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Comoros
The Comoro Islands consist of an archipelago known for its perfumed crops—vanilla, ylang-ylang, and cloves—and a celebrated past awash in legends of early Jewish settlers and famous buccaneers. More recently, the islands have earned a degree of notoriety as a home for mercenaries. On the four Comoro Islands—Njazidja (also called Grande Comore), Nzwani (Anjouan), Mwali (Mohéli), and Mayotte—Islam is the predominant religion, but the influences of Arabic, African, Malagasy, and European cultures are apparent both in the language and in daily life. Although the islands are a popular destination for European and South African tourists, they continue to struggle with problems they have faced since independence: low economic growth, scarce land and other resources, and chronic political instability.
Early History
The earliest visitors to the Comoro Islands may have been the Melano-Polynesian immigrants who later settled nearby Madagascar. Some scholars have suggested an early Jewish presence on the islands, based on the fact that many Comorians observe dietary restrictions and behavioral taboos associated with the Saturday Sabbath. The earliest archaeological evidence of widespread occupation dates from the tenth century C.E.. East Africans, Persians, and Arabs are thought to have arrived around the thirteenth century, as the trade in GOLD, IVORY, cloth, and other precious items increased between East Africa, Arabia, and India. As Arab traders stopped over on the islands while journeying between Madagascar and East African market towns, such as Kilwa and Mombasa, the Comoros themselves developed into an entrepôt where goods from Madagascar, including palm cloth, rice, and carved stone vessels, were exchanged for products from the mainland.Some scholars, however, believe that it was not until after the Portuguese attacked Kilwa in 1506 that large numbers of Persians and Arabs settled permanently in the Comoros, where they developed independent urban centers, ruled by sultans, along the coasts. The Persians of the Comoros maintained close ties through marriage and trading with the Shirazi families of Kilwa and Zanzibar, who themselves originally migrated from Shiraz, in Persia, during the first millennium. Other sources suggest that the Shirazi migrated from Persia to the Comorian island of Nzwani, only later to disperse to East Africa. Whether the Shirazi were in fact Persian or Arab is debated. Today, the Shirazi remain one of the Comoros’ largest ethnic groups.When Portuguese and, later, other European merchant ships began to call at the Comoros in the sixteenth century, they found the islands controlled by multiple rival chiefdoms, such as Chingoni and Qualey on the island of Mayotte. Strife existed between these coastal sultanates as well as between the sultanates and communities living in the interior. Although the European powers did not at this point establish control over the islands, Dutch, French, and English ships later used them as a staging ground in their struggle against Portuguese domination in the southwest Indian Ocean. They also traded iron for fresh supplies of water and food.As European navies competed for control over Indian Ocean trade routes, the commerce in luxury goods stimulated the rise of piracy, which reached its height during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Comoros offered pirates, such as Davy Jones and Captain Kidd, fresh water, a safe haven, and a strategic base for plundering European ships that passed through the Mozambique Channel while traveling to and from India. Comoros towns also provided markets for the pirates’ stolen property. During the eighteenth century, however, European powers increased their military presence in the region. With the French navy established on île de France (present-day Mauritius) and English forces based on Nzwani, piracy became riskier.During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, slaves became an increasingly important commodity in the Indian Ocean. French plantations in the colonies of île de France, Réunion, and the Seychelles created a tremendous demand for slave labor, much of which came from Madagascar. Arab merchants on the Comoros also sold slaves who had been captured in raids on village communities in the islands’ interiors. Although many of the slaves were exported to neighboring islands, Comorian sultans also used slaves on sugar, clove, and sisal plantations.As demand for slaves rose in the late eighteenth century, conflicts increased between the Comorian sultanates and chiefdoms, as well as between Comorian and Malagasy rulers. In the mid-1790s, a sultan on the island of Nzwani asked his Betsimisaraka allies of northeastern Madagascar to raid his rivals in the nearby town of Mutsamundu. The Betsimisaraka went on to attack other Comorian communities, taking slaves as booty. Comorian sultans’ desperate appeals to European powers for protection against Malagasy raids were ignored until 1816, when the British government intervened. That year, agents of Robert Farquare, the British governor of Mauritius, successfully pressured the Merina Empire of Madagascar to sign a treaty ending the slave trade. In the 1820s, the Merina Empire overthrew the chief Malagasy raiders—the coastal Sakalava—and slave raids on the Comoros and elsewhere ended.But the Merina-Sakalava rivalry had further implications for the Comoros. In 1828 the sultan of Nzwani, Abdallah, invited the Merina general Ramanataka to settle in the sultan’s domain and help defeat his own enemies. Ultimately, Ramanataka established a Merina chiefdom on Nzwani. Not long afterward, the Sakalava leader Andriansouli joined relatives on Mayotte, and soon became one of the island’s most powerful figures. Meanwhile, rulers on the island of Njazidja maintained ties to the sultanate of Zanzibar and continued to resist alignment with European powers.European Intervention and the Colonial Era
