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This article is about the island. Pemba is also a city in Mozambique.

Pemba is an island about 50 kilometres to the north of the island Zanzibar. Both islands are part of Tanzania and lie off the east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. It lies 50 kilometres east of the mainland Tanzania. Together with Mafia Island (south of Zanzibar), they form the Spice Islands. In 1988, the estimated population was 265,000, with an area of 980 km².

Most of the island, which is regarded to be hillier and more fertile than Zanzibar, is dominated by small scale farming. There is large scale farming of cash crops such as cloves — there are over 3 million clove trees.

The island is seldom visited, although it is a center for traditional medicine and witchcraft. People come from as far away as Zaire to seek spiritual and physical healers.

The most important towns in Pemba are Chake Chake, Mkoani, and Wete.

The island Pemba, known as 'Al Kuh Dra' (the green island), is situated 20 miles north-east of Zanzibar and is the most important growing area for cloves. The landscape of this island is marked by hills and some 4 million clove trees. The Portuguese introduced bullfights in the 17th century, which are still held in the ancient tradition, during which the animals are neither to be hurt nor killed. Pemba is also starting to get known for its dive sites, with vertiginous drop-offs, untouched coral and very abundant marine life.

Chake Chake is located on a hill with a view on the bay where the tides determine when a dhow can enter the harbour. East of this place, on a peninsula, you can find the Ras Mkumbu that houses the oldest ruins of the island (14th century). Pemba is also famous for its rich fishing grounds. Between the island and the mainland there is the 20 miles wide Pemba channel, which is one of the most profitable fishing grounds for game fishing on the East African coast.

External links

• Audio interview (in English) with Pemba Island resident at ULiveWhere.com

This article is based on the article "Pemba Island" from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License. Here you find the list of authors of this article. The article can only edited within Wikipedia. Edit this article in Wikipedia.