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Comoros HISTORICAL SETTING
Comoros - Unavailable
Figure 6. Comoros: Administrative Divisions, 1994
THE FEDERAL ISLAMIC REPUBLIC of the Comoros is an
archipelago
situated in the western Indian Ocean, about midway between
the
island of Madagascar and the coast of East Africa at the
northern
end of the Mozambique Channel. The archipelago has served
in past
centuries as a stepping stone between the African
continent and
Madagascar, as a southern outpost for Arab traders
operating
along the East African coast, and as a center of Islamic
culture.
The name "Comoros" is derived from the Arabic kamar
or
kumr, meaning "moon," although this name was first
applied
by Arab geographers to Madagascar. In the nineteenth
century,
Comoros was absorbed into the French overseas empire, but
it
unilaterally proclaimed independence from France on July
6, 1975.
Comoros has had a troubled and uncertain course as an
independent state. Mahoré, or Mayotte, the easternmost of
the
archipelago's four main islands, including Njazidja
(formerly
Grande Comore), Mwali (formerly Mohéli), and Nzwani
(formerly
Anjouan), remains under French administration, a majority
of its
voters having chosen to remain tied to France in
referendums held
in 1974 and 1976
(see Physical Environment
, this ch.). By
the
mid-1990s, the integration of Mahoré into Comoros remained
an
official objective of the Comoran government, but it had
taken a
back seat to more pressing concerns, such as developing a
viable
national economy. Meanwhile, the Mahorais were making the
most of
their close relationship with France. They accepted large
amounts
of developmental aid and took an intense interest in
French
political events. Although South Africa played a major
role in
the Comoran economy in the 1980s, by the early 1990s
France was
the island republic's foremost patron, providing economic
aid,
political guidance, and national security.
Comoros is densely populated and dedicates only limited
amounts of land to food production. Thus, it depends
heavily on
imports of rice, vegetables, and meat. Its economy is
based on
the production of cash crops, principally ylang-ylang
(perfume
essence), vanilla, and cloves, all of which have
experienced wild
price swings in recent years, thus complicating economic
planning
and contributing to a burgeoning trade deficit. A growing
dependence on foreign aid, often provided to meet
day-to-day
needs for food, funds, and government operations, further
clouds
economic prospects. Comoros suffers the ills of a
developing
nation in particularly severe form: food shortages and
inadequate
diets, poor health standards, a high rate of population
growth,
widespread illiteracy, and international indebtedness.
The country has endured political and natural
catastrophes.
Less than a month after independence, the government of
the first
Comoran president, Ahmed Abdallah, was overthrown; in 1978
foreign mercenaries carried out a second coup,
overthrowing the
radical regime of Ali Soilih and returning Abdallah to
power.
Indigenous riots in Madagascar in 1976 led to the
repatriation of
an estimated 17,000 Comorans. The eruption of the volcano,
Kartala, on Njazidja in 1977 displaced some 2,000 people
and
possibly hastened the downfall of the Soilih regime.
Cyclones in
the 1980s, along with a violent coup that included the
assassination of President Abdallah in 1989 and two weeks
of rule
by European mercenaries, rounded out the first fifteen
years of
Comoran independence.
In the early 1990s, the omnipresent mercenaries of the
late
1970s and 1980s were gone, and the winding down of civil
conflict
in southern Africa, in combination with the end of the
Cold War,
had reduced the republic's value as a strategic chess
piece.
However, as in the 1970s and 1980s, the challenge to
Comorans was
to find a way off the treadmills of economic dependency
and
domestic political dysfunction.
Data as of August 1994
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