Pemba Island

Pemba Island is still the world's major clove producer, but has now slipped into its more traditional role of being an Island Paradise with small inter-island trade. Chake wharf is now mainly used for swimming & fishing.

Pemba is a magical island. Unlike Unguja, Pemba is hilly. Gentle, undulating hills and deep verdant valleys are covered with a dense cover of clove, coconut, and mango plantations.

Pemba was seized by the Sultan of Muscat in the 17th c. He was so enchanted by the Spice Islands that he put himself in Zanzibar and ruled Muscat (now Oman) from there. When the Western Colonial powers came to East Africa the British forced the Sultanates of Muscat and Zanzibar to separate and then administered the Spice Islands in the name of the Sultan.

All the while, the Arab dhows would ply their trade winds from the Arabian Peninsula to East Africa. With the winds they would take cloves to India, textiles back to the Arab lands and silver and wood to the Spice Islands of Unguja and Pemba.

The dhows have remained constant throughout the history of Pemba. To this day they from Wete to Shimoni in Kenya and, when the winds are favorable they plough through to Northern Mozambique.

A more fertile land is difficult to imagine then Pemba, but it is not just the landscape that gives Pemba its magical reputation. For many years Pemba has held a reputation as a centre for the juju traditions of medicine and magic.