Zanzibar's forgotten sister — clove forests, pristine reefs, and absolute quiet
Pemba Island sits 80km north of Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean and receives a fraction of its sibling's visitors despite arguably superior diving and a more authentic atmosphere. The island's steeply forested interior — earning it the Swahili name 'Al Huthera' (the green island) — produces the majority of the world's cloves, and the scent hangs over the hillside villages year-round. The fringing reefs are considered among the finest in East Africa, with dramatic wall dives dropping hundreds of metres into the Pemba Channel.
Pemba was a significant centre of the Swahili Coast trading network for over a thousand years before the Portuguese arrived in 1498. The island's strategic position and agricultural productivity made it valuable to successive rulers: the Omani Sultanate took it from the Portuguese in the 17th century and established the clove plantations that still define the island's economy today. The British made it a protectorate in 1890 alongside Zanzibar, and Pemba briefly attempted to resist the 1964 union with Tanganyika — a political memory that persists as a distinct Pembani identity.