Comoros

“ Great Comoro (Ngaziya) , although the largest and most populous member of the archipelago, is little cultivated and seldom visited by traders, owing to the absence of water and good havens. The sultan resides at Muroni, a small place situated on a creek on the south west coast. THE SEYCHELLES. 471 A geographical dependence of the Comoros are the reefs running north-east of Mayotte parallel with Madagascar, and terminating in the little group of uninhahited Gtorieme islets. ”

“ Having examined the application of the Comoros for admission to the United Nations,
Recommends to the General Assembly that the Comoros be admitted to membership in the United Nations.
This work is excerpted from an official document of the United Nations. The policy of this organisation is to keep most of its documents in the public domain in order to disseminate "as widely as possible the ideas (contained) in the United Nations Publications". ”

“ The 3d August, in lat 13° 35' by observation, and longitude 22° 30' from the Cape, we saw Mal-Ilha, one of the Comoros, about twelve leagues off, having on the east part of it a very fair sugar-loaf hill. [77] At the same time with this island, we had sight of that named Comoro, bearing N.N.W. by W. being high land. At six a.m. of the 4th we were close in with Mal-Ilha, and standing in for some place in which to anchor, while some eight or nine miles from the shore, we saw the ground under the ship in not less than eight or ten fathoms. ”

“ Chuambo, 280
Cimbeba, 26, 448
Clanwilliam, 130
Climate of Angola, 10
Comoros, 468
Damaraland, 64
Gazaland, 224
Madagascar, 432
Masailand, 352
Mozambique, 289
Namaqualand, 64
Somaliland, 387
South Africa, 95
Zambese Basin, 254
Zanzibar, 308
Cockscomb, 83
Coëtivy Islands, 474
Colenso, 188
Colesburg, 137
Comoro Islands, 466
Compass Mountain, 83
Conducia, 297
Congo, 2
Congella, 187
Constantia, 128
Coolie Labour Natal, 181
Corimba, 38
Cosmoledos Islands, 471
Cuama River, 247
Cuanza River, 2, 4, 6
Caio Bay, 50
Cuuene River, 8
Cuvo River, 8 ”

“ Increased foreign support is essential if the goal of 4% annual GDP growth is to be met. Remittances from 150,000 Comorans abroad help supplement GDP. GDP: purchasing power parity - $441 million (2002 est.) ”

“ Within few dayes following we came to an Iland an hundred leagues to, the Northeast of Mozambique called Comoro, which we found exceedingly full of people, which are Moores of tawnie colour and good stature, but they be very trecherous and diligently to be taken heed of. ”

“ The East African Protectorate possesses not only enormous coast-lands of great value, but noble plateaux where the air is as cool as an English spring. But 210 we already spend on East Africa—and upon the needs of its expensive white settlers—more than the whole revenue of Uganda; and yet the promise is not so bright. Northern Somaliland is a desert of rocks and thorn bushes peopled by rifle-armed fanatics, on which we spend nearly half as much as the whole annual grant-in-aid of Uganda. ”

“ The land itself fights for the Somali; so that effective European control is limited to the coast, except where the French have pushed inland with the railway from Jibouti to the neighbourhood of Harrar. None the less, the occupation of the coast towns, Berbera, Bulhar and Zeila, is not entirely useless, since these are the ends of the caravan routes from Abyssinia and the interior. [45] Here the animals, skins, gums and other wild products of the country are exchanged for the rice of India, the dates of Arabia, and the cottons of Europe and America which form the sole dress of the native. ”

“ West of the latter on the Gulf of Aden is the British Somali coast protectorate, then French Somaliland, and then the Italian Eritrea, the four territories last named shutting Abyssinia off from the coast. The area and population of the African territories possessed or controlled by the European powers are approximately as follows:
For fuller accounts of the important phases of exploration and political division, see biographical articles relating to the leading explorers, and the historical sections of articles on Abyssinia; Cape of Good Hope; Congo Free State; Egypt; Madagascar ”

