Day 41: Comoros

[Tetro Kornbluth]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comoros



The Comoro Islands are an archipelago in the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and Tanzania of four small islands and several much smaller islands which are about 2,300 square kilometers in length. The union of Comoros, one of the least stable states in the world, takes up three of the main islands and most of the much smaller ones to create its own country. The other island, Mayotte, is now a department of France having rejected, unlike the rest of the archipelago, to join an independent Comoros in a referendum in 1974. Given what has transpired since that time, it is hard not to come to the conclusion that Mayotte made a very wise move. And many Comorians seem to agree, given that there an estimated 60,000-100,000 Illegal Comorians on Mayotte (out of a population of 204,000 on Mayotte and 830,000 in the Union of the Comoros). Thousands try to cross the 70km between the three Comorian Islands and Mayotte each year.

Why are so many fleeing the Comoros? Well France, of course, is much richer and there are much greater opportunities for employment on Mayotte, the poorest of France's departments but significantly wealthier than the Comoros. The average wage on the Comoros is $3-4 a day and agriculture makes up 40% of the economy and 80% of the labour force. Despite this, the country is not self-sufficient in food. 24% of the Comoros' GDP comes from remittances. It is a cash crop economy, with Vanilla and ylang-ylang (a plant whose essence is used in perfumes) the many commodities. But in addition to the economic situation there is the country's extreme instability since independence in 1975. A brief summary is below. Upon independence power was given to the already somewhat autonomous government of the Comoros under Ahmed Abdallah and his Comorian Democratic Union, a party with a nationalist and moderately Islamist tilt. But within a month he was overthrown in a coup by a coalition of six political parties under Said Mohammed Jaffar and backed by a group of French mercenaries under Bob Denard, a die-hard anti-communist right-winger who converted to Islam and once plotted to kill Pierre Mendes-France over his 'betrayal' of Indochina and spend the 70s and 80s travelling across Africa fermenting coups on behalf of the French government, he will reappear again. Jaffar wanted compromise between France and the new state over the Mayotte issue.

But, for reasons I cannot find online, he was soon overthrown or overtaken as leader by Ali Soilih, a man who rivals Pol Pot for 'maddest Maoist leader of the 1970s'. In his two year period of power Soilih tried to create a cultural revolution on the islands. This meant arming youth gangs, modeled on Mao's Red Guards, and getting them to denounce and attacks their elders, especially conservative Muslims and clerics. Needless to say, he was an ultra-nationalist who rejected any connection with France and was noted for his intransigent Gallophobic rhetoric. He even, in a classic nationalist move, burnt the country's historical archives in protest against France. In return France withdraw support for this state and the country was very quickly bankrupt. Needless to say the economic situation deteriorated rapidly and the government was soon shooting fishermen who refused to hand over their catch to the state. In 1978 to end the chaos Bob Denard returned and with his band of mercenaries marched to the presidential palace, declared a new government and shot Soilih. Apparently they found him surrounded by his harem watching porn films. Ahmed Abdallah was invited back.

After looting the country for a while, the mercenaries (under pressure of the UN and nearby states) left Abdallah to his own devices. Abdallah created a new constitution (which centered power around the president i.e. himself) and was given power in an election, now calling the country a federal Islamic republic. Quickly after the election he banned political parties and arrested and round up the remaining members of supporters of the Soilih regime, many of whom 'disappeared' in the process. Despite this in 1981 Soilih loyalists attempted a coup which failed. Meanwhile Abdallah used the powers of offices to enrich himself. Meanwhile by the early 80s the mercenaries were back, this time with the support of South Africa who were using the islands to smuggle arms (against the global embargo) to monitor the situation in the rest of Southern Africa. In this process Denard made himself head of the elite armed forces, the presidential guard, while about 30-40 Europeans dominated Comoros armed forces structure. This caused such resentment that in 1985 it led to a mutiny which almost overthrew the government, but ended with the participants being sentenced to hard labour (eventually commuted due to international pressure). Denard, like Abdallah, used his power to enrich himself and build up economic connections with South Africa, involving various import-export and security companies. Meanwhile, Comoros' economy in general was massively unstable and, as ever, dependent on the prices of its commodities.

Abdallah's demise in 1989 came in bizarre circumstances. Soon after having won a rubber-stamp election to amend the constitution to make him de facto president for life (an event which caused widespread tensions across the islands which saw much violence and arrests), he was killed in his sleep. The motive for this seems to relate to Abdallah wanting to merge the presidential guard with the regular army and the negative reaction of the mercenaries to this. Two days after the assassination Denard and the Presidential Guard tried to seize power killing several policemen, arresting hundreds and confining journalists and, of course, installing their own puppet president. Eventually the situation came such an embarrassment to France and South Africa that they suspended aid to the country and tried to isolate Denard. Eventually Denard had no choice but to surrender and was eventually returned to France to save trial for Abdallah's assassination. Of course, he was found not guilty.

Eventually from this chaos Said Mohamed Djohar, a half-brother of Soilih but had served in Abdallah's Supreme Court, was made President. Djohar even won an election in 1990 to affirm his power (which the opposition of course thought was rigged) but afterwards his rule was predictably unstable with an attempt at impeachment in 1991 and a failed coup in 1992. Eventually though Bob Denard, having been cleared of murder in a French court, returned in 1995 to the Comoros for one last coup which succeeded in overthrowing Djohar but was strongly opposed by the French who threatened to invade the island. Despite setting up defenses to attack his countrymen, Denard decided to surrender before much fighting took place. However, following this chaos new elections were called and in 1996 Mohamed Taki Abdoulkarim, a man who had worked alongside Denard and had been Djohar's main political opponent, was elected president.

