Moroni

The Comoros were settled over many centuries by seafarers from the East African coast, the Arabian peninsula and Madagascar. Grande Comore, called Ngazidja in Shikomori, was for a long time a patchwork of small sultanates, each with a coastal capital, a mosque and a ruling family. Bambao, the sultanate whose seat lay around Iconi and later Moroni, was one of the most important. The islands sat on the Swahili trade routes, and their old towns share a look with Lamu, Zanzibar and Kilwa: coral-stone houses, carved wooden doors and a mosque near the water.

From the late eighteenth century raiders from Madagascar attacked the islands, taking captives and burning towns, and the memory of those years still shapes how people talk about their old capitals. In the nineteenth century French interest grew. Mayotte was ceded to France in 1841, and the other three islands accepted French protection in the 1880s; Grande Comore came under a protectorate in 1886. The islands were later attached to the colonial administration of Madagascar and became a French overseas territory after the Second World War.

In a referendum in December 1974 three islands voted for independence and Mayotte voted to stay French. The Comorian leader Ahmed Abdallah declared independence on 6 July 1975, a date that is still a public holiday. Mayotte remained under French administration, and the dispute over it is a live political subject that visitors should not raise casually.

The decades after independence were unstable. There were coups in 1975 and 1978, and the mercenary Bob Denard played a role in several. Attempts at secession by Anjouan and Mohéli in 1997 led to an African Union-backed settlement. In 2001 the country became the Union of the Comoros, with each island keeping considerable autonomy and a rotating presidency. Politics remain tense and can change quickly: check your government's travel advice before you fly, and avoid demonstrations.

For a visitor the history is not on plaques. It is in the streets of the old town, in the mosques, in the ruins and seafront of Iconi, and in what a guide chooses to tell you.

Grande Comore is a volcano with a town at its foot. Mount Karthala rises to about 2,360 m and holds a large caldera; it is one of the biggest active volcanoes in the world by volume. It erupted in 2005 and again in 2006, and ash and evacuations in the south of the island were part of the news. Today it is a hiking objective, but an active one: guides check its state, and the crater can be closed to visitors.

The rock shapes life below. Fresh lava is porous, so rain sinks into the ground and there are no permanent rivers on Grande Comore. Households collect roof water in cisterns and towns depend on pipes and pumps. This is why the taps in Moroni can run dry, why you are asked to use water carefully, and why bottled water is part of the daily cost.

The soil is fertile where it has weathered. On the slopes above the coast farmers grow bananas, cassava, breadfruit, cloves and vanilla, and the forest higher up shelters birds and fruit bats. Rainfall is heavy in the wet season, from about November to April, when storms come off the Indian Ocean and cyclones are possible.

The sea is as important as the mountain. The Comoros are famous among biologists for the coelacanth, a fish thought extinct for millions of years until a specimen was caught off the islands in 1952; local fishers had known it for a long time. Moroni harbour works with small boats and cargo ships, and the fish landed at dawn is the reason the seafood on the Corniche is good.

Practically, this chapter explains three things you will notice. The road runs along the coast because the mountain is behind you. Nights are cooler than days, especially in the dry season. And a trip to the crater needs a guide, the right shoes and a day when the mountain is quiet.

The old town of Moroni is a few lanes between the harbour and the Place de France. It is small enough to walk in an hour, and that is both its appeal and its limit. The buildings are a mix of old stone houses with carved doors and newer concrete shops, and what has survived depends on who has been able to afford repairs.

The Old Friday Mosque stands at the water's edge. Its origin is traditionally placed in the fifteenth century, with rebuilding since, and it belongs to the Shafi'i school of Sunni Islam, which is dominant in the islands and along the Swahili coast. The building is in daily use. Visitors are not expected to enter, and the right way to see it is to walk past in the morning, dressed covered, and look from the road.

Carved wooden doors are a feature of Swahili towns, and Comorian carpenters made them with patterns and inscriptions that told something about the family behind the door. A guide can point out the old ones; many have been replaced by metal or plain timber.

Around the mosque the streets fill with a market rhythm. Traders sell spices, cloth and produce in small stalls, and the old market lanes are the nearest thing the city has to a bazaar. Fish sellers work near the harbour, and the smell of cloves and fish is the smell of the morning. The Place de France is the open space that holds it together: a square with taxis, a café and shade.

There are limits to what you should do here. Do not photograph the port, soldiers or government buildings, and do not enter religious buildings uninvited. Ask before photographing people, especially women. Dress covers shoulders and knees for everyone. If you follow these rules, the old town is one of the easiest and most welcoming places in the city.

