PEMBA AND THE REGION NORTH TO THE RIO ... - MozGuide

“Nothing is trivial here”. Impressions of Pemba and the Quirimbas.
“The lancha (dhow) rocked gently as it rose with the tide (maji mwinji) from a sandbank on
which it had come to rest a few long, quiet hours previously. I had left in the dark from
Paquite-Quete (pa kitty-kat); a palm-shaded little Bairro that lounges along the shores of
Pemba’s huge inland bay on the east coast of Africa in Mozambique, and now the glow of a
gathering dawn was beginning to compete with the streaks of luminescence in the sea.
Perhaps it was the exotic, almost oriental appearance of the captain and crew who had
contentedly chatted in Swahili and smoked mbanji (cannabis) through the night, or perchance
the puffs of cloud on the horizon which may have resembled in my imagination the sails of
ghostly pirate ships, but an image began to swirl around my mind, becoming a word -
Betsimisiraka.
Now what do Ibn Battuta, Betsimisaraka (The Inseparable Multitude), Tufo dancers, Pero
da Covilha, and Sindbad the Sailor have in common? I have encountered all in name or in
the flesh during my journeys in around Mozambique’s Ilhas das Quirimbas – an enchanting
(and enchanted?) string of islands which, like uneven giant stepping-stones, emerge a little
north of Pemba town and disappear a little south of the mouth of the Rio Rovuma and the
frontier with Tanzania.
Ibn Battuta? A geographer and historian, who lived during the 12 th century, he is the
Moroccan equivalent of Marco Polo, who would have lived amongst the Swahili of East Africa,
long before the arrival of the Portuguese. The Betsimisiraka (a Malgash word for ‘Inseparable
Multitude’) were drawn from the disparate tribes of north-eastern Madagascar and united by
the half-caste son of an English rogue. Betsimisiraka were feared pirates and laid siege to Ibo
Island on a number of occasions, even sinking several Portuguese vessels at sea.
The sensual, and (some say) diabolical Tufo dance of the Islanders has mesmerised,
aroused and deeply disturbed me. Not the sanitised version presented to tourists by cultural
groups such as the ‘Estrelas Vermelhas’ on Ilha de Mocambique (Mozambique Island), but
a ceremony that you know is beginning when the deep beat of the drums commences their
call to primordial memories some would rather remain firmly forgotten.
Pero da Covilha was not only the first European (disguised as a Muslim) to visit Mecca, but
was, during the late 15 th Century, probably the first Portuguese to visit these islands of the
coast of what became Mozambique. And of course, Sindbad the Sailor needs no
introduction, but could it be that this legendary adventurer was in fact a Chinese prince who
visited these shores in a giant trading junk during the 12 th Century?
The gaff of the dhow, swinging across with the sudden breeze, jerked my back to the present
and our Capitão pointed to a silhouette shaped like a reclining mermaid: Medjumbi Island
with a beach so perfect, I put my camera down in anguish. Often a photograph is no recorder
of anything real.
The pirates may no longer pillage and plunder these islands, but traders and adventurers of
varying pedigree still seek something intangible between and within these shores of solitude.
And I have visited again since that first fascination, and it has grown and become an
obsession.
Care for a little enchantment? The magic words are Pemba and the Quirimbas.”
In honour of my late father, George
Who was most at ease with a fishing rod in his hands,
the surf-spray in his face and the wind at his back.
And also in honour of a famous fishing friend called Charles Norman (who also died recently).
Ponder on this perceptive piece written by Charles:
www.sportfishafrica.co.za/ViewArticle.asp?VI=23
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