of the fish on YouTube.
There is an
abundance of life in the Indian Ocean surrounding the Comoros. One can find
everything from giant whales, large sharks, big manta rays, sailfish, sunfish,
to lobsters, crabs and tiny shrimp. Deep water close to the islands, coral
reefs, miles of sandy beaches, plus fresh water streams and shoreline springs
provide multiple habitats for marine life. In recent years, there has been an
increase in pollution from human activity, unfortunately, that now seriously
threatens the coastal life of the islands. The coral reefs and their associated
sea life, in particular, are being affected.
THE UNION OF THE COMOROS
The islands became
a French colony following the Berlin conference of 1884-5 in which European
powers divided up Africa. They remained under direct French political control
until 1975. In that year, the local government declared itself independent from
France and formed the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoro Islands. Three of
the islands: Ngazidja (Grande Comore),
Mwali (Moheli), and Nzwani (Anjouan),
became members of the Republic but the fourth major island of the archipelago, Maore (Mayotte), continued to be administered by France.
Although it's control by France has been continuously
challenged by the Comorian government and the claim that Mayotte belongs within
the sphere of the independent nation of the Comoros has been recognized by the
United Nations General Assembly, it became a Department of France and an
integral part of the French Republic in March, 2011.
In 1997,
separatists on the islands of Nzwani (Anjouan) and Mwali (Moheli) demanded more independence from the
Republic. This led to the breakup of the Federal Islamic Republic and a
reformation of the central government under a new constitution in 2001 as the
Union of the Comoro Islands. The new constitution gave each of the three
islands considerable autonomy. Besides an elected president of the Union, each
island would have an elected president. In 2007, the president of Nzwani, who
favored complete independence from the Union, refused to relinquish his
position and agree to the results of a proper general election on the island.
Consequently, in March of 2008, he was removed by a combined military force of
soldiers from the Comorian Union and the African Union. This led to a
constitutionally elected president of Nzwani and a return to a normalized
relationship with the central government.
Under the Union's
2001 constitution, presidential elections were scheduled to be held every four
years with the office rotating between the three islands. In 2006, Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi from the
island of Nzwani (Anjouan) was elected President. He
replaced Azali Assoumani
from Ngazidja (Grande Comore).
The current President, Ikililou Dhoinine,
is from the island of Mwali (Moheli).
- Visit the Permanent Mission of the
Union of the Comoros to the United Nations or the Comorian Embassy in the United
States.
Further
information about the Comoro Islands can be found below under the following
categories. A young Comorian woman from the island of Nzwani (Anjouan) says, "Wangalie!"
("Take a look!")
For those interested in doing research about the islands an
extensive bibliography
is available.
For details about each of the islands of the archipelago select
from:
Other world wide web sites with information about the Comoro Islands
you may want to visit are:
The World Tourism Directory provides addresses and telephone numbers
of a range of useful resources.
Al-watwan, daily news about the Comoros. (In French and Arabic)
Radio and Television from the Comoros. (In French, Arabic, and Comorian)
The Marine Science Country Profile of the Comoros provides
an overview plus details of the marine environment.
World
Bank Country Profile.
BBC
News Country Profile.
University
of Pennsylvania's African
Studies Program.
Library of Congress Country Studies.
United
States Department of State Background
Notes.
United
States Central Intelligence Agency World
Factbook.
IMF (International Monetary Fund) publications on the Comoros.
Interested in
examples of Comorian money? Go to Coins of the
Comoros.
Interested in recent
military actions in the Comoros? Visit the site of the South African Air Combat Information Group.
For more general
background information you may want to visit the following sites:
There have been virtual visits
to the Comoro Islands.
Any questions, suggestions, or comments contact
Martin Ottenheimer
or Harriet Ottenheimer
Traditional doll
from Nzwani.
Copyright
(C) by Martin and Harriet Ottenheimer. (Last update
22 May 2013)