City Detail

Pemba is a port city and district in Mozambique. It is the capital of the province of Cabo Delgado and lies on a peninsula in Pemba Bay. The town was founded by the Niassa Company in 1904 as Porto Amélia, after the Queen of Portugal, at the peninsula's northwestern tip and has grown around a port. The city is renowned for its Portuguese colonial architecture. It was renamed Pemba at the end of Portuguese rule, in 1975. The city's inhabitants are primarily Swahili, Makondes, Macuas and Mwanis. Local languages that are spoken are Kimwani and Macua, although Portuguese is widespread. Pemba is also renowned as being a prime destination for water sport and diving enthusiasts as a coral reef lies close to the shore. It has increasingly become a tourist destination, particularly for upper-middle-class Mozambicans and South Africans. There are now 5 flights a week from Johannesburg to Pemba, several hotels, restaurants, and other forms of entertainment.