Comorian society is built around the family and the village, and on Grande Comore around a system of status that anthropologists have studied for decades. Its best-known institution is the grand mariage, in Shikomori anda, a large ceremony that can last many days and confers rank on a man within his town. It is expensive, and families save for years, often with money sent from relatives abroad.

Families on Grande Comore are traditionally matrilineal. Land and houses pass through women, and a husband often moves to his wife's town. The house built for a daughter, sometimes with help from relatives in France, is a mark of her family's standing. Visitors see this in the large modern villas standing empty in villages, waiting for a wedding or a return.

Islam sets the rhythm of the day. The call to prayer sounds five times, Friday is the main prayer day and many shops close at midday, and Ramadan changes the whole city: restaurants shut by day, streets fill after sunset, and offices work shorter hours. Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha are the main family holidays, and taxis and shops are scarce.

Greetings carry weight. A short exchange, 'Salaam aleykum' and a question about family or health, comes before any request, and rushing straight to the point sounds rude. Shake hands with the right hand, and wait for a woman to offer hers. Dress modestly, for women and men. Do not drink alcohol in public, and do not photograph people without asking.

If you are invited to a celebration, accept with care. Ask your host about dress, bring a small gift if it is suggested and follow the family's lead. If you are not invited, do not walk into the ceremony: streets and courtyards can close for a wedding, and it is polite to turn back.

The Comoros are sometimes called the perfume islands, and the name is earned. Ylang-ylang, a flower distilled into an oil used in perfumery, is one of the country's main exports, and the islands are among the world's largest producers. Cloves are the other pillar of the economy, and vanilla, grown under shade trees and cured by hand, is a valuable crop that carries risks of theft and price swings.

You meet all three at Volo-Volo, the covered market north of the old town. Stalls sell vanilla pods in bundles, cloves in bags, and ylang-ylang oil in small bottles. Quality varies. Good vanilla is supple and oily with a strong sweet smell; dry, brittle pods are old. Oil should be sold in sealed, labelled bottles; ask where it was distilled and compare two or three stalls.

Farming here is small-scale. Families tend a few trees, cure and sell to traders, and the price they get depends on the world market and on brokers. The state and export companies set the bigger frame. Vanilla theft in the growing season means some farmers harvest early, which lowers quality; that is one reason to buy from a trusted seller rather than a stranger.

The other flow of money is remittances. A large Comorian community lives in France, especially in Marseille, and money sent home pays for houses, weddings and school fees. Some people describe Marseille as a fourth island. When you talk to drivers and guides you will often hear about a brother or cousin in France, and you will see the effect in new houses and in shops selling imported goods.

For a traveller the spice trade is a practical guide to shopping. Buy vanilla and cloves at the market, small quantities at first, in sealed bags. Check what your country allows you to import. Cash is the way to pay: bring euros or Comorian francs in small notes, and be ready to bargain lightly.

Comorian cooking uses coconut, cassava, rice, fish and spice. The coast gives fish, octopus and lobster, and the hills give cassava, banana, breadfruit and fruit. Coconut milk and cloves carry the flavour, and heat comes from chilli sauces on the side rather than in the dish.

Mataba, cassava leaves pounded and cooked slowly with coconut milk, is the dish to try first. It tastes green and rich and comes with rice. Poulet au coco, chicken in coconut sauce, and poulpe au coco, octopus in the same style, are common in restaurants. Langouste à la vanille, lobster in a sweet vanilla sauce, is the dish that shows off the island's crop, and it is priced for visitors: ask the price before it is cooked.

Breakfast is bread, a sweet flat bread called mkatra foutra, fried dough and sweet spiced tea or strong coffee. Street stalls sell brochettes in the evening, and fruit sellers offer passion fruit, mango and coconut water. Lunch is the main meal, and a plate of rice with grilled fish costs a few thousand francs in a canteen and several times that in a hotel.

Alcohol is hardly available. A few hotels and restaurants serve it, mostly for visitors, and not during Ramadan. In Ramadan the day's eating happens after sunset, and you can join the rhythm: dates, soup and fried snacks, then a big meal. Do not eat or drink in public by day, and expect your hotel to serve breakfast in a room or a screened area.

For safety, choose hot, freshly cooked food, drink sealed water and skip ice unless your hotel confirms it is made from safe water. Wash your hands before eating. If your stomach is upset, drink oral rehydration salts and see a doctor if it lasts. Pack a small kit from home, because pharmacy stock is limited and brands differ from what you know.