Although the Cosa Nostra have, of late, been moving into the East African coast as a new avenue for money-laundering, the name Mafia probably derives from the Arabic morfiyeh, meaning “group” or “archipelago”, or from the Ki-Swahili “mahali pa afya”, meaning “a healthy dwelling-place”. Mafia has a rich history, going back over 2,000 years. It was a pivotal centre of Shirazi influence between the 12th and 15th centuries AD, but for centuries before this occupied a key position in the East African trading routes. In the mid 1820’s, the Shirazi town of Kua on Juani Island was sacked by a raiding party of 80 canoes filled with Sakalava cannibals from Madagascar, who ate many of the locals, and abducted the rest into slavery. In more modern times, Mafia was the base used by British forces in World War I, when in 1915, they assembled their aerial forces to scout for the German battleship, Koenigsberg, which was wreaking havoc with British shipping, and was hiding out under thick foliage in the nearby Rufiji Delta. In July that year, the South African elephant hunter, Pieter Pretorius, who boarded the vessel posing as an Arab chicken-seller, located the Koenigsberg. It was bombed and then scuttled by her skipper, Max Looff.