The Catalyst of the Comorian Independence

Abdou Bakari at home in Mitsamiouli (pics. Chami, 2011)

Abdou Bakari Boina is considered by the majority of the Comorian people as the catalyst of the independence of Comoros. It was in October 1974, when he came back in Comoros to participate in the referendum campaign about the independence, organized by the French administration. Many people gathered in the Moroni–Hahaya Airport to welcome him. He was then brought in the shoulders of many Comorians from the airport until the Shalma place in Moroni down town where he held with another leader called Ali Soilihi the first meeting for the referendum asking the Comorian people to decide if they want to become independent from France or not.

His happy childhood  

Abdou Bakari Boina was born in 1937 in the northern small village of Kuwa where his mother in Ngazidja* hails. His father was from Mitsamiouli. After his primary studies in Mitsamiouli, he was accepted in the middle school known as ‘‘the Regional School of Mitsamiouli’’ under the status of ‘‘indigent child’’. His famous classmates are Mtara Maecha, Hachim Dada, Mohamed Fazul, Jean Mchangama, to name but a few. After his success in the middle school in the 1950s, he was selected to go to Madagascar for a teaching training program from 1955 to 1957. He came back in his country as a primary school teacher at the end of 1957.

His job as a teacher

Abdou Bakari Boina was appointed to Moya district in Ndzuwani* to teach between 1958 and 1960. It was there that he took his first wife, Nissoiti Ismael, a daughter of a notable of Vassy near Moya. From this marriage he has got three children.   In 1962, he was transferred to the island of Zanzibar which was a British colony in East Africa. His mission was to teach French in the ‘‘Comorian School’’ for the children of the Comorian community of Zanzibar. In 1964, he moved to Dar-Es Salam, the capital city of Tanganyika (now Tanzania) in East Africa. In Tanzania, he got married two times and got two children respectively from a Tanzanian wife and another wife from Indian origin. When he came back in Comoros, he was married to Moinaécha Aboudou, a daughter of a notable from the city of Mitsamiouli and cousin of Dr. Mtara Maécha, a political leader.  From that union, he got four children. Abdou Bakari Boina has always refused to ‘‘do the great marriage’’. ‘‘It is not a problem of means, but a question of principles’’ he said.       

His political movement   

The idea of independence comes from Abdou Bakari Boina. When he was in Ndzuwani, he saw how natives of this island were badly treated by the French colonists. Many peasants had lost their lands confiscated by French farmers. During his holidays in 1963 in Comoros, he took that opportunity to lead an underground campaign for the independence of his country. Many of his political friends have been arrested, sent in jail and others have gone exile. In Dar-Es Salam, the 25 year- old politician already launched his political movement called Molinaco (Movement for the National Liberation of Comoros) with two friends of Comorian origin. Molinaco was recognized by the authorities of Tanganyika in 1963. Abdou Bakari Boina was very critical of the local government run by President Said Mohamed Cheikh under the Internal Autonomy in the French Republic. According to Abdou Bakari, the problem of Mayotte* started when the President decided to transfer the capital of the country from Dzaoudzi to Moroni without preliminary consultation of the population of this island.

              Although Molinaco was opposed to the local government of Ahmed Abdallah, his political movement was very glad when the latest declared unilaterally the independence of Comoros in 1975.

His career as ambassador

              One month later, Ali Soilihi, a young leader helped by France, overthrew the father of the independence. Abdou Bakari was personally against the coup d'état but accepted to work with the new revolutionary regime.

Abdou Bakari (left) with his political friends at Molinaco Head Office in Tanzania in the 1970s

He was then appointed roving ambassador and was at the origin of many diplomatic ties between the Comoros and the People’s Republic of China and many other countries.

After the regime change led by the French mercenary Bob Denard in favour of Ahmed Abdallah in 1978, ambassador Abdou Bakari was imprisoned during three years. In 1982, he was set free without trial and proposed to take the job of counsellor under the Abdallah administration. But Abdou Bakari had his say. First of all, he could not consider his comrades who were still in jail as criminals. Secondly, he would never consider the French mercenaries who worked in Comoros as technicians and collaborators.  Finally, he would never say something bad about the former revolutionary President Ali Soilihi.  His conditions have not been accepted by the conservative regime of Ahmed Abdallah, of course. He finally got a job in the public oil company Comore-hydrocarbures.

His career as an opposition leader

In 1993, he was elected MP (Member of the Parliament) of the opposition in the Cembenoi district under the administration of President Said Mohamed Djohar.  In 1996, under the President Taki Abdoulkarim regime, he became governor of the island of Ngazidja. For him, it was just a job of a civil servant. He did not have a real power because he was not elected by the people, but just appointed.

After the last coup d'état of Colonel Azali Assoumani in 1999, a military officer came to see him for advice. It was the only contact he had with that regime. Abdou Bakari is still very critical of the Comorian new constitution of 2001 which gives large autonomy to each island and less power to the federal government. “It was like a child with three dads. Who will he obey?” he asked.

His political achievements

Abdou Bakari is today satisfied of his job. He is glad to be alive and to see how the independence is managed. For him, many things have been done since 1975. “At the beginning of the independence, there were only five doctors of Comorian origin. All the traders were white French. Today, there are about two hundred doctors, many Comorian are in the import-export business and the University of Comoros is managed by Comorian citizens only” he said.

Abdou Bakari did not know personally Ahmed Abdallah Sambi, the first moderate Islamist President of the country between 2006 and 2011. He thinks he had some good ideas but lacked experience and good will.

He also criticizes the young leadership for not having patriotism. The problem today, argues Abdou Bakari, is corruption, feudality and mismanagement. He advices the youth to be united against island divisions. The independentist leader lives now in his city of Mitsamiouli with the wife of his fourth marriage of1976. He does not benefit any retirement pension. In fact, he was fired from the public service in January 1965 because of his political activities in Dar-Es Salam in favour of the independence of his country.  The former emblematic leader of Molinaco passed away in 2018 and was buried in the city of Mitsamiouli. 

July 2, 2020  

Contributing writer                                                                    

Mouzawar Chami

* Notes

The archipelago of Comoros consists of four islands: Ngazidja, Ndzuwani, Maore and Mwali. Their French names are respectively Grande-Comore, Anjouan, Mayotte and Moheli. The four islands were French colonies from 1842 to 1975. After the independence from France in July 6^th 1975, Mayotte is still under the French colony, but its status is challenged by the Union of Comoros.