The oldest mosque in France, in Mayotte, is getting a new look. False degraded ceiling, infiltrations during the rainy season, cracks, corrosion of metallic elements, moisture and dust molds: the old room of the Tsingoni mosque is undergoing renovation.
In Tsingoni, the former royal capital in the center of the island of Mayotte, followers like Abdillahi Salim continue to make their five daily prayers in this room with white walls and sky blue. "That's where my father and grandfather prayed, I do not see myself praying anywhere else," the man in his sixties said.
Badirou Abdou, in his fifties and elected to the commune, is more comfortable in the new hall built in 2004 upstairs, where spread red carpets. "The humidity, the dust, the lack of ventilation, I can not stand, I have developed allergies and I still have the form to climb the stairs."
A renovation program estimated at two million euros, led by the town hall and supported by the State, is underway for this mosque listed as a historical monument in France since 2016. It is the oldest in France. In Mayotte, French department of the Indian Ocean, the majority of the population (95%) is Muslim.
A contemporary of Notre-Dame-de-Paris
"The inscriptions next to the mihrab attribute the construction of this mosque in 1538 to the Sultan Insa." Apart from the west side, the architecture has remained the same since that time, "says Ambassador Ridjali, director of the cultural department of Tsingoni commune. .
But "the excavations of the Inrap (National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research) for its renovation revealed an occupation of the site from the thirteenth century and the existence of a place of worship dating from the fourteenth, which makes it a contemporary of Notre-Dame-de-Paris ", he enthuses.
At this moment, the noise of the jackhammers is combined with that of the steps of the workers on the scaffoldings placed around the minaret. They repaint this part of the mosque built in 1994 and classified as a Historical Monument in 2017. The copper bulb, on which rests a crescent moon and a star, was installed at the end of August. It replaces a concrete dome that cracked and could collapse. The end of the works is estimated for the end of 2020.
It was at the beginning of the 1980s that Tsingonians became aware of the exceptional architecture that led to the classification of the mosque as a historical monument.
Coral and mangrove
"Its plan is specific, different from that of Arab mosques, and the presence of tombs around the mosque, and therefore inside the city, marks a Swahili influence (coastal zone of East Africa from Kenya to Mozambique.) Tombs are usually located outside Arab cities, "says Violaine Bressand, Heritage Engineer at the Cultural Affairs Directorate of Mayotte.
"It is also important to point out that hard buildings are rare at this time and are reserved for buildings with strong social and symbolic connotations.The coral, a local resource, was used for masonry, as well as mangrove for beams, from the near mangrove, "she says.
Tsingonians, for their part, are beginning to see the fallout from the classification of their mosque. "There are more and more visitors, a school public, but also tourists, which contributes to the economic development of our territory while preserving the historical aspect of the mosque," said Ambassador Ridjali. A story he will tell, especially during the European Heritage Days taking place this weekend.
With AFP