Behind the palm trees, cranes and concrete mixers eat up the idyllic landscape of the north of the island of Grande Comore. Built by the Egyptian company Elsewedy Electric, the new Galawa hotel (“canoe”, in Shikomori language) is emerging on the site of the legendary five-star establishment of the same name, a flagship of tourism in the 1990s. At the time of its grandeur, this luxury hotel where spawned the French mercenary Bob Denard was the second largest employer in the country, behind the Comorian state. A national pride whose rebirth has become both a political and economic issue in the archipelago.
“On its own, Galawa is a campaign promise in the Comoros! », exclaims Saïd Mohamed, manager of a lodge near the complex, nostalgic for the prosperous years and full employment. The administration of President Azali Assoumani, who won a third term in the January 14 presidential election, is banking on the reconstruction of the hotel to justify its economic record over the past five years.
The history of the establishment is closely linked to the development of the Comoros. Ten years after its independence, in 1975, the archipelago emerged with difficulty from French colonization. Despite an idyllic setting, the islands do not benefit from the international tourism boom which ensures the development of Zanzibar and the Seychelles. Until the inauguration of the five-star hotel by the South African group Sun International in 1988. With its 280 rooms, its casino, its restaurants and its nightclub, the establishment placed the Comoros on the map of the world of tour operators.
“It was Miami before our eyes”
Emirates and South African Airways airlines suddenly open several weekly connections to Moroni. “All the inhabitants of Mitsamiouli [la ville la plus proche de l’établissement] worked there in one way or another, as a guide, cook, housekeeper, and there were those who sold their fruits or gadgets on the beach. It was Miami before our eyes, it was too good to be true”, remembers Saïd Mohamed. This does not escape Hollywood: the film The Eye of the Stormreleased in 1990, with Marisa Berenson and Kris Kristofferson as headliners, will be filmed in the hotel.
But behind the Galawa epic lies another, less glamorous reality. That of the running out of steam of the racist apartheid regime in South Africa, ready to do anything to circumvent the international embargo on arms and oil which targets it. Because if the Sun International hotel group is establishing the Galawa in the Comoros, it is because the two countries have made a discreet agreement.
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