Inhaca is a settlement in Mozambique, on the subtropical Inhaca Island (Ilha da Inhaca in Portuguese) off the East African coast. Inhaca settlement is centered on a
missionary station located
about 32 km east of Maputo. Geography and
administration The 52 km² island separates Maputo Bay (Baía de Maputo) to the west from the Indian
Ocean off its eastern shores.
The island's irregular coastline
approaches mainland Machangulo Peninsula at Ponta Torres where a 500m-wide tidal race separates the two headlands. In administrative terms Inhaca is a municipal
district of the municipality of
Maputo, while the Machangulo peninsula is included under the Lubombo Transfrontier
Conservation Area and is part of the district of Matutuíne, Maputo Province. Economy A population of about 6,000
people subsist on fishing and
agriculture. At low tide women
harvest crabs, oysters and fish
from the western shallows. At
high tide fishing boats leave the island for deeper sea
fishing. The island is a popular
winter destination ofSouth
African tourists. Tsonga chief Nhaca, a
protector of early shipwrecked
Portuguese sailors, lends his
name to the later settlement.
Later 16th century Portuguese
traders established an Inhaca Island base to ply the Bay of the Lagoon's (Baía da Lagoa) rivers in search of ivory. A 1747
map by Emanuel Bowen records 'Inhaqua' settlement
on the mainland peninsula
while referring to the island as
'I. S. Maria'. The first light house dates from
1894, and was upgraded in the
1920s. A marine biological station was built in 1951 and some of
the shores were declared
nature reserves in 1976. Of late
the biological station came
under administration of the Eduardo Mondlane University
