The island
Chole sits in Chole Bay on the eastern side of Mafia, a short dhow crossing from the shore at Utende, and lies wholly inside Mafia Island Marine Park. Its population is recorded at 1,021 in the park’s management plan. There are no roads and no vehicles on it, and no mains electricity — the park’s own plan notes that electricity is lacking in every village in the archipelago except Kilindoni and Utende.
That is most of what a visitor needs to know about the texture of the place. It is a small inhabited island you walk around, not a site you are shown.
How Chole became the capital, and stopped being it
Chole’s importance is a nineteenth-century accident. When the town of Kua on neighbouring Juani was destroyed early in that century, survivors established a new town here under Sultan Said of Zanzibar. It was known as Chole Mjini — Chole the town — and the main island of Mafia became Chole Shamba, Chole the farm. The name of a small island in a bay was, for a while, the name of the whole archipelago.
In 1890 German colonialists negotiated the purchase of Chole Mjini from Sultan Sayyid Ali. In 1913 they moved their headquarters off it to Kilindoni on the west coast, which offered a more accessible anchorage for a coastal steamship, and Kilindoni has been the administrative and commercial capital ever since. Chole went from being the point of the archipelago to being a place across the bay from it in twenty-three years, and the ruins it is visited for are what that left behind.
The fruit bats
Colonies of the Comoros lesser fruit bat roost mainly on Chole, with a smaller presence near Utende on the main island. They are large, conspicuous and hang in the trees over the village, and for most visitors they are the island’s memorable animal.
Two notes of precision. The park’s management plan calls them Pteropus seychellensis comorensis, a subspecies; current literature treats them as a full species, Pteropus comorensis. And a 2012 study argues the Mafia population was probably brought here by people from the Comoros rather than arriving on its own — which makes them an introduction rather than an endemic, however long they have been here.
What a visit involves
Walking. The ruins are the reason most people cross, and they have their own page. Seaweed is farmed off the island, and the seaweed farm tours guide is honest about what the work costs the people who do it. Boat-building continues on a small scale in the archipelago, and dhow sailing and sea kayaking both run in the sheltered water around the island.
This is a working, conservative, largely Muslim community living inside a marine park, not an attraction with a gate. Dress covered, ask before photographing people, and treat the walk through the village as the visit rather than as the way to the ruins.
Common questions about Chole Island
How do I get to Chole?
By boat across Chole Bay, usually from Utende on Mafia’s east coast. It is a short crossing and the standard half-day from that side of the island.
Why is the whole of Mafia sometimes called Chole?
Because it once was. After Kua was destroyed, the new town here was Chole Mjini and the main island was Chole Shamba. The German administration bought the town in 1890 and moved its headquarters to Kilindoni in 1913, and the name went back to the small island.
What are the bats?
Comoros lesser fruit bats, roosting mainly on Chole. They are large and easy to see. A 2012 study argues they were probably introduced from the Comoros by people rather than arriving naturally.
Can you stay on the island?
There is accommodation on Chole and there is no electricity grid, no road and no vehicle on the island, which shapes a stay considerably. Most visitors come across for a few hours from Utende.