European colonization of the Comoro Islands came as a result of Anglo-French rivalry in the Indian Ocean. The process was gradual, and occurred somewhat differently on each island. After the British won the Napoleonic Wars and established control of Mauritius in 1810, France looked to the Comoros as a base for preserving its regional influence. On Mayotte, they found a willing collaborator in Andriansouli, who signed a treaty in 1841 that established the island as a French protectorate. Britain responded by opening a consulate in Nzwani—ostensibly to monitor French adherence to antislavery treaties, but also to maintain intelligence of French activity in the region more generally.Mayotte’s local rulers provided French export firms with land to build plantations for the cultivation of sugar, vanilla, coffee, cacao, sisal, and other crops. Because Mayotte had been heavily depopulated by years of slave raids, the French looked to Mozambique to supply contract labor. Although sugar production initially dominated Mayotte’s economy, many plantations went bankrupt after world market prices fell in the 1890s.The island of Mwali fell from the control of the Merina ruler Ramanataka when his heir married a Zanzibarian prince. Zanzibar controlled the island during the 1850s, until Merina nobles assumed command. The famous French entrepreneur Joseph François Lambert arrived on Mwali in 1860 armed with a declaration by the Merina queen of Madagascar that granted Lambert complete ownership of the island. Lambert intended to share profits from plantation production with the queen. But the local population resisted, plundering Lambert’s house in his absence. The French, meanwhile, sent the navy to reassert Lambert’s claims. In 1886 the island became a neglected French protectorate; its local population remained poor and disfranchised in the following decades.Njazidja remained largely independent of European influence during the nineteenth century, though in 1843 the French secured the right to fell timber and recruit contract laborers from several sultans. The island’s two dominant sultanates spent much of the century engaged in an extended conflict. In 1875 the French lent support to the powerful sultan of Bambao, Said Ali. Ali showed his appreciation by providing the French naturalist Léon Humblot with as much land as he desired for plantations, as well as contract laborers. In return, Ali received 10 percent of Humblot’s profits. Angry sultans accused Ali of giving away land he did not own. One sultan acquired a German flag, which he had hoisted at Fumboni. In response, in 1883 the French declared the island a protectorate. Despite the occasional presence of the French military, popular uprisings forced Ali to flee the island twice; after the second time, he remained in Réunion until his death. Humblot became ruler of the island in 1892, but his reputation for tyranny and cruelty—children worked as forced laborers on his plantations—led to his removal by the French government four years later.On the island of Nzwani, the sultan Abdallah established diplomatic ties with the British in 1844, hoping to legitimate his own authority and ward off French imperialism. British entrepreneurs, coming mostly from Mauritius, invested in plantations. They built a primary labor force of Arab-owned slaves, who were hired out as wage laborers, but whose owners confiscated most of their earnings. Abdallah’s agreement to bring an end to slavery in 1882 alienated him from his Arab constituents. Unwilling to enact the unpopular law, and indebted to Mauritian bankers, Abdallah initiated political ties with France. The French were quick to use deceit and the threat of force to gain control of Nzwani. By 1887, Abdallah had been stripped of most of his authority, and the French had forced him to abolish slavery. His land was parceled out to French colonists for plantation cultivation.By 1909 all the islands were French protectorates. Three years later, they became part of the colony of Madagascar, and once-resistant sultans were forced to abdicate to French authority. France invested little in the islands; until World War II, they ranked among the backwaters of the French Empire, and were ruled from neighboring Madagascar. French companies dictated policy much as the sultans had previously, except that profits from cash crop sales were diverted to France. During the 1920 and 1930s, many Comorians emigrated to Madagascar in search of employment. With only one secondary school for all the Comoros, the islands offered few opportunities for advancement. Nor did they produce any significant indigenous political movements during this period.Independence
