EAST of the coasts of Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique, towards Madagascar, are a group of small islands known as the Comoros.
The name Comoros came from the Arabic word ‘qamar’ which means moon.
Negro-Bantu people who trace their ancestry back to Yemen and Mozambique originally inhabited the islands.
They are almost entirely Islamic, but have a mother tongue akin to those spoken in central, eastern and southern Africa.
The Comoro are called ‘Njazidja’, ‘Mwali’, ‘Nzwani’ and ‘Maore’.
Despite their distance from mainland Africa, they were part of the Swahili coast.
These islands were directly related to the trade towns of Mombasa (Kenya), Kilwa, (Tanzania) and Sofala (Mozambique).
The Comoros were producers of coconuts, tortoise shells and cattle.
Islamic teachers would sail from places like Yemen and envoys from the islands were sent to places like Mecca since shortly after the passing on of Prophet Muhammad.
Even Madagascar, which is a comparatively larger land mass, was also mainly inhabited by the same manner of people from mainland Africa.
Ideally, the Comoros, Seychelles and Madagascar should be called African islands in the same vein that Hawaii is called an American island because of its proximity to the American continent.
Instead, like Madagascar, the Comoros are claimed by distant France as a result of colonisation and the complimentary upsetting of their traditional systems of trade and governance.
Blacks can even be found in India where there are Negro-Bantu groups like the Siddhi.
Today, the non-blacks seek to make it seem surprising for blacks to be found in places so distant from sub-Saharan Africa.
However, history attests to the free movement of blacks between Africa and Asia through sailing.
African kings, traders, teachers and soldiers sailed with the monsoon winds to and from Asia.
The very word ‘Mon’ in monsoon was derived from ‘munhu’ the Shona word for man.
In south-east Asia, these Mons, as they are referred to, were depicted as blacks.
Although it is often obvious from names like Siddhi, which means lord in Arabic, that these sailing blacks were in positions of renown, non-blacks seek to promote the idea that the blacks in their lands are probably descendants of slaves.
Our history, as black people anywhere, did not begin with colonisation and slavery, but because we have been victims of these crimes against humanity in this modern period, all non-blacks, and whites in particular, seem to believe we have always been at the bottom when the opposite is true.
It is important to realise there was a time when there was no race, but the black race, on this earth and for thousands of years at that.
So it should not at all be surprising that blacks are the archetype of mankind and from our ancestors came the earliest achievements and civilisations of the world.
The woes of the Comoros began in 1793 when Maore was subdued by French raiders from Madagascar.
In this period, the Europeans were sailing to Asia via the Atlantic/Indian Ocean route and in 1841, the Malagasy rulers of Maore ceded the islands to France through a signed treaty.
The French settled on the island of Maore and subdued the unsuspecting population.
They began using Maore as a resting point for French sailors to Asia and renamed it ‘Mayotte’. The Suez Canal would eventually be constructed in Egypt, which would create a shorter route to Asia. Traffic decreased drastically and the French began using Mayotte and the rest of Comoros Islands as a source of land for sugar plantations and their people as labour resources.
Indigenous people were enslaved.
Besides sugarcane, they were forced to grow vanilla, coffee and cocoa bean, among other crops.
By 1865, almost half the populations of the Comoros were slaves.
Njazidja was renamed Grande (Great) Comore; Mwali, Moheli and Nzwani, Anjouan.
In the same way, Tanganyika was called Tanzania; Mazambuko, Mozambique and Matagadzikwa, Madagascar by the European colonisers.
They undermined the meanings of the indigenous names and changed them through failing to pronounce them correctly.
The Comoros were ruled by black Sultans.
In 1886, Mwali’s Sultan gave in to French control owing to economic pressure.
That same year, an unauthorised Prince of Ngazidja sold his island out in exchange for help from France to claim the entire island for himself.
By 1908, the islands were unified under a single administration under the authority of the French colonial governor of Madagascar.
The area had been dependent on the traditional systems of trade and production and when they were colonised, they were forced to partake of a new livelihood dictated by the colonisers.
For this reason, places like Anjoun which had not yet given in to French domination were suffering from hunger and so on.
The Sultan of Anjoun was forced to abdicate his seat for French rule.
In 1912, the single administration that comprised these islands was annulled and the Comoros Islands were made provinces of the French colony of Madagascar.
In 1973, France was facing pressure from many of its colonies for independence and they decided to grant their brand of independence to the Comoros Islands after a period of five years.
The Comoro Islands were excited and all voted for independence, except Maore.
Maore was the first of the islands to get colonised and for that reason, they thought themselves superior to the other Comorians.
This they thought because they had modern cities and a French lifestyle they emulated.
They deemed these to be forms of civilisation their neighbours did not have.
Shockingly, the representatives of Maore voted no to independence and opted to remain under the colonial grip of France.
The French then called Maore French Mayotte and after a referendum signed in 2011, Mayotte would be called a region of France.
Mayotte is now known as an overseas department of France and was never run by a Comorian government since 1974.
The worst thing is the poverty and social division that has taken place as a result of Maore’s decision to keep France in their region.
The people of Mayotte get offended when they are called African or Comorian.
They prefer to be called French, hate their neighbours and look down upon them.
Their neighbours have been completely abandoned by the French who destabilised their traditional systems of trade and governance more than 150 years ago.
Whites can be found in Mayotte and they make up the judiciary, police and other important positions.
Seeking opportunity, the Comorians enter Mayotte and are treated as illegal immigrants.
Some of their kinsmen are in Mayotte, but they are not allowed to enter without papers which are expensive and hard to acquire.
When they try to smuggle themselves in by sea, they are often deliberately rammed by Mayotte police patrol boats leading to deaths of the Comorians by way of drowning.
The Mayotte people have an identity crisis and mock other Comorians for opting to be independent.
They often employ the Comorian immigrants without papers just to hand them over to the police if they refuse low payment.
The Comorians are isolated and detached from their former geographic allies of Yemen, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique whose citizens scarcely know of their existence.
The ancient trade and navigation routes used by their ancestors have become obsolete, while imperialism has brought them unproductiveness and adverse poverty.
All the Comorians now seek is a livelihood from working in industrial cities, the type they can only regionally find in French Mayotte, where they are the natives of the land, but are no-longer wanted.