Pemba Island

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Pemba
Native name: Al Jazeera al Khadra (the green island)
Map of Zanzibar Archipelago-en.svg
The main islands of the Zanzibar Archipelago: Unguja (left) and Pemba (right)
Pemba Island is located in Tanzania
Pemba Island
Location in Tanzania
Geography
Location Indian Ocean
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Area Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1851: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value).
Country
Tanzania
Region Zanzibar
Largest settlement Wete
Demographics
Population 406,808 (as of census 2012)
Density 428 /km2 (1,109 /sq mi)

Pemba Island, known as "The Green Island" in Arabic (الجزيرة الخضراء), is an island forming part of the Zanzibar Archipelago, lying within the Swahili Coast in the Indian Ocean.

Geography

With a land area of 988 square kilometres (381 sq mi)[1] it is situated about 50 kilometres (31 mi) to the north of Unguja, the largest island of the archipelago. In 1964, Zanzibar was united with the former colony of Tanganyika to form Tanzania. It lies 50 kilometres (31 mi) east of mainland Tanzania, across the Pemba Channel. Together with Mafia Island (south of Unguja), these islands form the Spice Islands (not to be confused with the Maluku Islands of Indonesia).

Ndagoni Ruins at Ras Mkumbuu

Most of the island, which is hillier and more fertile than Unguja, is dominated by small scale farming. There is also large scale farming of cash crops such as cloves.

In previous years the island was seldom visited due to inaccessibility and a reputation for political violence, with the notable exception of those drawn by its reputation as a center for traditional medicine and witchcraft. There is a quite large Arab community on the island, who immigrated from Oman. The population is a mix of Arab and original Waswahili inhabitants of the island. A significant portion of the population also identifies as Shirazi people.

The most important towns in Pemba are Chake-Chake (the capital), Mkoani, and Wete, which is the largest city. The centrally located Chake-Chake is perched on a mound with a view to the west on a bay and the tiny Misali island, where the tides determine when a dhow can enter the local harbour. Pemba is, with the exception of a strip of land along its eastern coast, a very fertile place: besides clove trees, the locals grow mainly rice, coconut, bananas, cassava and red beans (called maharagwe in the Swahili language).

Pemba is home to several dive sites, with steep drop-offs, untouched coral and very abundant marine life.[2][3]

Archaeology

Mkama Ndume Ruins at Pujini village.

Archaeological research on Pemba has shown its centrality to the Swahili coast trading system as early as 600 AD.[4] Along the northern coast, urban settlements at Chwaka later developed and flourished from the eleventh century to ~1500 AD.[5]

West of Pemba's capital Chake-Chake, on a long stretched peninsula called Ras Mkumbuu, one can find some of the oldest and best preserved series of early ruins on the islands (Ndagoni ruins, probably 14th century).[6]

East of Chake-Chake one can find the Mkama Ndume ruins at Pujini village (south of the airport) within easy reach by road from Chake-Chake. This is the only known early fortification on the whole Swahili Coast; it is dated to the fifteenth century.[7]

History

According to the Arab geographer Yakut, in the mid-13th century there were two independent sultans ruling over parts of Pemba Island.[8]

Economy

Pemba is also famous for its rich fishing grounds. Between the island and the mainland there is the deep 50 kilometre wide Pemba channel, which is one of the most profitable fishing grounds for game fishing on the Swahili Coast.[9]

A large proportion of the Zanzibar export earnings comes from cloves. The greatest concentration of clove trees is found on Pemba (3.5 million trees) as growing conditions here are superior to those on Unguja island. Clove trees grow to the height of around 10 to 15 metres and can produce crops for over 50 years.

More recently with the booming tourism industry in neighbouring Zanzibar, more adventurous travellers are seeking out the less-crowded Pemba, led by dive tourists seeking the uncrowded and un-spoiled reefs the island offers the experienced diver.[10]

For the promotion of tourism the department of Surveys and Mapping at Chake-Chake is publishing a map with tourist guide since 1992.[11]

Transport

Pemba Airport is also known as Wawi Airport or Karume Airport and connects the island to Arusha, Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar.

Photo gallery

  • View from Chake Chake town center over the mangroves towards the sea

  • Wharf at Mkoani

  • The Pemba offices of the Prime Minister of Zanzibar's Revolutionary Government in Chake Chake

  • Derelict amusement park on the outskirts of Chake-Chake

  • Clove buds dried in the equatorial sun

  • A family from Pemba

  • Aircraft at Karume airport Chake-Chake

  • A rainy day in central Chake Chake

  • Map of Pemba Island

  • Fish market, Mkoani

  • Market building in Wete

  • The jetty at Chake Chake, surrounded by mangroves

  • An office of the opposition party CUF (Civic United Front) in Chake Chake

See also

References

  1. ↑ Tanzania in figures 2012, National Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Finance, June 2013, page 7
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Kirkman, James S. "Excavations at Ras Mkumbuu on the island of Pemba." Tanganyika Notes and Records 53 (1959): 161-78.
  7. ↑ LaViolette, Adria (2004). Swahili archaeology and history on Pemba, Tanzania: A critique and case study of the use of written and oral sources in archaeology. In Reid, Andrew M. and Paul J. Lane, eds. African Historical Archaeologies, pp. 125-162.
  8. ↑ Marina Tolmacheva, The Pate Chronicle (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1993) p. 6
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Pemba - The clove island 1:100,000, Map & Guide, 3rd edition, 2013, Dept. of Surveys and Mapping, Box 235, Chake-Chake

External links

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