Indepenedence day

6 July

Comoro, situated between Madagascar and the Mozambican coast, it’s home to Mount Karthala, an active volcano that has erupted more than a dozen times in the past two centuries. White sand beaches line the coasts. Aromatic plants such as jasmine, lemongrass, and frangipani help earn their nickname, ‘fragrant island.’ It’s one of the world’s poorest countries with an economy that relies on fishing and subsistence farming. Once it was vital in the Indian Ocean trade between Asia and East African ports like India and Japan. Both explorers and settlers have left their mark on the islands. African, Arabic, Malagasy, and French influences abound. Persians arrived as well, establishing Sunni Islam as the dominant religion.

Portuguese explorers were the first Europeans to make contact with the islands during the 16th century but it was France who established colonial rule over the Westernmost island of Mayotte. A local king ceded the island to the French in 1841. The islanders were too busy fighting among themselves to offer much resistance to the French. European colonial powers decided that the remaining islands of the Comorian archipelago would come under French rule in 1886.

Comoros became an overseas territory of France after the Second World War. Later in 1961, it was internal autonomy. French officials agreed that Comoros would be granted freedom in 1978. A referendum on the four main islands showed that all the islands favored independence except one. Mayotte preferred to remain under French rule.

On July 6, 1975, a unilateral resolution passed by the Comorian parliament of the islands declaring their independence, with Ahmed Abdallah as their first president. The French rejected that claim, and Mayotte became an overseas region of France. Nevertheless, this historic day is remembered among the people of Comoros as a day of freedom.