Mafia Island

Mafia has had a prominent place in the history of the East Coast of Africa, as it was a safe haven for ships to stop for water and for repairs; Mafia was part of the sultanate of Kilwa during the 13 th Century and prospered as a settlement during Kilwa’s rise as an economic power. The island has been visited by seafarers from the Gulf for two millenia and has seen Egyptian, Omani, Greco- Roman, Chinese, Portuguese and Turkish traders as well as French and American buccaneers and slavers in the 1800s. More recently English and German occupations have left their impressions.
Mafia Island lies approximately 25 kilometers off the Tanzanian coast, 130 kilometers from Dar es Salaam which takes approximately 35 minutes by air. The mainland is covered with large forests of palm trees, baobabs, and mangroves (as many as 7 species). Among the fauna there are small antelopes; over 130 species of birds among which also a rare species of bat present only on the island of Mafia and in the Comoros Islands; different species of primates, among which the curious galacids, small nocturnal primates also known as “Bush babies” or “children of the forest” because of their unique verses, similar to human stirrings. The waters of the Marine Park of Mafia host colorful coral reefs (about 48 species), immense submarine meadows, over 400 species of fish, dolphins, sea turtles and the dugong, a mammal similar to the seal that, after 20 years of absence in these areas, seemed to have become extinct.