“ At Mayotte, where the Malagasy element prevails, the people are of darker colour, but in the other islands of more Semitic appearance. The natives of Great Comoro are an exceptionally tall and stalwart race, and travellers speak with admiration of these men, whose robust constitution and freedom from disease are attributed both to their cleanly habits and to the salubrity of the climate. The Ant'Aloches and dominant Mahorri, or "Moors," are all Mohammedans of mixed descent, who endeavour in all things to conform to the usages and institutions of their Arab teachers. ”

“ The central provinces of Imerina, Betsileo, Ant' Ankai, and Ant' Sihanaka, completely subjected to the Ilova government, are accurately defined and divided into administrative districts. But in the independent or partly-reduced regions, tbe districts expand or diminish according to the strength of the garrisons stationed in the military posts. At present the number of provinces is fixed at twenty-two. III.— The Comouo Islands. Lying midway between Madagafcar and the African mainland, the Comoro archipelago is equally separated from both by marine abysses some 500 fathoms deep. ”

“ Distant but a few miles from a sea-board of shelly coralline, it shows, like Madagascar, no trace of the limestone formation, which forms the maritime region of Somaliland. These hills are composed of sandstones, fine and coarse, 69red-yellow and dark brown, with oxide of iron; the soil, as usual in Western Intertropical Africa, is a ‘terrier rouge,’ as Senegal was called by the French of the 17th century, a red ochreous clay, and bits of quartz lie scattered over the surface. ”

“ On the mainland opposite Zaudzi is Msapéré, the chief centre of trade. Mayotte was devastated in 1898 by a cyclone of great severity.
4. Moheli or Mohilla lies S. of and between Anjuan and Grand Comoro. It is 15 m. long and 7 or 8 m. at its maximum breadth. Unlike the other three it has no peaks, but rises gradually to a central ridge about 1900 ft. in height. Fomboni (pop. about 2000) in the N.W. and Numa Choa in the S.W. are the chief towns.
All the islands possess a very fertile soil ”

“ It was obvious that the escarpment above Las Khorai—the plateau around Jidali stretching far to the South which holds the best grazing grounds in Somaliland—was free of dervishes, and once more, after many years, accessible to the poor wretches of friendlies who had been driven forth like pariahs from their beloved haunts by that robber-tiger, Hassan Abdullah, the Mad Mullah. It is indeed a splendid country for the pastoralist, in spite of the burning days and the bitterly cold nights—nights during which the hardiest European, covered by three or four good blankets, finds it hard to keep warm. ”

“ The fauna is allied to that of Madagascar rather than to the mainland of Africa; it includes some land birds and a species of lemur peculiar to the islands. Large numbers of cattle and sheep, the former similar to the small species at Aden, are reared as well as, in Great Comoro, the zebra. Turtles are caught in abundance along the coasts, and form an article of export. The climate is in general warm, but not torrid nor unsuitable for Europeans. ”

“ There are four classes in Somaliland: (1) nomads who breed ponies, sheep, cattle and camels, live entirely on milk and meat, and follow the rains in search of grass; (2) settled Somali, comparatively few, living in or near the coasts; (3) outcast races, not organized in tribes but living scattered all over Somaliland; they are hunters, workers in iron and leather, and the chief collectors of gum and resin; (4) traders. The national dress is the “tobe,” a simple cotton sheet of two breadths sewn together, about 15 ft. ”

“ Here I took in great store of pepper and cloves and cinnamon, in exchange for cocoa-nuts, and we passed thence to the Island of Al-Usirat, [FN#69] whence cometh the Comorin aloes-wood and thence to another island, five days’ journey in length, where grows the Chinese lign-aloes, which is better than the Comorin; but the people of this island [FN#70] are fouler of condition and religion than those of the other, for that they love fornication and wine-bibbing, and know not prayer nor call to prayer. ”

“ The annual revenue of the province is about £1,000,000. A military force, about 4000 strong, is maintained, including 1200 to 1400 Europeans. Education is chiefly in the hands of Roman Catholic missionaries.
History.—It is uncertain at what period the east coast of Africa south of Somaliland was first visited by the maritime races of the east. There is, however, no reason to doubt that by the 10th century A.D. the Arabs had occupied the seaboard as far south as Sofala, and that they carried on an active trade between East Africa and Arabia, the Persian Gulf and India. ”

