So, as you guys know, you guys, the Geograpeeps,
usually help us write the scripts for these episodes for your countries,
however, I couldn't find anybody from Comoros,
so I got the next best thing!
Say hi to my friend, Nick!
Nick: Hey guys!
Nick is from Mauritius.
Nick: Yeah, I really don't know anything about Comoros though, Paul.
Hehehe, shut up, Nick.
Hey everybody, I'm your host Barby.
Ah, Comoros, Africa's Moon Islands, named after the Arabic word 'qamar' meaning moon.
And you know what else has moons on it? The flag.
The current flag of Comoros was designed and adopted in 2002
and has an interesting story behind it.
First of all, the hoist side has a green triangle pointing right
with a white crescent and four white stars inside of it
The triangle overlaps four stripes of yellow, white, blue and red.
Each of the four stars and four stripes corresponds to an island in the Comoros archipelago.
Yellow for Mohéli, red for Anjouan, blue for Grande Comore and white for Mayotte.
Even though Mayotte doesn't really consider it part of Comoros.
This is where the family drama comes in.
Let's explain in:
I like to call these islands the dinosaur head islands,
because all the islands are kinda shaped like hadrosaurid skulls. I'm just saying.
One thing you have to understand is that when it comes to administration,
Comoros is basically like a tropical African soap opera.
First of all, the country is an archipelago of islands located in the Indian Ocean
at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel off the eastern coast of Africa,
right above Madagascar.
The capital is Moroni, no, not the angel Moroni from the Book of Mormon,
Moroni, which translates to the heart of fire, possibly named that way because of its proximity to a volcano.
Now, let's have some fun.
If you ever talk to somebody from Comoros,
chances are they'll tell you that the country has four islands, Mayotte totally belonging to them.
But if you talk to somebody from Mayotte, they'll tell you that they're French
and that Comoros is just being clingy.
Basically, it all just happened like this:
Ok guys, all in favor of becoming independent from France?
Everyone: Aye.
Mayotte: Ahh, nah, I'm good. I'll just stay French.
Everyone: Seriously? Are you...? Dude!
The main islands of the country which go by both French and Comorian names are:
Grande Camore, or Ngazidja.
Anjouan, or Nzwani.
and Moheli, or Mwali.
During the move for independence in 1974, Mayotte (or Maore) voted against independence,
and to this day, remains as an overseas department and region of France.
The Comorian government to this day still rejects the referendum,
because hey, referendums are basically just a way for a bunch of people to agree on being wrong on the same thing, right?
On top of that, Comoros also lays claim to some of the Îles éparses de l'océan indien,
or the Scattered islands in the Indian ocean.
Yeah, the kinda got bored and just got generic with that title.
Islands like the Glorioso Islands including Grande Glorieuse and Ile du Lys, or the Lily Island,
as well as six small islets and Banc du Geyser,
a submerged reef with a barely elevated empty sandbar, that is incredibly difficult to get to.
Challenge accepted!
The largest and most populous island is Grand Camore, located in the west,
which hosts the capital as well as the seat of national government,
however, it's a little more complicated than that.
The second largest island Anjouan and the smallest, least populated Moheli island
each have a strange federation autonomy
which gives them a little more loose incorporation with the government.
They partially self-govern themselves, with their own constitutions, parliaments, and governors.
However, to keep things fair, the union president that resides over the entire country rotates between islands.
So that means the next president has to come from a different island from the previous one.
Aside from the three main islands, you have quite a few islets,
especially found off the southern coast of little Moheli,
and a bunch of sandbars and reefs, especially found off of the Domini peninsula on Anjouan.
Cool sights include the Gritty Harbour by old Friday Mosque on Grand Camore island,
Mutsamudu Citadel on Anjouan,
and the country's only national park, Moheli Marine Park,
located on Moheli, packed with sea turtles and tropical fish.
Perfect for diving.
I feel like this video is kinda turning into one of those cheesy resort videos, like:
"Welcome to Comoros, where your tropical dream destination awaits you."
