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MAYOTTE: The African island that voted to be governed by France!
On the 22nd of November 1974, the four Comoros islands held an independence referendum. Three of the islands choose to become independent from France, except Mayotte. Why did this island that is part of the Comoros Archipelago choose to remain under French rule while the rest of the Comoros islands voted for independence? That is what we will dive into today. Hello and welcome to this channel where we explore African stories from history and today. If you like the content, don’t forget to like the video and subscribe to the channel.
The Comoros islands are islands situated between the coast of mainland South Eastern Africa and the North Western coast of Madagascar. We have also already published a video on the Comoros Islands, which I invite you to watch after having watched this one to the end.
The archipelago is made up mainly of 4 large islands; Ngazidja, Ndzuwani, Mwali, and Mayotte, also known as Maore. Today the first 3 islands are part of the Union of Comoros while Mayotte is an overseas French department. Why is this case? Well to answer that question we have to go back in time to as early as the 6th century. Note that the history of Mayotte is closely intertwined with the history of the other islands.
This is probably when the island was first inhabited. Bantu-speaking people and Malagasy people probably made up the bulk of the population. Other visitors were Arabs, Somalis, and Indians. Because of this, the Comoros islands together with Zanzibar, Pemba, Lamu, and other Kenyan and Tanzanian coastal towns formed a prosperous region in which Swahili culture flourished. Swahili culture was the result of the mixing of the Bantu and Arab cultures. Even today a major language spoken in Mayotte, Shimaore, is a close relative of Kiswahili. Fun fact the Comoros region gets its name from the word kamar, an Arabic word meaning moon. The Arabs referred to the archipelago as the islands of the moon.
In 1500 the Maore sultanate was established on the island. Mayotte is French for Maore. A few years later in 1503 the Portuguese sailed past the island and named it Espirito Santo but the name did not stick. In 1505 they finally landed on the island. Because of its treacherous harbors and smaller size, the island remained underdeveloped compared to its neighbors and often fell victim to pirate raids. The island was also often raided by Malagasy warriors for slaves. This depleted the island's population as well as the rest of Comoros.
By the early 19th century, the island was ruled by Sultans aligned with the Anjoan sultanate, who ruled Ndzuwani Island. However, it remained sparsely populated. As the century progressed the island was fought for between different sultans. In 1832 a former king of Iboina in Madagascar, Andraintsoly, conquered the island and became sultan of Mayotte. Then in 1935 the Anjoan sultanate regained the island and installed a Qadi that is sharia court judge, as governor.
Andriantsoly was having none of it and conquered the island again a year later. The last sultan of Mayotte realized that he needed a powerful ally to keep the Anjoan sultanate out of the island. The constant war had depleted the island's wealth and population. He then made a decision that would change the history of Mayotte forever by seeking when he started negations with the French. At the end of these negotiations, Mayotte was bought by the French in 1841. In later years France colonized the rest of the Comoros islands as well.
When the French bought the island slavery was abolished. They also started plantations on the island and brought in new laborers. Unfortunately, the abolition of slavery did not improve the freed slaves' lives because they were often forced to work under harsher conditions by the French colonialists on their new plantations. Despite the influx of new French plantation owners, the island was still sparsely populated and the French government tried to attract settlers by promising compensation, much like it had done on another island, La Reunion. We did a video on why Reunion chooses to remain under France so you can watch that video if you missed it.
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Published Feb 3, 2024