“ The Spaniards report that at Comogra they drank white and red wines of different flavours.
Attend now, Sovereign Pontiff, to another and horrifying sight. Upon entering the cacique's inner apartments the Spaniards found a room filled with bodies suspended in cotton ropes. They inquired the motive of this superstitious custom, and were informed that they were the bodies of the ancestors of Comogre, which were preserved with great care, according to the rank they had occupied in life; respect for the dead being part of their religion. ”

“ All the natives are in arms, some purchased by rum by the Germans, others loyal to us. In the old days the Cameroon kings implored the British Government to take the country under its protection. In their own words, they wanted English laws. But the Government took no notice of them until it was too late, until the Germans had forestalled us and taken possession of the country, by buying over the chiefs. If you go into the bush, you run into a thousand dangers: yellow fever, malaria, even starvation, and the natives you encounter may sell you as prisoners to the Germans. ”

“ We set sail towards those islands where pepper grows in great plenty. From thence we went to the isle of Comari [Footnote: This island, or peninsula, ends at the cape which we now call Cape Comorin. It is also called Comar and Comor.] , where the best kind of wood of aloes grows, and whose inhabitants have made it an inviolable law to themselves to drink no wine, nor to suffer any place of debauch. I exchanged my cocoas in these two islands for pepper and wood of aloes, and went with other merchants a pearl-fishing. I hired divers, who fetched me up those that were very large and pure. ”

“ While this part of the continent was being converted, willingly or by force, to Islam, eastern Africa was invaded in its turn by colonies of merchants, who, however, readily became warriors, and never failed to be apostles. It was thus that Islam gained the shores of the Red Sea, Somaliland, the Zanzibar coast as far as Kiloa, and the islands as far as the Comoto Islands and Madagascar. One nation alone, Ethiopia, entrenched in its huge, mountainous citadel, held out against them. ”

“ The eastern boundary is the Indian Ocean, the coast line being about 400 m. On the north the protectorate is bounded by Abyssinia and Italian Somaliland; on the west by Uganda. It has an area of about 240,000 sq. m., and a population estimated at from 2,000,000 to 4,000,000, including some 25,000 Indians and 3000 Europeans. Of the Europeans many are emigrants from South Africa; they include some hundreds of Boer families. ”

“ You can imagine that a Somali baria is rather of the nature of Barnum’s, minus the auctioneering and the shouting and bustle—countless people, ground all ploughed with the sturm und drang of the restless feet, and smell—-!
It is a wonderful thing that human beings can thrive in the condition of dirt and squalor in which these wandering Somalis live. They do, and some of them are very fine-looking men indeed. ”

“ My uncle had warned me I should find all Somalis frightful liars, and to be prepared for it. Personally, I always like to assume that every man is a Washington until I have proved him to be an Ananias.
We saw—in the distance—numerous aoul, Soemmering’s Gazelle, and the exquisitely graceful koodoo, the most beautiful animal, to my thinking, that lives in Somaliland. The horns are magnificent, with the most artistic of curves. The females are hornless in this species also. ”

“ We have made a brief survey of British Somaliland, and though much is not yet explored, yet it is not likely to differ greatly from the part which we have seen. There will be the same red dust and monotonous stony plain with its thorn bushes and dry stream-beds. In some parts, by way of variety, the thorn will grow so dense as to be impenetrable; in others it will disappear, and we shall find pure desert. Only a Somali or a camel could live and thrive in such a country. ”

“ If our victory is great enough, we can hope to unite under our hand the whole of Central Africa with our old colony South-west Africa; Senegambia, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, Dahomey, well-populated Nigeria with the port of Lagos, Kamerun, the rich islands of San Thomé and Principe with their splendid ports, the Katanga ore district, Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland, Mozambique, and Delagoa Bay, Madagascar, German East Africa, Zanzibar, and Uganda ”