Chole Island

Seen from space, the islands of the Mafia group are so small they would hardly be visible in the vast ocean. On its southeastern side is a large bay, with tiny verdant Chole Island, the heart of the bay. In 1994 all of Chole Bay and and more was declared Tanzania's first marine,park and fast gained a reputation for excellent diving.

Whale sharks are rare and highly mobile, migrating around the tropical and temperate regions, swimming close to the surface or diving down 1,000 metres or more. 

Trying to find one can be like trying to find a drop in the ocean, like Captain Ahab searching the seven oceans for the white whale. However, they are known to occur more frequently in certain places in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. 

One place they gather is in the shallow channel between the mainland and the islands that make up Mafia, a few specks of coral in the Indian Ocean that lie off the shores of southern Tanzania. 

When the Omani sultans created a new commercial capital in Zanzibar to the north in the mid-1600s, the importance of the Mafia and Juani islands waned and were superseded by a growing Chole. The mainly Ishmaili traders on Chole traded gold, silver, Ivory and slaves with the sultanates of Kilwa and Zanzibar. Chole fell into ruin when the British took over and the once-bustling town (or mjini) was subsumed by the octopus limbs of wild fig trees. 

The First World War saw British forces invade Tanganyika (German East Africa). When the raiding German battle cruiser Konigsberg took refuge in the mangrove labyrinth of the Rufiji Delta to undergo repairs, the British overran Mafia Island in order to build an airstrip for aerial reconnaissance, in the process evicting the German garrison from Chole. 

Chole was repopulated after the Second World War and the building of jahazis, large ocean-going dhows, was the main order of business on the island. Today mashuas or inshore fishing boats are more popular. More humble ngalawa outriggers ' usually work as both work vehicle and family transport while one, man mtumbwis remain close to shore, the loan coastline fishing for dinner. 

Chole Mjini Eco Lodge

Today the building of new dhows is no longer in great demand, the local lodges being the main customers along with local fishing crews. But the dhow is a many splendored thing, not just a single ' craft. And while building new ones is rare the Chole boatyard is continuously busy keeping the local fleet afloat. 

Around two decades ago I met Jean de Villiers, then resident in Zanzibar where his wife Anne was working for the British government. Jean had a dhow and a dream and together we set sail for Chole to do some diving and see how things lay there. The dhow had been built at the Chole dhow yard, which was otherwise facing closure with dire consequences for the island population of about 800 souls.

That fact, and the decaying ruins that characterise the island, might have depressed another man but Jean saw only opportunity: build an eco-lodge around them and use it to re-invigorate the island's dhow business and help the community to raise its game. lt took until 1997 when Jean, Anne, and their four-year-old Didier and baby Maya moved to Chole for material progress to be made on the lodge, with various plans and a partner falling out along the way. This necessitated alterations and delays, but never a wavering of the vision, and by and by the lodge took root among the ruins of the island. The grand design was to build tree 1 houses, which are perhaps the most appealing aspect of the lodge. 

Everything is built out of timber: with coconut-leaf roofs, open to the tropical elements on every side. All the work was undertaken by the local dhow builders, the fandi mbao or experts of wood. As impressive as their skills are in making magic with rough mangrove timbers (a dhow has no straight lines or right angles), things got interesting when they turned their hand to building tree houses. 

Jean found, somewhat to his dismay that there were no words in the local language for these concepts (only saua, which can also mean square, flat, parallel, fertical, horizontal and even okay), so construction did not proceed without some humour. 

The tides dictate not only the pace of life at Chole but also the schedule. The boatman who runs most of the lodge activities, such as snorkeling trips, picnics on sandbars, walks to ancient ruins or scuba diving excursions, are totally in tune with the sway of things.

All seafood served at the lodge comes from the local fishers who enjoy preferential prices for their freshest catch. The lodge has had a marked impact on the local economy; the local procurement policy and use of local labour for all projects, big and small and the fact that just about every family has at least one person employed by the lodge has moved the economy away from heavy reliance on natural resource exploitation. 

There is no electricity grid on Chole and all power comes from alternative sources. There is also no running water so water from wells has to be carried in backers. There are no roads, so no vehicles, other than bicycles and a motorbike that has been adapted as an ambulance, specifically for transporting pregnant Women to the harbour where they can catch a dhow ferry across to larger Mafia Island. Likewise, until very recently there was no cell phone reception and the only radio waves incoming were those from outer space. 

And all the time while things were taking shape at Chole Mjini, Jean became aware that whale sharks - the largest fish in the oceans - were easy to see during the summer months in the narrow channel between the West Coast of Mafia and the mainland.

Whale Shark Outings

©Jean Tresfon

In order to take advantage of this seasonal phenomenon, he started a second business on Mafia Island. It is far more than just a whale shark sightseeing sideline and since its founding in 2007 has worked shark research and in advocating local conservation.

Every summer sub-adult whale sharks aggregate on the surface to feed on plentiful plankton in the waters between Mafia and the mainland. It is speculated that the adults tend to become solitary creatures that can migrate large distances and at only one place known to congregate, at the Galapagos islands off Equador, large (14 metres and more) adult females, most of which appear to be gravid, congregate very briefly every year. 

The whale shark outings are run by experienced marine specialists and a well-trained team, who take every effort not to stress these "monster fish". On our first of three dives with the whale sharks we enjoyed an hour in the water with nine of them, before any other boats arrived and drove them away. They swam around us, sometimes coming straight at us before gliding away, or underneath. Seeing a creature with a mouth as wide as a front-end loader coming directly at you can be alarming. As one passes, a subtle flick of its sail-like tail sends it disappearing into the blue. 

At Chole Mjini you lie in bed in your tree house serenaded by the rhythm of the surf and the trade winds playing leaf music in the trees overhead. You dream of dhows sailing close to the wind and giant fish cruising below.

By David Bristow

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