Well let's see if this country lives up to those resort standards, shall we?
So, the Comoros islands are kind of green and lush, I mean, when your island is made from volcanoes,
you pretty much have prime dibs on first-rate soil.
Nonetheless, they do still have their individual contrasts.
First of all, because of the way how the islands were formed,
all three islands kinda lack good harbour zones for ships.
This is because, unlike other island nations, like Seychelles, or Sri Lanka,
Comoros lacks an immediate continental shelf or at least an elevated underwater plateau to foster safe docking spots.
This makes transport, business and communication relatively more difficult than other island nations.
On top of that, the islands are quite active in volcanic activity.
In fact, if you look at the northern slope of Grand Camore
you can see several dozen extinct volcano calderas that freckle the entire landscape
making it look like the country has bad acne.
Shut up! It's just my hormones!
Grand Camore is also home to one of the most active volcanoes in the world
the highest point, Mount Karthala, which erupted more than twenty times in the past century alone.
There used to be a lake in the caldera, but then in 2005 the volcano erupted again and completely destroyed it.
Let me repeat that.
The volcano effectively evaporated an entire lake.
Anjouan is interesting in that it's kinda shaped like a triangle.
This is because the three mountain chains:
meander outwards from the central peak:
As mentioned before, the island also has the best reefs off of its coast.
Moheli is the smallest and least developed of the islands, which gives it the opportunity to exploit its vast nature zones
giving it the unofficial title of being the "cleanest island"
Overall, the islands have a physical makeup that sort of resembles that of Madagascar
in which you can find similar plants like tropical hardwoods, mangroves, palms, and fruit trees.
Some of the animals are unique to the islands, like the incredibly rare Livingstone's fruit bat
with a wingspan nearly 2 metres long, one of the largest in the world
which can only be found on Anjouan and Mohéli.
Can you imagine this guy in your backyard?
Yeah, and wait until we get to the Philippines episode.
Less than half the land at about 45% is arable
and lots of the food still has to be imported, since domestic production doesn't meet the food demand.
Nonetheless, Comoros still has a few agricultural tricks up their sleeves
They've utilized their tropical surroundings to their advantage
and capitalized on harvesting some of the most expensive products in the world.
To this day, Comoros is the world's largest producer of the rare ylang ylang flower
which is used in perfumes and fragrances, meeting up to 80% of the entire world's market.
Finally, almost every Comoran either fishes or knows somebody who fishes.
You can expect a lot of soups, stews, and curries that incorporates fish or shellfish, cooked in interesting ways
like the langouste à la vanille, or "lobster broiled in vanilla sauce"
Man, for a country with so many internal squabbles, these people really know how to eat.
Let's discuss what these people are like.
Okay, so Comoros is one interesting country when it comes to populace
Because of its history, almost everybody on the entire island has a complex racial mixture.
First of all, not including Mayotte
the country has about 800 thousand people
and even though it's the second smallest African country in land area
it's the fourth most densely populated in Africa.
At about 97%, the vast majority of people on the island identify as Comoran
and the rest are a mixture of all types of people groups
like the Malagasy, the Indian, the white, French,
and even a few Chinese people have settled into the country as well.
Now, here's where I kinda want to elaborate a little more on what a Comoran is
Comorans have deep roots in multiple people groups
Archaeologists speculate that originally the islands were settled by Bantu peoples from African mainland areas
somewhere around the 6th century AD
however, some argue it could be as early as the 1st century
This technically makes Comoros one of the few African overseas colonies originally settled by Africans
which is kinda cool
I mean, remember the last time we talked about something like that?
Over time, Arabs came over, and then they brought along the Malay
and by golly gosh the French got mixed in somehow
and to this day, the average Comoran has roots in at least 2 or more of these people groups
So, yes, that means that many Comorans may even have Southeast Asian blood in them
That's pretty crazy!
The country has 3 official languages:
and most people are proficient in at least 2, if not all 3 of these languages.
