On this page 6 sections
Two readings of the same vote
Everything starts with the referendum of 22 December 1974. Counted across the archipelago as a whole, the results show a very large majority for independence. Counted island by island, they show that Mayotte voted 63.8% to remain French.
The Comorian position. The archipelago formed a single colonial territory; under the principle of the inviolability of borders inherited from colonisation, it was to become independent as a whole. By separating Mayotte, France violated the territorial integrity of the new state. The constitution of the Union of the Comoros claims all four islands.
The French position. The right of peoples to self-determination applies to populations: Mahorans have repeatedly expressed their wish to remain French. The French Constitution provides that no cession of territory is valid without the consent of the populations concerned.
The stages of the Mahoran choice
- 8 February 1976: 99.4% of voters chose to remain within the Republic; a second referendum, on 11 April, concerned the island's status.
- 24 December 1976: Mayotte became a territorial collectivity with special status.
- 2000–2001: an agreement on the future of Mayotte, approved by 72.9% of voters on 2 July 2000, made it a departmental collectivity.
- 29 March 2009: 95.2% of voters (turnout 61%) approved departmentalisation.
- 31 March 2011: Mayotte became the 101st French department, then an outermost region of the European Union on 1 January 2014.
International law and diplomacy
On 6 February 1976, France vetoed a draft Security Council resolution calling for the referendum planned in Mayotte to be cancelled. On 21 October 1976, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 31/4, by 102 votes to 1 (France) with 28 abstentions: it declared the 1976 referendums null and void and asked France to negotiate with the Comoros. Further resolutions followed until the mid-1990s.
The Organisation of African Unity, and later the African Union, have supported the Comorian position. France considers that these non-binding resolutions cannot override the choice expressed by Mahorans.
How can the Mahoran choice be explained?
Historians put forward several explanations, which are not mutually exclusive: a French presence of longer standing (since 1841) than elsewhere in the archipelago; the fear of being dominated by the elites of Grande Comore and Anjouan, fuelled by the transfer of the capital to Moroni; the hope of faster protection and development within France; the role of the Mahoran People's Movement and of the chatouilleuses.
Others stress France's strategic interest in a base in the Mozambique Channel and the way Paris organised the votes. Memories of these events remain very different on either side of the water.
A border running through a single society
Mahorans and Comorians share languages, religion, customs and often families. In January 1995, the introduction of the “Balladur visa” ended free movement between Mayotte and the other islands. Since then, thousands of people have attempted the crossing from Anjouan aboard kwassa-kwassa, overloaded small boats.
A 2012 French Senate report estimated that between 7,000 and 10,000 people had died at sea since 1995; the Comorian authorities put forward much higher figures. No official count exists. This human reality is at the heart of relations between the islands.
Mayotte today
France's youngest and poorest department, Mayotte is experiencing very rapid population growth, difficulties with housing and access to water, and tensions over immigration and security. It was hit by the seismic crisis linked to the birth of the submarine volcano Fani Maoré (2018–2019), then devastated by Cyclone Chido on 14 December 2024.
Between Paris and Moroni, the question of status remains a point of disagreement, even though the two states cooperate on many issues.
Main references
- Outside view Assemblée générale des Nations unies, Résolution 31/4 : Question de l'île comorienne de Mayotte, 1976. 21 October 1976.
- Outside view République française, Loi n° 75-560 du 3 juillet 1975 relative à l'indépendance du territoire des Comores, 1975. Journal officiel (French official gazette).
- Outside view Sénat (France), Mayotte : un nouveau département confronté à de lourds défis (rapport d'information n° 675), 2012. French Senate.
- Outside view Iain Walker, Islands in a Cosmopolitan Sea: A History of the Comoros, 2019. Hurst (London); Oxford University Press (New York).
- Outside view Malyn Newitt, The Comoro Islands: Struggle against Dependency in the Indian Ocean, 1984. Westview Press.
