Faza is a small town on the North coast on

Pate Island Pate (Paté) Island () is located in the Indian Ocean close to the northern coast of Kenya, to which it belongs. It is the largest island in the Lamu Archipelago, which lie between the towns of Lamu and Kiunga in the former Coast Province. Th ...

, within the Lamu Archipelago in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

's former

Coast Province The Coast Province ( sw, Mkoa wa Pwani) of Kenya, along the Indian Ocean, was one of Kenya's eight provinces. It comprises the Indian Ocean coastal strip with the capital city at Mombasa and was inhabited by the Mijikenda and Swahili, among oth ...

. Faza was known by the name of Ampaza by the PortugueseSvat Soucek, « The Portuguese and the Turks in the Persian gulf » in ''Studies in ottoman naval history and maritime geography.'', Analecta isisiana, n°102, The Isis press, Istanbul, 2008. , p. 101-106. dates back at least to the 14th century. In 1587 Faza was destroyed by the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

as the local Sheikh had supported Mir Ali Beg, a notorious privateer who had earlier played a key role in ousting the Portuguese from

Muscat Muscat ( ar, مَسْقَط, ) is the capital and most populated city in Oman. It is the seat of the Governorate of Muscat. According to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), the total population of Muscat Governorate was ...

. The Portuguese arrived from

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

with some 650 men on their

punitive expedition A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a political entity or any group of people outside the borders of the punishing state or union. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong beh ...

, and unleashed their fury on Faza. Everybody they could find was killed, including the local Sheikh. The Portuguese preserved his head in a barrel of salt for display in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. After 4 days of looting they invited Fazas arch-rivals from Pate town to take away anything that they liked from Faza. Faza was later resettled. The Portuguese in Faza constructed a chapel there, however, nothing remains of it. In the 18th century Faza again fell into decline due to the rise of Pate. The English Consul Holmwood visited the place in 1873 and found it "dirty and infected with diseases". On 5 September 2009, a tragic fire took place, destroying 430 houses leaving 2500 homeless. The

Kenya Red Cross Society The Kenya Red Cross is one of the many International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement societies around the world. The Kenya organisation was established in 1965, The Kenya Red Cross supports and runs a number of projects whilst raising aware ...

(KRCS) have provided housing and thousands of items of emergency needs, including blankets, sanitation equipment, tanker loads of water etc., to some of those affected. The French government has funded a hospital, complete with theatre. This has removed the need for the 4 hour boat trip to Lamu in emergencies. The cost was KSh.9.5 million/= for the construction and a further KSh.3.9 million/= for theatre equipment. The KRCS have spent a further KSh.23 million/= on wells and food supplies.

References

Bibliography

*Martin, Chryssee MacCasler Perry and Esmond Bradley Martin: ''Quest for the Past. An historical guide to the Lamu Archipelago.'' 1973. {{Lamu Archipelago Swahili people Swahili city-states Swahili culture Populated places in Coast Province Lamu County Lamu Archipelago

See also

References

Bibliography