All activities / Craft Skills (Bladesmithing, Pottery, Glass) / Ibo Island
Craft Skills (Bladesmithing, Pottery, Glass) in Ibo Island
A tiny, time-worn island in the Quirimbas Archipelago of northern Mozambique, layered with Swahili, Arab and Portuguese history. Crumbling coral-stone mansions, a star-shaped fort, and a living tradition of hand-worked silver filigree.
Why here
Ibo Island keeps a silver-working tradition found nowhere else in Africa. Inside the star-shaped Fort of Sao Joao Batista, a cohort of silversmiths hand-works fine filigree jewellery using techniques and simple tools passed down from the island's centuries as a Swahili and Arab trading port. Visitors can sit with the smiths, watch thread-fine silver twisted and soldered into earrings and pendants, and buy pieces directly from the makers. The craft was revived and expanded into a community project that now supports dozens of artisans. It sits inside a wider Ibo experience of decaying colonial architecture, mangrove channels and dhow crossings through the Quirimbas.
Best months
The workshop at the fort runs year-round, with the dry season from May to November the easiest time to reach the island. The silversmiths work daily and welcome visitors to watch and commission pieces. This is a craft-watching and buying experience rather than a formal multi-day course, though the smiths explain and demonstrate the filigree technique. Pieces are sold on the spot and take from an hour to a day to make.
Getting there & around
Ibo is reached via Pemba, capital of Cabo Delgado, then a light flight or a road-and-boat transfer through the Quirimbas to the island, usually arranged by the island lodge. There is no walk-up tourism infrastructure, so most visits are booked as part of a lodge stay. The silversmith workshop sits inside the fort and is included in island activities. Note that Cabo Delgado has seen security instability, so check current travel advice before planning.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (1)
Ibo Island Lodge
OutfitterA restored coral-stone lodge set in three century-old mansions on Ibo Island, owned by Fiona and Kevin Record, who revived and grew the island's silversmith project. The lodge hosts a silversmith workshop where visitors watch traditional filigree jewellery hand-made at the star-shaped Fort of Sao Joao Batista, and it channels craft sales back to a community of artisans that has grown to around forty smiths. It arranges island stays, dhow trips and the transfers in from Pemba.