Region
Bajuni Islands (Jasiiradaha Bajuni)
The Bajuni Islands are a chain of small islands off the coast of Lower Juba, between Kismaayo and Ras Kamboni. The six main islands are Chandra, Chovaye, Chula, Koyama, Darakasi and Ngumi. They are home of the Bajuni people, a Swahili-speaking fishing and sailing community, and were part of British Jubaland until 1926.
Where they are
The Bajuni Islands lie in the Indian Ocean off the southern coast of Jubaland, from Kismaayo south to Ras Kamboni near the Kenyan border (Wikipedia: Bajuni Islands). They are in the Lower Juba region (Wikipedia: Bajuni Islands). In Somali they are called Jasiiradaha Jubbada Hoose, and in Italian Isole Giuba (Wikidata).
The islands
There are six main islands (Wikipedia: Bajuni Islands):
- Koyama, 6.38 km², the largest
- Chovaye (Tovai), 5.46 km²
- Chandra, 2.95 km²
- Ngumi, 2.56 km²
- Chula (Tula), 1.99 km², where the village of Ndowa stands; the only island with a sizeable population
- Darakasi, 1.99 km²
Smaller islands include Kandha Iwu, Fuma and Ilisi. The island of Kismaayo was joined to the mainland in 1961 when Kismaayo port was built (Wikipedia: Bajuni Islands).
History
Sources describe the islands as part of the trading world of the Somali coast and of the Ajuran state (Wikipedia: Bajuni Islands). Under British rule they were part of Jubaland. Britain gave mainland Jubaland to Italy in 1924 and the islands two years later, in 1926 (Wikipedia: Bajuni Islands).
C. Wightwick Haywood, a British official in Kismaayo, visited in 1913 and wrote that only Chovaye and Chula were lived on. People grew maize, millet, sweet potatoes and coconuts and travelled by dhow. On Chovaye he saw ruins of what he called "a fair-sized town", with stone scrollwork like that on the houses of the Lamu islands in Kenya (Haywood, Geographical Journal, via JSTOR).
The Bajuni people
The islands are mainly lived on by the Bajuni (Wabajuni), a Swahili-speaking people who are traditionally fishermen and sailors; some also work metal (Wikipedia: Bajuni people). They trace their roots to coastal Bantu peoples of the Swahili coast and to Somalis from the mainland, and also to later Arab, Persian and Somali arrivals. Some Bajuni clan names are Bantu in origin and others southern Somali; one clan is called Garre, and the Katwa clan is also of Somali origin (Wikipedia: Bajuni people).
The Bajuni are Shafi'i Muslims, and a kadhi (Muslim judge) settles disputes in the community (Wikipedia: Bajuni people). Many Bajuni now live in Kenya, mainly in Mombasa and other towns of the coast, and many moved there from southern Somalia because of war (Wikipedia: Bajuni people).
Sources
Sources
- Wikipedia: Bajuni Islands · en.wikipedia.org
- Wikidata · wikidata.org
- Haywood, Geographical Journal, via JSTOR · jstor.org
- Wikipedia: Bajuni people · en.wikipedia.org
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