I've found information of what's happened since then difficult to parse. But here is the briefest summary. To add to the general chaos, in 1997 two of the three main islands of Comoros, Anjouan and Mohéli, declared independence from the main island, Gran Comore. Although never recognized anywhere, the level of government control over these islands has waxed and wane over time, especially Anjouan, which had its own government and cycle of coups in this time. In 1998 Mohamed Taki died and his successor was soon overthrown in a coup by Colonel Azali Assoumani. Assoumani kept onto power over the next years and even won election in 2002. Eventually Assoumani stepped down and 2006 saw Comoros' first ever peaceful transfer of power, to the Moderate Islamist Ahmed Abdallah Sambi. However on Anjouan the loser in the national election, Colonel Mohamed Bacar, declared himself the winner on the island and made himself president there. Eventually he was overthrown in an African Union sponsored invasion from the other islands. In 2011 Abdallah Sambi was succeeded by his Vice President, Ikililou Dhoinine, in an election.

Comorian people are of a mixture of Arab, Persian, East African and Malagasy descent. The country is a member of the Arab league and Arabic is an official language, although the dominant language is a form of Swahili, called Comorian. As a key point in the Arab-East Africa trading route, Swahili grew on the islands to become, in its Comorian form, the main language. This is shown in the map below which shows the areas in which a type of Swahili is spoken

[Simfan34]

What exactly makes Mayotte so well-off? French transfers? Its GDP per capita is above $10,000, which, relatively speaking, is actually quite a lot.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

What exactly makes Mayotte so well-off? French transfers? Its GDP per capita is above $10,000, which, relatively speaking, is actually quite a lot.

I assume its transfers. I can't imagine it being anything else.

[Zioneer]

Such a crazy history for such a small nation.

Did France sponsor the initial Bob Denard coup? I'm wondering how he was able to seize power (well, on behalf of someone else but you know what I mean) so easily. Also, what happened to him after his last attempt at overthrowing the Comoros government?

[Simfan34]

Here's a question. Which is the bigger joke: the Comoros or the Maldives?

[Bro Rogers]

What exactly makes Mayotte so well-off? French transfers? Its GDP per capita is above $10,000, which, relatively speaking, is actually quite a lot.

actually they are totally dependent from import

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

Well, I'm discovering that 'day stuff', attempt at making a kind of 'Atlas Wikipedia'?

Oh and, to try to answer the few questions here, about Mayotte, yeah, transfer, moreover it became the 101st French département through a referendum in 2009, which means that it has the same status thus same rights than any other French metropolitan dpt.

And when you know that in France that are dpt councils that are in charge of social subsidies that matters still more I guess.

Iirc the unemployment rate there is about 40%, but, now, they can have what any French citizen above 25 can have, RSA.

And since it's the same for every citizen, then single person from Mayotte above 25 can at least have about 450€ per month, more if kids. Which I guess would be quite high compared to surrrounding countries.

So there is this and what any French dpt can receive as average subsidies from the national state that can make Mayotte looking attractive, even if by comparison to other French dpts it would look like, and maybe by far enough, the shantiest one, at least by 'classical development criteria'.

And, when it comes to Comores immigration outhere, the big thing for years now, even before the dpt, is about a lot of Comorean pregnant women that clandestinaly try to reach Mayotte/'France' in order to...hop...pop a new French citizen ^^...thanks to France's soil right. Which is....obviously....more and more protested, it's (soil right as a whole, not only in Mayotte) a big FN topic for years.

I don't remind exactly but maybe the fact to be the mother of a French citizen could maybe even give you the right to stay. In case there is a clear law about that.

There has been so much backward mess into those questions last years, countless witnessing of people who had an hard time to remake a simple ID only because they had one foreign grand parents or something, even some famous people.

Ah, and, lol, Bob Denard, what a name, all said by that only. A long time I hadn't heard about him, I don't remind the whole story exactly, and I don't know if anybody knows it but yeah, would have been one more France's enjoyment of neo-colonialism.

Personally, I often tended to think it would have been the best for the whole Comores to follow Mayotte/DOM (overseas dpt) way but some other stakes were at work then, people still believed in Westerners fairy tales, thus why they wanted to fire them.

There is a big enough Comorean 'community' in Marseille nowadays, which gave a famous rapper, Soprano:

I discovered him through a beautiful but not happy song, about suicide ^^, he notably speaks about his Comorean origins in it:

Puisqu'il faut vivre

I come from a slave port
My skin has oil color and colons knows it
I'm Comorean and proud to be.

Later he adds in it:

I dedicate it to all African youths

Find it worth underlining.

But then he made mainly 'conscient/fun rap/pop' stuffs, it's a kind of Pharell Williams personality, maybe more nervous and provoking but hey what do you think? Marseeeeeilleeeee ^^.

Beware it's an other ambiance ^^ :

Cosmo

Fresh prince

Ah well, he sometimes tries to be back to serious too (makes me think to Stromae in that one):

Le clown

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

Here's a question. Which is the bigger joke: the Comoros or the Maldives?

Well what is sure is that, for different reasons, both afe sad jokes, and well, still for different reasons, I can't decide what is the saddest joke, but in both cases Westerners have also been 'bad jokers' or lol 'bad clown' when you think to a guy like Bob Denard

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Is Gully going to resume this series?

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Is Gully going to resume this series?

Sorry about that. I will eventually I've just been distracted and tired as of late and the next country on the list is.... the DRC, which I'm not up for right now.