Mafia Island (Kisiwa cha Mafia) is an island and district of
Pwani Region
Pwani Region (''Mkoa wa Pwani'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The word "''Pwani''" in Swahili means the "''coast''". The regional capital is the town of Kibaha. The Region borders the Tanga Region to the north, M ...
,
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...
. The island is the third largest in Tanzanian ocean territory,
but is not administratively included within the semi-autonomous region of
Zanzibar
Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islands ...
, which has been politically separate since 1890. Mafia Island forms the major part of
Mafia District
Mafia is one of the 6 districts of the Pwani Region of Tanzania. It covers Mafia Island
Mafia Island (Kisiwa cha Mafia) is an island and district of Pwani Region, Tanzania. The island is the third largest in Tanzanian ocean territory, but is ...
, one of the six administrative districts in the
Pwani coastal region. The local archipelago and the main island are sometimes called Chole shamba in
Swahili, hinterlands of the former maintown of Chole on Mafia Bay.
The island's population is over 40,000. The economy is based on fishing,
subsistence agriculture
Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no su ...
and the market in
Kilindoni
Kilindoni is the capital of Mafia District in Pwani Region, Tanzania. It is the largest settlement on Mafia Island.
Climate
Mafia island has a tropical climate, and this climate is classified as "Aw" by the Köppen-Geiger system. Average te ...
. The island attracts some tourists, mainly
scuba divers, birdwatchers, game
fishermen
A fisher or fisherman is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish.
Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishers may be professional or recreat ...
, and people wanting relaxation.
Geography
Mafia Island, (), lies off the east coast of Tanzania opposite the delta of the
Rufiji River
The Rufiji River lies entirely within Tanzania. It is also the largest and longest river in the country. The river is formed by the confluence of the Kilombero and Luwegu rivers. It is approximately long, with its source in southwestern Tanzania ...
.
The wide stretch of water between the delta and the island is called the
Mafia Channel. Mafia Island is part of a small archipelago with several much smaller islands, some of which are inhabited. The main town on Mafia is
Kilindoni
Kilindoni is the capital of Mafia District in Pwani Region, Tanzania. It is the largest settlement on Mafia Island.
Climate
Mafia island has a tropical climate, and this climate is classified as "Aw" by the Köppen-Geiger system. Average te ...
on the west coast. On the east coast is Chole Bay, Mafia's protected deep-water anchorage and original harbour. The bay is studded with islets, sandbanks and beaches, and is protected from the east by reefs and Juani Island.
The northernmost point on the island is a coral cliff rising approximately above the sea called Ras Mkumbi, beyond the cliff the land gradually rises to . There is a lighthouse at Ras Mkumbi.
Geology
Mafia Island, and the associated archipelago were formed by
rift
In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the lithosphere is being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics.
Typical rift features are a central linear downfaulted depression, called a graben, or more commonly a half-grabe ...
ing and
uplift
Uplift may refer to: Science
* Geologic uplift, a geological process
** Tectonic uplift, a geological process
* Stellar uplift, the theoretical prospect of moving a stellar mass
* Uplift mountains
* Llano Uplift
* Nemaha Uplift
Business
* Uplif ...
of part of the continental shelf during the
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
.
Ecology
The main ecosystems on the island are
mangrove swamps,
coastal forests,
scrublands, and
grassland
A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...
s.
Birds
A 115,000 ha area, encompassing Chole Bay, the southern coastline of Mafia and its associated smaller islands, along with the intervening marine waters, has been designated an
Important Bird Area
An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations.
IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...
(IBA) by
BirdLife International
BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...
because it supports populations of
western reef egret
The western reef heron (''Egretta gularis''), also called the western reef egret, is a medium-sized heron found in southern Europe, Africa and parts of Asia. It has a mainly coastal distribution and occurs in several plumage forms: a slaty-grey p ...
s,
Terek sandpiper
The Terek sandpiper (''Xenus cinereus'') is a small migratory Palearctic wader species and is the only member of the genus ''Xenus''. It is named after the Terek River which flows into the west of the Caspian Sea, as it was first observed arou ...
s and
crab plover
The crab-plover or crab plover (''Dromas ardeola)'' is a bird related to the waders, but sufficiently distinctive to merit its own family Dromadidae. Its relationship within the Charadriiformes is unclear, some have considered it to be closely ...
s.
Mammals
Mafia Island is home to fruitbats (flying foxes) of the genus ''Pteropus''.
Climate
Mafia Island has a tropical climate. This climate is classified as "Aw" by the
Köppen-Geiger system. The average temperature in town of
Kilindoni
Kilindoni is the capital of Mafia District in Pwani Region, Tanzania. It is the largest settlement on Mafia Island.
Climate
Mafia island has a tropical climate, and this climate is classified as "Aw" by the Köppen-Geiger system. Average te ...
is . The average annual rainfall is 1,705 mm. The monthly average temperatures are usually between . There is one major rain season, with most rainfall coming between March and May. Dry season spans between July to October.
History
Mafia Island is mentioned at least as early as the 8th century. The island once played a major role in ancient trade between the people of
East Asia
East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...
and
East Africa
East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa:
Due to the historical ...
. It was a regular stop for
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
boats. On the tiny island of
Chole Mjini
Chole can refer to:
* Chloe. a feminine given name
* Chole (woreda), one of the 180 woredas in the Oromia region of Ethiopia
*''Chole'', cooked or uncooked chickpeas
:*''Chole masala'', another name for chana masala, a chickpea dish in South As ...
, just offshore in Chole Bay, once stood a settlement that constituted one of the most important towns controlling trade from the silver mines of Eastern
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...
