Mafia Island or Chole Shamba (''Kisiwa cha Mafia'', in Swahili) is an island of The Mafia Archipelago located in Mafia District in the southern Pwani Region of

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

across the Mafia Channel. The island is the third largest in Tanzanian ocean territory, but is not administratively included within the semi-autonomous region of

Zanzibar Zanzibar is a Tanzanian archipelago off the coast of East Africa. It is located in the Indian Ocean, and consists of many small Island, islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, referred to informally as Zanzibar) and Pemba Island. ...

, which has been politically separate since 1890. Mafia Island forms the largest part of Mafia District, one of the six administrative districts in the Pwani Region. As the Mafia Archipelago's main island, it's sometimes called Chole Shamba, meaning ''Chole farmlands'' in Swahili. This is in opposition to the historic settlement of ''Chole Mjini'' (Chole town) on Chole Island inside Mafia Bay. The island's population is over 65,000. The economy is based on fishing,

subsistence agriculture Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow crops on smallholdings to meet the needs of themselves and their families. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements. Planting decisions occu ...

and the market in Kilindoni. The island attracts some tourists, mainly scuba divers, birdwatchers, game

fishermen A fisherman or fisher 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. Fishermen may be professional or recr ...

, and people seeking 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 Tanzani ...

. 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 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.

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 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 and October.

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-graben ...

ing and uplift of part of the continental shelf during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

Ecology

The main ecosystems on the island are

mangrove swamp Mangrove forests, also called mangrove swamps, mangrove thickets or mangals, are productive wetlands that occur in coastal intertidal zones. Mangrove forests grow mainly at tropical and subtropical latitudes because mangrove trees cannot withs ...

s, coastal forests, scrublands, and

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...

s. 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 i ...

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 ...

s, Terek sandpipers and crab plovers. Mafia Island is home to fruitbats (flying foxes) of the genus ''Pteropus''.

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 a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...

and

East Africa East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the Africa, African continent, distinguished by its unique geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the regi ...

. It was a regular stop for

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

boats. On the tiny island of Chole Mjini, 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 file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

, which reached the town via the old ports of Kilwa and Michangani. In the mid-1820s, the town of Kua on Juani Island was attacked by Sakalava

cannibal Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecology, ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is also well ...

s arriving from

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

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, 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 cultu ...

. 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

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. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

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 Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

''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 can be reached from

Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (, ; from ) is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of the Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over 7 million people, Dar es Salaam is the largest city in East Africa by population and the ...

by flights operated by Auric Air Tropical 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 15:00-16:00 p.m. The journey takes approximately 4.5 hours. Tickets are purchased beforehand in Nyamisati at a cost of 16,000 Tsh one way.

Gallery

File:Spice Islands (Tanzania).jpg, A map of

showing Mafia Island File:Pwani.GIF, Districts of Pwani Region 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 Mafia Archipelago Underwater diving sites in Tanzania Geography of Pwani Region Swahili city-states Districts of Pwani Region