Africa causes quite conflicting feelings for many people. But there are also very unusual places for us here, which simply cannot but arouse interest. One of them is a very miniature island with a huge number of people living on it.
You will not find this in any corner of the world
Migingo is an island located on Lake Victoria. The reservoir itself is an unsafe place. There are a lot of hippos and crocodiles in it, and there are plenty of other animals here. Therefore, no one has a special desire to swim in it, especially when it comes to tourists.
It is in such a place unfriendly to humans that this island is located. Migingo consider both Uganda and Kenya theirs. The dispute on this score has been going on between them for almost twenty years and it is not known how long it will take.
But even this is not the most interesting thing. There are other things that really surprise people. The islet of Migingo has an area of two thousand square meters (for comparison, this is half of a small football field).
This tiny territory is home to about five hundred people, which makes it the most densely populated place in the whole world (meaning islands). Of course, not seeing the picture with their own eyes, not everyone can imagine it, but it really is.
The island is round in shape and has a rocky coastline. The trees are completely absent here. In fact, there is no lush vegetation here at all. On an island of land, there are shacks in which people live. Other buildings include a mosque, a church and "spills", proudly called bars.
On the island, people have one occupation that brings income - fishing. As it turned out, the business is quite profitable. Local fishermen have to pay two taxes: one goes to the treasury of Uganda, and the other to Kenya. But no one is going to leave here, even with this in mind.
Everything happens exactly the opposite. Since 1991, when Migingo began to be actively settled, the number of people wishing to move from the mainland to the island has only been growing. Over the past 10 years, the island's population has more than quadrupled. Quite an interesting riddle with a very simple answer.
And the chest just opened
Here fishermen catch large numbers of Nile perch. The fish was introduced and released into the lake in the mid-sixties of the last century. Currently, there is a lot of it in the reservoir, which is extremely important for fishermen. Island fishermen earn two to three times more than those who work on the mainland. A fisherman can earn an income of three hundred dollars in one week. By local standards, this is a huge amount of money.
Another plus is that people are often paid in cash. According to local assessment criteria, the first two fishermen to settle on the island were already rich. As for Migingo's belonging to someone, passions in this regard do not subside.
The fishermen themselves do not pay any attention to political battles. They may call each other "Kenya" or "Uganda", but these are just friendly jokes that sound absolutely without malice. As people themselves say, they just want to make money by selling fish. The rest does not bother them.
There is one more oddity. Next to Migingo, on the other hand, there is another island called Usingo. But it is completely empty. For us, this phenomenon seems very strange, but for Africans it is the norm. They are sure that the spirits from Migingo settled on the island of Usingo, which means that people cannot settle there.
But tourists will not just get to the island. To begin with, they will need to get a permit in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, and they also need to make a request in Uganda. Upon arrival, you must register with a local police officer and you will have to pay the "chief" for the local business.
Continuing the topic, read about no less interesting a place where there is no time: why the inhabitants of the island in Norway do not live according to their hours.