As a Bantu language, Comorian closely resembles Swahili
and is sometimes considered a dialect
From an early age, kids are taught Arabic from Quranic schools
however, Comorian is more widely spoken
and French is the language of business and government.
Culture-wise, the country holds fast to tradition
the majority of the population at about 96% adheres to a branch of Sunni Islam
under the Shafi'i school of jurisprudence.
Other faiths are also still technically allowed to exist, but are heavily discouraged and restricted
Nonetheless, Islam in Comoros doesn't really follow your typical Middle Eastern style format
Most women don't even wear hijabs regularly, unless maybe it's a formal occasion
and they might wear the traditional shiromani.
You can also spot a lot of the women wearing the traditional msindanu paint mask
made out of sandalwood and coral
as it acts as a natural sunblock, and it really exfoliates the skin.
Now, the Comoran economy is kinda struggling at the moment
it typically ranks in the bottom of the worldwide GDP Index
This is partially attributed to the fact that there's a huge age gap
About half of the entire population is 15 or under
For assistance, most people are heavily dependent on remittance money sent from relatives living abroad
about 400 thousand Comorans live abroad, 200 thousand of which live in France alone.
This also includes the Comorans that migrate to neighbouring Mayotte
in hopes of finding more work and quality of life
About a quarter of Mayotte's population are Comoran
and as a half-open backdoor to the EU
the GDP is about 9 times higher than that of Comoros
with free healthcare and education benefits.
Mahorans and Comorans... he he
"Mahorans and Comorans, they're coming down the stairs"
You British people know what I'm talking about
Anyway, Mahorans and Comorans have a long history and similar culture that goes back centuries
Of course, they were all under the same sultanate at one point
and then under French protectorate status
and then finally, when it came to independence, Mayotte was like:
"Nah, you guys go ahead, I'd rather be French"
He he... It's funny, because Nick's actually from the UK and I made him say that
HAAAAA *pow*
Now here's the thing
Even though the country is relatively new
and even though they are a federal presidency
they've had about 20 military coups since independence, realized or not.
The first disputably fair election didn't even happen until 2006
On top of that
Anjouan and Moheli declared their own independence from Comoros in 1997
trying to reinstate the French rule, but France was like
"Ehh... nah, I'd rather just keep Mayotte."
which totally threw them off, inciting a confusing period of conflict for 4 years
until in 2001 with the help of the African Union
they decided to reconcile back to Comoros
but have autonomous status
So as you can see
Comoros has had enough internal tension as it stands
Now let's see how they stand on the world stage
Now, even though Comoros has had a lot of drama
with a relatively short period of time since independence
they've pretty much been bombarded with diplomatic missions all over the world.
One thing you should know
is that Comoros is the southernmost member of the Arab League
In a sense, Comoros has always had some kind of tie to the Arab world
since they were colonized by Arabs in the early 7th century onward to the Arab slave trade times.
And to this day, Libya and Qatar are probably the closest friends in the League.
Libya played a role in the conflicts after independence
and to this day sends various humanitarian missions with medical specialists to the country.
Qatar has not only been close for a while
but recently has been investing heavily in the Comoran fishing industry
and has opened up jobs for many Comorans
They're also part of the Indian Ocean Commission, which includes Madagascar and Seychelles.
And Mauritius!
Yes, Nick. And Mauritius.
which administers trade and cooperation agreements between the 4 countries.
When it comes to their best friends, though
they might begrudgingly say France
Yes, they have the drama with Mayotte
and yes, they did declare independence
but they can't deny the fact that France has such a significant relationship with them
and it still lingers today.
France is the largest aid provider, trade partner, diplomatic engager, and even trainer of their army
Comorans might hate to admit it
but without France, they would probably look a lot different, and not in a good way.
In conclusion
Comoros is kinda like a group of quadruplets
in which three are chastising one for getting married to a brother-in-law
that they hate admitting that they kinda approve of.
Stay tuned...
CONGO (the Democratic Republic)... is coming up next.