Bajuni Islands


The Bajuni Islands are an archipelago that is part of Jubaland in the Somali sea. They are situated on the southern coast of Somalia, from Kismayo to Ras Kiyamboni.

Geography

Administratively, the islands are within the Lower Juba region of Somalia.
There are six main islands:
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, 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. According to C. Wightwick Haywood, then a British official in Kismayo, who visited the islands in 1913, the only inhabited islands in the chain were Tovai and the nearby Tula. 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 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. Until 1925, the Bajuni Islands had for decades formed a constituent part of British Jubaland, until the adjacent mainland territory was ceded and British Jubaland ceased to exist.

Demographics

The islands are today mainly inhabited by the eponymous Bajuni people and Marehan. All Bajuni inhabitants of Koyama island belong to the Nowfali sub-clan.