Today's globe spin landed me near Madagascar, just off the coast. A bunch of Islands to the East are recognisably known as Seychelles, but closer to the continent of Africa, near Tanzania & Mozambique, there are a whole bunch of obscure Islands you and I haven't heard of - some without any names at all. I took intererst first in some mystery 'uninhabited'... islands, and then a fascinatingly politically bullied island just across the water.

Glorioso Islands

The first location is an odd setup. Officially, it's a series of two islands and eight islets. But at first glance, it kinda just looks like a single island:

But zoom in a bit more and you can see there is Grande Glorieuse and Île du Lys:

Both of these little islands seem uninhabited, but if you look closely, Grande Glorieuse actually has an airstrip. Whatever for?? Perhaps to get to the cemetery quickly and easily?

Yep. It turns out that there's a strange assortment of human influence here, from a cemetery to an incinerator, and even the coconut trees are grown for a plantation long ago:

Credit: Joseph Poupin et al

There's really not much information on who put the military station on there or why - all information is written mostly in French. All I can really say is that it was formally grabbed by the French in 1880 by Hippolyte Caltaux who started up the coconut plantation. Presumably, the French Foreign Legion are making permanent settlements there in order to keep it their property, kind of like how the Danes have dog sledges going around Greenland 24/7. Of course, the added benefit of this is getting 200 nautical miles of ocean off the coast in all directions, so there's certainly some value in land grabbing.

Mayotte

Officially called the Department of Mayotte, this island is a little like some insular areas of the USA where they kind of are owned by the US but have a lot of their own autonomy while still getting the benefit of passports and so forth. This island is actually inhabited.

Interestingly, the people of the island don't actually speak French (about 1.4%), nor are they any good at it. Instead, they speak Shimaore, a language uniquely spoken here on this one island, and ShiBushi from Madagascar. Shimaore is a dialect of a language from another neighbouring island and is the one you'll hear most people speak, including on the island news. That being said, even locally, this language is subject to change.

Apparently, the word for 'to eat' is U-dja in villages around the island, but U-la in metropolitan areas - after being influenced by a brand of yoghurt with the same name

Their alphabet, though Latin-based, omits the Q and X, replaces the C with an implosive B, adds a second implosive D and a V̄. You can hear the language in practice in this atrociously cacophonous Tom and Jerry dub:

Back to the island itself, it looks quite lush and well populated, with over 256,000 inhabitants.

As can be seen in this protest

(Some banners translated as: 'Terrorists, highwaymen, thieves, rapists, burglars, illegal land occupants, traffickers, counterfeiters. All forms of violence. To suffer and to be silent'* Source:

The Capital city Mamoudzou holds only a tenth of that, and like the vast majority of towns and villages here, hugs the coastline, allowing the centre of the island to bloom with dense forest:

I noticed there were a lot of mosques on the island amongst all the other stubbornly french-named supermarkets, post offices and so on. Historically, the island has been pretty tumultuous. It was, of course, inhabited by East Africans originally, until the arrival of Arabs in the 1500's, bringing Islam with them. Hence the mosques.

Eventually, in the 1800's, Madagascar got in there and took over for like, a year until it was conqueured again by the Island of Mwali. 2 years later, it was conquered once again by the island of Ndzuwani... for about a year before gaining independence with their own local Sultan.

Then the French simply bought it off them in 1841.

Ecology

This island, to me, looks kind of like a paradise if not for all the people. Enjoy:

Source unknown, but can be found here

The Island is even home to flying foxes

As adorable as they look, they're actually bats and tend to hang out in groups of up to 1,000. Not sure I'd want those flapping around in my hair.

If that's not spooky enough for you, the island is inhabited by GHOST GENIES:

Approximately 26% of the adult population, and five times as many women as men, report entering trance states in which they believe they are possessed by certainly identifiable spirits (Djinns (Genies)) who maintain stable and coherent identities from one possession to the next

This genuinely seems like an island I want to visit to get a feel of just what on earth is going on there. The mix-mash of language and culture must create some pretty interesting personalities and the nature and sea life looks like a month's worth of exploration.

Who's up to join me?

All Images from Wiki Commons and Google Maps unless otherwise stated)