Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
(Boxer, 1963). This is surprising because they were a key part of the Arab
and Portuguese Indian Ocean empires. Davidson (1961 in Boxer, 1963)
suggests that research on the Quirimbas would enable new insights into
the wide-ranging scope of the Indian Ocean trade. Before the Portuguese
arrived in the sixteenth century, the islands were important as prosperous
Arab trading posts for ivory and slaves. In the seventeenth century they
suf ered in the wars between the Portuguese and the Omani Arabs, and
at the end of the seventeenth century the Omanis destroyed most of the
buildings in the stone towns on the islands. In the early nineteenth century
the islands were devastated by Madagascan raiders (Sousa, 1960; Boxer,
1963). Unlike Zanzibar, Mombasa, Kilwa or Mozambique Island, the
Quirimbas did not continue to exist as important Indian Ocean trading
ports or become known for their long histories. The Catholic church in
Quirimba village (now used as the school) dates back to 1894 and there is
also a ruined church, Nossa Senhora do Rozario, that was built around
1580 (Sousa, 1960). Santa Maria beach, where the Frontier-Moçambique
project was based, was said to be where some of the i rst Portuguese set-
tlers in the Quirimba Archipelago had lived (J. Gessner pers. comm. -
from C.R. Boxer, the historian who visited Quirimba in the 1950s).
Historically the islands seem to have been very productive agriculturally
and able to support residents and visiting traders. They were well placed for
trading goods from the interior such as ivory and gold. Ibo and Quirimba
were also important centres for the Indian Ocean slave trade. Records
from early visitors (mainly Portuguese and British) describe the islands as
productive in terms of agricultural produce, goats and, of course, i sh, and
a good place to stop for supplies (Sousa, 1960; Boxer, 1963).
For over 400 years there were Portuguese inhabitants on the islands and
a strong Catholic presence, with parish priests on Ibo and Quirimba. Now
the residents are virtually all of African or mixed African, European and
Arab origin. The coastal people traditionally associated with the coast
of Cabo Delgado are the Mwani who speak a dialect of Kiswahili called
Kimwani, and were traditionally traders and i shers. The coastal Mwani
people are mainly Muslim. They are not as strictly Muslim as many coastal
Tanzanian communities and there is still a strong system of traditional
pre- Islamic beliefs. Witch- doctors or
curandeiros
are important i gures
in the community and are consulted for a huge variety of problems. The
other main group on the island are people of Makua origin, the biggest
ethnic group in Mozambique (West, 1998) living throughout the northern
provinces of the country. A third ethnic group present in small numbers
are the Makonde, from the area around the Tanzania-Mozambique
border. The Makonde are known for their skilled wood carving.
Until 1975 Mozambique was under Portuguese colonial rule, with many
