Greek Mafia
Mafia is an island which was mentioned in written history for the first time in Greek text. The island is found off of the coast of Africa and has a very long history. The east coast part of the island forms a part of the Indian Ocean. Mafia was first mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraen Sea. The text was dated back to around 110 A. D..Later the Arab geographers wrote about the arrival of the Portugese on the island. There are also other islands in the same area. There are ruins of buildings that used to be there at the end of the first millenium A. D.. Other early documents are available about the island and they are in Portugese and the other is in Arabic. Since then there has been many Islamic states based on trade and some of these included Zanzibar and Pemba Islands. By the thirteenth century Kilwa Kisiwani, which was the main island on the coast. This island was about 80 miles south of Mafia. Kilwa gained its prosperity because it controlled the gold trade from Sofala.
According to the Kilwa Chronicle, some of the sons of the first Kilwa sultan settled on the south west tip of Mafia Island and is today called Kisimani Mafia. Between the 12th and the 15th centuries, there were many mosques, tombs, and palaces built. There was also a lot of coinage minted as well as pottery imported. Other goods were also imported in large quantities. China was another one of the products which was imported. The Portugese made their home on the coast of Africa in 1498 and remained there for 200 years. They too control of the gold trade and this caused Kilwa to decline.
Mafia Island was never an independent island. It has been controlled by Kilwa, Zanzibar, and others such as the Arabs. The people of Mafia were known as Wambwera and Washirrazi. When the Arabs invaded the island and took over the southern part of the island and built large coconut plantations, the Mafia moved northern half of the island where the soil was not so good for coconuts but it was very good for more favorable crops. It seemed that the Arabs actually did them a favor by forcing them to move. The Arabs brought slaves from the mainland to work the plantations.
There is another source of Greek Mafia and that is the group of people who are much like the mafia groups throughout the world. These groups are criminals who think they are above the law and can lie, cheat, steal, and kill anytime they want just to control their territory, wherever that might be. There is so much of this illegal action going on the authorities cannot stop it.
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