Pemba is a

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

city and district in

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

. It is the capital of the province of

Cabo Delgado Cabo is Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for cape. It may refer to: * Cabo San Lucas, a resort city in Baja California Sur, Mexico * Cabó, a municipality in Alt Urgell, Lleida, Catalonia, Spain Other places * Cabo Blanco, Costa Rica * Cabo Cor ...

and lies on a

peninsula A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on a ...

Pemba Bay Pemba Bay ( pt, Baia de Pemba) is a very large bay on the Indian Ocean of northeastern Mozambique. Geography The Pemba Bay is east-facing and is located in the area of the city of Pemba. It is hemmed in largely by the Pemba peninsula which contai ...

. The town was founded by the Niassa Company in 1904 as Porto Amélia, after the

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...

, at the peninsula's northwestern tip and has grown around a

. The city is renowned for its Portuguese

colonial architecture Colonial architecture is an architectural style from a mother country that has been incorporated into the buildings of settlements or colonies in distant locations. Colonists frequently built settlements that synthesized the architecture of their ...

. It was renamed Pemba at the end of Portuguese rule, in 1975. The city's inhabitants are primarily Swahili, Makondes, Macuas and Mwanis. Local languages that are spoken are

Kimwani The Mwani language, also known by its native name Kimwani, ( ) is a Bantu language spoken on the coast of the Cabo Delgado Province of Mozambique, including the Quirimbas Islands. Although it shares high lexical similarity (60%) with Swahili, i ...

and Macua, although

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 ...

is widespread. Pemba is also renowned as being a prime destination for

water sport Water sports or aquatic sports are sport activities conducted on waterbodies, and can be categorized according to the degree of immersion by the participants. On the water * Boat racing, the use of powerboats to participate in races * Boatin ...

and diving enthusiasts as a

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of Colony (biology), colonies of coral polyp (zoology), polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, wh ...

lies close to the shore. It has increasingly become a tourist destination, particularly for upper-middle-class Mozambicans and South Africans. There are now 5 flights a week from Johannesburg to Pemba, several hotels, restaurants, and other forms of entertainment. In the centre of Pemba, there is an authentic local market or

souk A bazaar () or souk (; also transliterated as souq) is a marketplace consisting of multiple small stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, North Africa and India. However, temporary open markets elsewhere, such as in the W ...

, where

arts and crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

, as well as traditional

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

ware can be bought. Pemba is the closest major city and airport for those who wish to visit the

Quirimbas Islands The Quirimbas Islands lie in the Indian Ocean off northeastern Mozambique, close to Pemba, the capital of the province of Cabo Delgado. The archipelago consists of about 32 islands, including Ibo, Matemo, Medjumbe, Quirimba, Metundo, Quisiv ...

and

Quirimbas National Park The Quirimbas National Park (QNP) is a protected area in the Cabo Delgado Province of Mozambique, encompassing the southern part of the Quirimbas Islands, as well as a significant mainland area. The mainland region of Taratibua contain various ins ...

History

Pemba is taking refugees in the aftermath of the

Battle of Palma The Battle of Palma or the Battle for Palma was fought during late March and early April 2021 over control of the city of Palma in Mozambique, between the Mozambique Defence Armed Forces, other Mozambican security forces and private military con ...

International relations

Pemba is twinned with: *

Aveiro, Portugal Aveiro ( or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. In 2021, the population was 80,880, in an area of : it is the second most populous city in the Centro Region of Portugal (after Coimbra). Along with the neighbouring city of Ílhavo, Aveiro ...

Reggio Emilia, Italy Reggio nell'Emilia ( egl, Rèz; la, Regium Lepidi), usually referred to as Reggio Emilia, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, and known until 1861 as Reggio di Lombardia, is a city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has abou ...

Demographics

Port

Pemba is a potential site for a deepwater port.

Municipality

The municipality of Pemba covers 100 km² and recorded 201,846 people in the 2017 census. The actual settlement, however, is mostly just the tip facing into the bay, with most of the land undeveloped.

Climate

Pemba has a

tropical savanna climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry winter) and ''As'' (for a dry summer). The driest month has less than of ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

''Aw''). Temperatures fluctuate little throughout the year due to the city's tropical location and closeness to the equator. It has only two seasons. The wet season is from December to April and brings heavy but reliable rainfall, the wettest month typically being March with an average rainfall of . Conversely, the dry season stretches from May to November and brings marginally cooler temperatures, sunny skies, and very little rain, the driest month typically being September with an average rainfall of . Humidity is very high during the wet season, averaging 80-90%, but is much lower in the dry season. The warmest months are January and February and the coolest is July.

References

{{Authority control Populated places in Cabo Delgado Province Provincial capitals in Mozambique Populated places established in 1904