The Coup-Coup Islands

Nickname for the insurrection-prone Indian Ocean Comoros Islands.

Residents of Mayotte, an island in the Comoros archipelago, recently voted to become France’s 101st Département. Writing ahead of the referendum, Angelique Chrisafis noted in The Guardian:

Since independence from France in 1975, the politically unstable Comoros have been dubbed the “coup-coup islands” for their 20 coup d’etats or attempted putsches.

But for more than 30 years Mayotte has stood apart, avoiding the Comoros coups and crushing poverty. At independence in 1975, unlike the other three islands, it voted to remain part of France. It has since been administered by Paris but now wants fully-fledged French status.

Reporting for Reuters on the referendum result, Estelle Shirbon wrote:

Many islanders were keen to boost ties with mainland France, which have kept Mayotte richer and more stable than the Comoros.

“We may be black, poor and Muslim, but we have been French longer than Nice,” Abdoulatifou Aly, a legislator from Mayotte, was quoted as saying in the French weekly L’Express.

(Mayotte was annexed by the French in 1841; Nice did not become a permanent part of France until 1860.)