The English Pen Online World Atlas

Comoros

Saturday, 12 April 2008

Comoros gained independence from France in 1975, and has seen coups and ongoing conflicts over governance between the three main islands. The islands have an ethnically-mixed population, descended from Arab traders, African people and Malay immigrants.

Almost all of the educated populace of the Comoros has attended Quranic schools at some point in their life. Comorian (Shikomori) is the most widely used language on the Comoros. It is a close relative of Swahili with a very strong Arabic influence, and is one of the three official languages of the Comoros, next to French and Arabic. Each island has a slightly different dialect; that of Anjouan is called Shindzuani, that of Moheli Shimwali, that of Mayotte Shimaore, and that of Grande Comore Shingazidja. No official alphabet for Shikomori existed in 1992, but Arabic and Latin scripts were both used.

There is no national newspaper in Comoros; the leading regional paper is Al-Watwan published on Grande Comore; Kwezi is also published on Mayotte. In its 2006 annual report, the rights body Freedom House said newspapers exercised "extensive self-censorship". Radio is the dominant medium, particularly the national Radio Comoros, but Radio France International can be heard in the capital.

Kashkazi is a more contemporary magazine committed to freedom of information. It serves as a platform for an emerging generation of Comorian writers, such as playwright and essayist Soeuf Elbadawi, who secured renown in Comoros after spending several years working in French theatre and journalism. Elbadawi's work, which fits into postcolonial themes of political critique and personal memory, follows on from writers such as Aboubacar Said Salim, who studied in France and received the first Alliance Française award for his novels such as Le bal des mercenaires.