Pemba, Mozambique

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This article is about the capital of the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado. Pemba is also an island in Tanzania and a small town in Zambia.

Pemba is a port city 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 a queen of Portugal, at the peninsula's south western 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 Makondes, Macuas and Mwanis. The local language predominantly spoken is known as Macua, although Portuguese is widespread.

In the centre of Pemba, there is an authentic local market or Souk, where arts and crafts, as well as traditional silverware can be bought.

Pemba is also renowned as being a prime destination for water sport and diving enthusiasts as a coral reef lies close to the shore. Pemba has increasingly become a tourist destination, particularly for upper-middle class Mozambicans and South Africans. There is now a weekly flight from Johannesburg to Pemba, a five-star hotel, the Pemba Beach Hotel, restaurants, and other forms of entertainment.