Bajuni Islands
  Bajuni Islands Bajuni Islands (Somalia) | |
| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Archipelago | Bajuni Archipelago |
| Total islands | 9 |
| Major islands | , Chovaye, Chula, Koyama, , |
| Administration | |
| Demographics | |
| Ethnic groups | Bajuni people |
The Bajuni Islands (Italian: Isole Giuba, also known as the Bajun Islands[1] or Baajun Islands) are an archipelago in southern Somalia.[2] They are situated in the Somali sea in the southern coast of Jubaland, from Kismayo to (not to be confused with Ras Kamboni).
Geography[]
Administratively, the islands are within the Lower Jubba region of Somalia.
There are six main islands:
- (2.95 km²),
- Chovaye (also spelled Tovai;[1] 0°52′19″S 42°09′33″E / 0.8720°S 42.1593°E) (5.46 km²),
- Chula (also spelled Tula;[1] 1°00′19″S 42°02′11″E / 1.0052°S 42.0364°E) (1.99 km²),
- Koyama (6.38 km²),
- (1.99 km²) and
- (2.56 km²).
Chula with the village of Ndowa is the only island with a significant population.
Other islands of minor importance are: Kandha Iwu, Fuma, Ilisi and the island of Kismayo (actual Kismayo harbor), the latter of which was attached to the coast in 1961 during the construction of Kismayo Port.
History[]
The islands, as well as the extreme southern area of present-day Somalia, were part of British East Africa prior to World War I. They were later transferred to Italy after the war.[1] According to , then a British official in Kismayo, who visited the islands in 1913, the only inhabited islands in the chain were Tovai (i.e., Chovaye - the biggest island in the chain) and the nearby Tula (i.e. Chula). Each of these two islands were no more than 3 miles long and a mile across.
On his 1913 trip, Haywood saw ruins of what he described as a "fair-sized town" on the Tovai (Chovaye) Island. He was impressed. He mentioned that somewhat similar stone scrollwork could also be seen on houses in the Lamu Islands in present-day Kenya.[1] Until 1925, the Bajuni Islands had for decades formed a constituent part of British Jubbaland, until the adjacent mainland territory was ceded and British Jubaland ceased to exist.[3]
Demographics[]
The islands are today mainly inhabited by the eponymous Bajuni people.[4]
See also[]
- List of islands in the Indian Ocean
- Saad ad-Din Islands
Notes[]
- ^ a b c d e Haywood, C. Wightwick (1935), "The Bajun Islands and Birikau", The Geographical Journal, 85 (1): 59–64, doi:10.2307/1787038, JSTOR 1787038
- ^ Mwangi, Oscar Gakuo. "Jubbaland: Somalia’s new security dilemma and state-building efforts." Africa Review 8.2 (2016): 120-132.
- ^ Cassanelli, Lee. "The Opportunistic Economics of the Kenya-Somali Borderland in Historical Perspective." Borders and Borderlands as Resources in the Horn of Africa (2010): 133-150.
- ^ Land, Property, and Housing in Somalia - Page 52, Gregory Norton - 2008
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- Islands of Somalia
- Archipelagoes of Somalia
- Lower Juba
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