During World War II, the British seized the Comoro Islands from Vichy France and handed them over to the Free French government, which later granted the colony greater autonomy as well as representation in the French parliament. In a 1958 popular referendum held within all French possessions, Comorians voted to remain a French territory, though with their own internal administration. Continued economic stagnation and French neglect, along with the death in 1970 of the moderate politician Said Mohammed Cheik, sparked calls for independence. In a 1974 vote the population reversed their initial decision in favor of full independence, with the exception of the inhabitants of Mayotte. As the center of French colonial administration, Mayotte had developed closer ties with Paris while distinguishing itself both linguistically and racially from the Arab-dominated rulers of the other islands of the Comoros. France thus retained control over Mayotte while granting independence to the other islands.But this plan was unacceptable to the Comorian government. Led by President Ahmed Abdallah, in July 1975 the government unilaterally declared the independence of all the islands, including Mayotte. While the United Nations recognized Comorian independence, however, France refused to relinquish control over Mayotte. Relations between the two nations quickly worsened: France withdrew all support, and the Comorian government nationalized all French possessions. After only one month in office Abdallah was deposed in a coup led by Ali Soilih, with help from the French mercenary Bob Denard. Soilih’s socialist government lasted until May 1978, when he in turn was overthrown and killed by Denard’s mercenaries. Shortly afterward, Comorians voted to make the country a federal Islamic republic and elected Abdallah president. The mercenaries’ continued presence on the islands—many served as Abdallah’s bodyguards—resulted in the Comoros’ temporary expulsion from the Organization of African Unity (OAU) that same year.Abdallah reestablished diplomatic relations with France and forged alliances with other Islamic states. In 1979 he declared a single-party state, and over the next few years survived several coup attempts, which were typically followed by crackdowns on the political opposition. As population growth exceeded the agricultural potential of the archipelago’s poor soils, the economy continued to decline. The tiny fishing and manufacturing sectors did little to improve the health of the Comorian economy, which lacked the capital needed to improve its infrastructure.In 1989, as Abdallah prepared to run for a third term as president, he was assassinated by Denard’s mercenaries, who then attempted to take direct control of the government. The arrival of French paratroopers, however, forced Denard and his colleagues to flee to South Africa. Supreme Court president Said Mohamed Djohar won subsequent presidential elections, promising economic reforms and a return to multiparty politics. But unrest continued. In 1991 the Supreme Court attempted to dismiss the president for negligence; a year later, Djohar faced a failed coup attempt, as well as strikers protesting International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank austerity measures. The corrupt Djohar regime repeatedly outmaneuvered opposition groups seeking a greater share of political power.Denard and his merceneries returned to the scene in 1995, invading the Comoros and capturing Djohar. Nine hundred French troops followed, arrested the mercenaries, and sent them to France. With Djohar in Réunion for medical treatment, Prime Minister Mohamed Caabi El Yachroutu stepped in as president. After the 1996 presidential elections, he was replaced by opposition leader Mohamed Taki, and the country adopted a new constitution that embraced Islamic principles. Despite this change in government, the economy remained weak and popular unrest continued.In 1997 the islands of Nzwani and Mwali announced their intention to secede: in light of the relatively high standard of living enjoyed by Mayotte, they wished to return to French administration. Initially, the French government affirmed its willingness to reincorporate the islands. Later, however, taking a more cautious stance, it urged the OAU to find a peaceful settlement to the conflict. Troops from Moroni unsuccessfully tried to recapture Nzwani by force. In late 1998 Taki died and was succeeded by an interim president. In April 1999, following riots on Njazidja aimed at people from Nzwani, the interim government was overthrown in a military coup. Assoumani Azali, one of the coup leaders, became president. A Transitional National Unity Government (GUNT) was formed on January 20, 2002, following the passage of the new constitution.GUNT governed until April 2002, when presidential elections were held. Assoumani Azali received 75 percent of the vote. Azali, however, left office in 2006, at which time he was succeeded by the cleric Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi. On Anjouan, however, President Mohamed Bacar went ahead with his plan to consolidate his own power and in 2007 politically separated the island from the rest of Comoros. Less than a year later, in March 2008, soldiers from Comoros and the African Union landed on Anjouan. The fighting lasted a bit longer than a day. The island was repatriated, and Bacar fled by speedboat to seek asylum from the French government (which later denied the request, though it refused subsequent extradition requests from Comoros). Elections were held on Anjouan in June 2008.See also Indian Ocean Slave Trade; United Nations in Africa.
Comoros
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