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Mkoani is Pemba’s third town and the port of entry for most of the boats from Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam. The town is set on a hill overlooking a wide bay and comprises a strange mix of palm-thatch huts and run-down multi-storey apartment buildings. The landing stage is a modern jetty which projects out from the shallow beach on either side, where fishermen land their daily catch into ox-carts for the short trip to the market. The main road runs directly from the port up the hill and through the small town and for most of this distance, it is surprisingly a dual-carriageway, complete with tall street lights on the central reservation. This, along with the ugly apartment blocks is evidence of the East German influence in the 1970s and is also present at Chake Chake and Wete, although here in Pemba it seems a little more sympathetically carried out than in Zanzibar Town.
Most people only pass through Mkoani en route to Chake Chake, although there are the SMZ (Government) hotel and a new guest-house to stay in (book in advance). Buses depart frequently for Chake Chake (route 3).
Leaving the town, the road winds up and along the ridge of hills that form the backbone of the island, through densely wooded valleys of clove, jackfruit, mango and breadfruit trees, all competing to deprive the traveller of a greater panorama. In each little village, the scent of cloves hangs heavily over the carpets of drying buds that cover the roadside and families of jay-walking chickens dash with gay abandon across the path of on-coming vehicles.
About 2.5km past the turning to Kengeja, a small turning on the right-hand side (on a very steep camber off the road) heads towards Wambaa and the old town of Jambangome (although the turning to Jambangome is practically impassable by car and the track to Wambaa is more like a path than a road near the coast).
The town of Jambangome enjoyed its heyday during the 19th century, for most of which time it was the main port on the island. Located on a ridge overlooking a long, shallow creek, the town had a large multi-storey mosque, stone houses and a police station. Much of the commerce of the town was run by Indian merchants, mainly occupied with the export of cloves and spices. Unfortunately for these merchants, when the first real roads were being constructed on the island during the early part of the 20th century, the town was completely bypassed and consequently fell into severe decline. The merchants left for other better-serviced ports, abandoning their homes to decay. The ruins stand along 400 metres of the old high street, with the Bohra mosque being the best-preserved structure.
There isn’t much to see in the village of Wambaa, as pleasant and friendly as it may be. Its noteworthiness stems from the fact that it occupies an area that has been ‘allocated for tourism’. In practical terms this doesn’t mean much at present – the beach is still empty except for the occasional fishing boat, the mangroves are wild and untouched and the fields are quiet and shady. Hopefully, any development here will be carried out sympathetically.
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The preceding paragraph was left in as a point of interest. As it turns out, Wambaa is now the site of Fundu Lagoon, a superb eco-friendly beach lodge. Wambaa got lucky, let’s hope other developments follow suit.
Approaching Chake Chake, the winding road suddenly meets dual-carriageway again and a right turn leads out towards the airport. After about 4km, a large dirt road leads off to the right. Following this for several kilometres leads out through the less fertile Eastern side of the island, where only seasonal crops tend to be grown and where majestic Borassus palms stand tall with their strangely bulging top-heavy trunks. After about a further 5km, the land opens out into a wide grassy area and enters a large village, with a school on the right-hand side. The ruins are just to the East of here, on the other side of the grassy area, hidden in the trees. Ask locally for ‘Mkame Ndume’ and a guide will materialise, although he will probably only speak Kiswahili (and sign language).
These are the ruins of a fortress, dating from the 13th century, constructed in a style otherwise unknown on the East Coast of Africa. There are many conflicting stories relating to the founder of this town, but most names him as Mohammad bin Abdulrahman. He is said by some to have been a descendent of the original Shirazi settlers on the island. Others claim him to be either Msegeju or Mvita from Mombasa or of the Wadiba tribe, who had their capital at Mkumbuu on the Western side of the island. Whatever his origin, Mohammad bin Abdulrahman was a hard man. He is said to have exerted his influence on the mainland from Pate to Kilwa and out into the Indian Ocean as far as Comoros. He was a great boat-builder, favouring the matempe style, a prodigious builder of mosques and a fine bowman. During an extremely successful life as a merchant and pirate in the region, he decided to site his capital at Pujini, in a location on top of a hill, with only distant access to the sea, in order that he might defend his great wealth from raiders. The citadel was constructed with a massive earth rampart and moat and the walls were built with stone carried 40 km by porters from the North of the island. The site could be reached by sea, but only after careful navigation through the reefs and then up a twisting mangrove creek and a narrow canal.
The line of the outer walls of the fortress, which were about one metre thick by five metres high, can still be discerned. A large stairway can be seen at the location of the access point to the sea canal. At the North-West corner, a pile of rubble is all that remains of the watchtower. Inside the defensive walls, the mosques and houses have mostly disintegrated, although the remains of an underground chamber and shrine can still be seen. A two-chambered well can be seen, reputedly divided so that his two wives, who were incredibly jealous of one another, could fetch water without meeting. This well seems to get easily filled in with silt and may not be visible.
Mohammad bin Abdulrahman was a hard leader of men, as demonstrated by the enormous scale of his fortress. His reputation gained him the nickname ‘Mkama Ndume’ or ‘the milker of scrotum’. One story tells that he forced his people to carry the stones for the fortress ‘whilst shuffling on their buttocks’.
Whilst a visit to this site will always make an enjoyable trip, the visitor will be generally disappointed by the state of repair of the ruins, especially after having read the stories of its history. The site is regularly cleared, but still, it takes some imagination to envisage what the place must have been like in its heyday. There is little left standing and no information or relics on show. This may change when the American archaeologists return to continue excavations shortly.
