Goverment
Mafia is not part of the Zanzibar archipelago, as many people think. It once was the property of the Sultan of Zanzibar after he wrested from the Portuguese, who sold it to Germany in 1890 during the 'scramble for Africa'. In 1915 the British Army took control of Mafia after skirmishing witha force of German and Tanzanian askari in the coconut plantations of Dundani, Mafia's highest plateau (just 50 m above sea level). The final battle took place in a grove of mango trees, named thereafter as mwembe vita (the mangoes of war).
The assault on the island was precipitated by Britain's need to establish a base on Mafia from which to launch attacks on the famous destroyer Konigsburg, which had taken refuge in the Rufiji Delta after the outbreak of hostilities in the First World War. The destroyer had been on an official visit to Dar es Salaam at the time. The reconnaissance flights mounted from a makeshift pontoon runway on Niororo Island (30 km north of Mafia) proved to be too long, with much fuel consumption wasted on the flight to and from the Delta. The aircraft were used to 'spot' the ship and provide accurate information for ranging guns on the British warships holding position in the Delta.
After the War Britain administered Mafia under martial law until 1922, whereupon it became part of the British Administration in East Africa and not part of the Protectorate of Zanzibar, that remained under the Sultan of Oman.
Today Mafia is a district of the Coast Province of the Republic of Tanzania. It is also the smallest electorate with fewer than 20,000 voters for a single member of Parliament.
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