Islands in a Cosmopolitan Sea: A History of the Comoros

by Iain Walker

Many people today have never heard of the Comoros, but these islands were once part of a prosperous regional trading economy that stretched halfway around the world. A key node in the trading networks of the Indian Ocean, the Comoros prospered by exchanging slaves and commodities with Arab and Indian merchants. By the sixteenth century, the archipelago served as an important supply point on the route from Europe to Asia. The twentieth century brought the establishment of French colonial rule and a plantation economy. Since declaring its independence in 1975, the Comoros has been blighted by more than twenty coups, a radical revolutionary government and a mercenary regime. Today, the island nation suffers chronic mismanagement and relies on remittances from a diaspora community in France. Nonetheless, the Comoros is largely peaceful and culturally vibrant-- connected to the outside world in the internet age, but, at the same time, still slightly apart.

Iain Walker traces the history and unique culture of these enigmatic islands, from their first settlement by Africans, Arabs and Austronesians, through their heyday within the greater Swahili world, to their decline as a forgotten outpost of the French colonial empire.

Genres: History, Comoros, Africa

272 pages, Hardcover

Published September 1, 2019

Reviews

[Liam Ragan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative and well-researched but quite dry and lacking in flavour such as personal narratives and quotes that might have really brought this home for me. While the economic and social implications of an Ada ceremony but have very little idea of what it’s like to actually live through one or a day in Comoros more generally. This book feels to me half ethnography and half sociological history. That said, I’m grateful to have a better understanding of the country and its people which was my goal going into this.

[Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Comoros (small islands between Africa and Madagascar)
History:
1. Volcanoes made them!
2. Matriarchal — families and land passed down through mothers. (Cool!)
3. Islam arrived and men took all the power.
4. Comoros islands profited off the slave trade. (Yikes.)
5. Modern: nicknamed the "Perfume Isles," they grow vanilla orchids and ylang-ylang flowers, which are a big ingredient in perfumes including Chanel No. 5.