Behind the palm trees, cranes and concrete mixers eat away at the idyllic landscape of the north of Grande Comore island: Constructed by Egyptian company Elsewedy Electric, the new Galawa Beach Hotel ("canoe" in the local language, Shikomori) has been progressively rising from the ground. Built on the site of the legendary five-star hotel of the same name, which was a beacon of tourism in the 1990s. In its heyday, this luxury hotel – once a favorite of French mercenary Bob Denard – was the second-largest employer in the country, behind the Comorian government. It's a source of national pride, one whose revival has become as much a political issue as an economic one in the archipelago.

"In itself, the Galawa is a campaign promise in the Comoros!" said Saïd Mohamed, the manager of a B&B close to the complex, nostalgic for the boom years when employment was at its peak. President Azali Assoumani's administration – since winning a third term in the country's January 14 presidential election – has banked on the hotel's reconstruction to justify its economic record over the past five years.

The establishment's history is closely linked to the Comoros' development. Ten years after its independence in 1975, the archipelago faced challenges in emerging from the legacy of French colonization. Despite their idyllic setting, the islands did not benefit from the international tourism boom that fueled the development of Zanzibar and the Seychelles. Until 1988, when the South African Sun International group inaugurated this five-star hotel. With its 280 rooms, casino, restaurants and nightclub, the establishment put the Comoros on tour operators' world map of holiday destinations.

'It was Miami right before our eyes'

The airlines Emirates and South African Airways suddenly opened several weekly flights to Moroni, Comoros' capital. "All the inhabitants of Mitsamiouli [the town closest to the resort] worked there in one way or another, as guides, cooks, cleaners, and there were those who sold their fruit or gadgets on the beach. It was Miami right before our eyes, too good to be true," said Mohamed. Hollywood didn't miss a beat: The hotel was also the setting for the 1990 film Night of the Cyclone, starring Marisa Berenson and Kris Kristofferson.

However, behind the legend of the Galawa Beach Hotel lay another, less glamorous reality: The truth of the matter was that South Africa's racist apartheid regime was running out of steam, and was willing to use any trick in the book to bypass the international arms and oil embargo imposed upon it. Indeed, the reason why the Sun International hotel group set up the Galawa in the Comoros is that the two countries had concluded a discreet agreement.

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