, which reached the town via the old ports of
Kilwa
Kilwa Kisiwani (English: ''Kilwa Island'') is an island, national historic site, and hamlet community located in the township of Kilwa Masoko, the district seat of Kilwa District in the Tanzanian region of Lindi Region in southern Tanzania. K ...
and
Michangani.
In the mid-1820s, the town of
Kua on
Juani Island was attacked by
Sakalava
The Sakalava are an ethnic group of Madagascar. They are found on the western and northwest region of the island, in a band along the coast. The Sakalava are one of the smaller ethnic groups, constituting about 6.2 percent of the total populatio ...
cannibal
Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, bo ...
s arriving from
Madagascar
Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...
with 80 canoes, who ate many of the locals and took the rest into slavery.
A 3D documentation of the Kua Ruins on Juani Island was carried out in 2018 by the
Zamani Project
The Zamani Project is part of the African Cultural Heritage Sites and Landscapes Database. Zamani is a research group at the University of Cape Town, which acquires, models, presents and manages spatial and other data from cultural heritage sites ...
.
Under a treaty of 1890, Germany took control of Mafia and constructed the buildings still evident on Chole. Germany paid Sultan
Sayyid Ali bin Said al-Said of
Zanzibar
Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islands ...
M4 million for both the island and part of the mainland coast. On January 12, 1915, Mafia was taken by
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
troops as a base for the air and sea assault on the
light cruiser
A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to thi ...
''Königsberg''.
The name "Mafia" derives from the
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
''morfiyeh'', meaning "group" or "archipelago", or from the
Swahili ''mahali pa afya'', meaning "a healthy dwelling-place".
In 1995, Mafia Island had financial help from the
WWF to make a natural marine wildlife centre which led to establishment of the first Marine Park in Tanzania. The organization continued to provide support to the Island under Rufiji-Mafia-Kilwa (RUMAKI) seascape project to improve socio-economic well-being of the communities through the sustainable, participatory and equitable utilization and protection of their natural resources. Under the current EU-WWF Fisheries Co-management Project, the organization aims at building effective long-term fisheries co-management through establishment of 10 Beach Management Units and to continue supporting Village Community Banks (VICOBA) in the Island to generate optimal, sustainable and equitable livelihood benefits, and which provide a source of lesson-learning for other coastal communities. The WWF Mafia office is under three technical staff - Paul Kugopya (Mafia Fisheries Co-management Officer), Marko Gideon (EU-WWF Fisheries Co-management Project Communication/Awareness Officer) and Renatus Rwamugira (Project Accountant for Mafia).
Tanzania's first multi-user marine park at Mafia Island was established in 1995 following management recommendations and data from surveys conducted by the Society for Environmental Exploration.
In August 2016, a diver, Alan Sutton, from Seaunseen, who had originally been looking for the remains of an old fort rumoured to have been washed away to sea, instead came across the remains of a wall stretching almost 4 km off Mafia Island.
The discovery was detailed in a blog post by Sutton, with images showing remnants of the wall.
Transport
Airport
The island's
Mafia Airport
Mafia Airport is an airport on Mafia Island in the Pwani Region of Tanzania. The island is in the Indian Ocean, off the Tanzanian coast.
In 2013 the landing strip at Mafia Airport was rehabilitated using grant funds provided by the United Stat ...
can be reached from
Dar es Salaam
Dar es Salaam (; from ar, دَار السَّلَام, Dâr es-Selâm, lit=Abode of Peace) or commonly known as Dar, is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over s ...
by flights operated by Auric Air and Coastal Aviation.
Port of Mafia Island
Boats depart depending on the presence of the boat from the village of Nyamisati on the mainland to Kilindoni on Mafia island. As of 2021 the departure from Nyamisati is 16:00 p.m. with a roll call between 15:00-16:00p.m. The journey takes approximately 4.5 hours. Tickets are purchased beforehand in Nyamisati at a cost of 16,000 Tsh one way.
See also
*
Geography of Tanzania
Tanzania comprises many lakes, national parks, and Africa's highest point, Mount Kilimanjaro (). Northeast Tanzania is mountainous, while the central area is part of a large plateau covered in grasslands. The country also contains the souther ...
*
Mafia Island Marine Park
Gallery
File:Spice Islands (Tanzania).jpg, A map of Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...
showing Mafia Island
File:Pwani.GIF, Districts of Pwani Region
Pwani Region (''Mkoa wa Pwani'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The word "''Pwani''" in Swahili means the "''coast''". The regional capital is the town of Kibaha. The Region borders the Tanga Region to the north, M ...
showing Mafia District
File:Mafia Island marine chart 1875-77 -50+70.png, Historical nautical chart
File:Mafia Island Harbour in Tanzania.jpg, Harbour of Mafia Island as seen from a departing boat
File:Mafia Island, Tanzania.jpg, Beach on Mafia Island
Sources
Mafia District Homepage for the 2002 Tanzania National Census
References
*
Chami, F. A. 1999. “The Early Iron Age on Mafia island and its relationship with the mainland.” ''Azania'' Vol. XXXIV 1999, pp. 1–10.
*Chami, Felix A. 2002. “The Graeco-Romans and Paanchea/Azania: sailing in the Erythraean Sea” by Felix A. Chami. From: ''Red Sea Trade and Travel''. The British Museum. Organised by The Society for Arabian Studies. Downloaded on 20 July 2003 fro
thebritishmuseum.ac.ukarchive
External links
Mafia Island Tanzania
{{Authority control
Coastal islands of Tanzania
Zanzibar Archipelago
Underwater diving sites in Tanzania
Geography of Pwani Region
Swahili city-states
Islands of Zanzibar
Districts of Pwani Region
Important Bird Areas of the Zanzibar Archipelago