The Mnyange mosque may have served as a secure place of prayer for the Shirazi sailors who sailed along the Swahili coast and were based in the islands south of Mafia and Kilwa.

[1] Following a switch in colonial powers, the Germans claimed Chole in 1890 and continued to expand the small island's administration centre with banks, courts, schools, and jails in their distinctive design.

[1] As the Arab ensalvers relocated to reside on their fields on mainland Mafia to defend their coconut plantations from other immigrants and freed slaves, the population of the island, which had been around 8,000, started to decline.

[1] With Julius Nyerere's villagisation strategy of the late 1960s, some villages were designated as hubs for growth a decade after the country gained independence from the British, allowing people to move there.

In order to increase their income, women began producing seaweed, and many young people with only a minimal education and rudimentary English have found employment in the expanding tourism industry.