Mafia Channel

Mafia Channel runs between Mafia Island and the Rufiji River delta on the East African mainland. Bwejuu Island lies within the channel, whose waters connect the delta and nearby islands to the Indian Ocean. The Mafia archipelago belonged to the maritime world of the Swahili coast, where boats linked island and mainland communities with more distant ports. On Juani Island, east of Mafia, the old settlement of Kua suffered an attack by raiders from Madagascar in the 1820s, according to the island's recorded history. That event belongs to the wider archipelago rather than the channel itself. The waterway's position beside the river mouth made it part of the local connections between coast, delta and islands.