UNESCO has added six medinas in the Comoros – some dating back to the 12th century – to its World Heritage List, raising hopes for their preservation.
– The ancient cities of palaces, mosques, public squares, and narrow streets, as seen as examples of the characteristic monumental style of the archipelago’s sultanate era.
– “This listing is not a finish line but a starting point,” said Comoros culture minister Said Mohamed Ali Said
– The medinas are the first sites from the Comoros to join the UNESCO list, which counts more than 1,200 properties around the world considered worth protection.
– They “are not just historical sites for us, they are living towns, where people still pray, trade, and celebrate life’s great moments exactly as our ancestors did“, the minister said.
– “This heritage is fragile and, in places, in real danger,” he said. “The listing changes things. It places obligations on us, but it also opens doors for us.”
– The Comoros situated about 300 kilometres off the coast of Africa was for centuries a crossroads of maritime trade between east Africa, the Middle East and Madagascar.
– Four of the inscribed medinas are on the main island of Grande Comore and two on the smaller island of Anjouan.
– The 14th-century medina in the capital Moroni includes the emblematic Friday Mosque with its green minaret across from the dhow port. It is surrounded by paved alleyways and multi-storey houses, some with heavy, carved doors.
– The small maritime Itsandra medina nearby is considered a cradle of Swahili civilisation.
– Further south, the 12th-century Iconi medina houses the tomb of Prince Said Ibrahim, son of the last sultan of Grande Comore, Said Ali.
– “The Comorian medinas were once home to historic sultanates. Unfortunately, uncontrolled urbanisation and ‘modernisation’ have altered them,” said heritage promotion office director general, Ania Mohamed Issa.
– After the UNESCO inscription, “there will be the development of cultural, historical and architectural tourism, and the preservation of heritage,” said Faniya Abbas, of the Medina Wiratha cultural association.
– The medinas have preserved their old urban shape, structures and traditions, according to UNESCO’s nomination, but the oldest structures “are highly vulnerable, with several cases in serious disrepair”.