Mgingo is the most populous island in the world

Mgingo Island is located on Lake Victoria in Africa. Its area is about 1.8 thousand square meters. m, and 131 people live on it in shacks. These people organized a “Senate Republic”, live by fishing and do not allow strangers into their community. The island is a disputed territory between Kenya and Uganda.

Mgingo Island was only inhabited in 1991. Then two Kenyan fishermen Dalmas Tembo and Dorj Kibebe dared to land on it. Before going to Mgingo, they performed a ritual to drive out evil spirits - among the Africans living around Lake Victoria, there was a belief that the island was the home of the evil spirit Kalele. The old sorcerer banished Kalele. Tembo later admitted that they had to give 300 kg of fish for this ritual.

After this, the two brave fishermen were joined by about 60 Africans from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The motive for settling on Mgingo was not only the possibility of a good catch, but also the creation of their own “state”, a commune, where there would be no inequality and evil. By 2009, the population of Mgingo reached 131 people, and after that the “honorary senators”, the first settlers Tembo and Kibebe, decided not to accept anyone else into the commune.

The main catch here is Nile perch. In a week, a family can earn up to 200-250 dollars - this is the average earnings of Africans in neighboring countries for 2-3 months.

What allows the Mgingo “state” to maintain its independence is that the island is disputed between Kenya and Uganda—neither country can include it in its territory, and therefore they turn a blind eye to these fishermen.

Over the past twenty years, both countries have entered into armed conflicts 9 times over Mgingo. At first, the coast guards of both Kenya and Uganda broke the fishermen's boats, tore their nets and even shot six people. But then both countries came to an agreement that the commune should pay tax to both.

As a result, the tax that goes to both Kenya and Uganda is 25% of the fishermen’s earnings. Another 10% of earnings goes to the maintenance of the apparatus and self-defense forces of the commune. That is, the residents of Mgingo are forced to pay for their freedom with 60 percent of what they earn. But even the remaining 40% of their earnings helps them live many times better than their neighbors in Lake Victoria.

On this island there are five bars, a beauty salon, a pharmacy, as well as several hotels and four brothels - the men are busy fishing, and their wives and relatives earn extra money with their bodies. According to the rules of the Mgingo commune, a stranger cannot stay here for more than a day.

The commune is governed for life by two “honorary senators” Tembo and Kibebe, its founding fathers, as well as five more elected senators (they can only become men over 30 years old). Decisions among the seven senators are made by a simple majority.

The maximum punishment on the island is expulsion from it, the simplest punishment is flogging with straw whips. Over the twenty years of the “state’s” existence, six people were expelled from it, all for theft.

Next to Mgingo, 200 meters from it, there is another island - Usingo. It is still uninhabited, despite the terrible crowding in the commune: it is believed that an evil spirit named Tuk also lives on Usingo. The evil spirit Kalele, who was expelled from Mgingo, allegedly moved there as well. During all this time, the residents of the commune were unable to find a sorcerer who would be able to overcome two powerful evil spirits at once. Usingo is also disputed between Kenya and Uganda, but soldiers from the armies of both countries refuse to settle on it for the same reason - because of the residence of evil spirits on it. There are only a few temporary buildings on Usingo, which are sometimes used by First World biologists studying Lake Victoria and its inhabitants.