Malagasy peoples

The Malagasy are the Austronesian-speaking people and nation indigenous to Madagascar. They formed over many centuries from the meeting of seafarers from island South-East Asia, who settled mainly in the interior, and Bantu-speaking migrants from south-eastern Africa, who came later and settled mostly along the coasts. Today they make up almost the whole population of Madagascar, which counted more than 25.6 million inhabitants in its 2018 census.

Madagascar was probably uninhabited until Austronesian settlers arrived, and the timing and nature of that first settlement are still debated. The Malagasy language offers the clearest link with Asia: its basic vocabulary shares many words with Ma'anyan, spoken along the Barito River in southern Borneo, and genetic studies point to the Banjar and other Dayak peoples of south-east Borneo as the closest Asian relatives. One genetic study suggested the island was settled roughly 1,200 years ago by a tiny founding group, including around 30 women, most of them of South-East Asian descent.

An island-wide survey carried out between 2008 and 2018, in which around 3,000 people from 300 villages took part, found that all Malagasy have mixed African and Asian ancestry, though in different proportions. Coastal groups such as the Temoro, Vezo and Mikea have roughly 70 per cent African ancestry, while highland groups have less, around 45 per cent.

Malagasy oral tradition remembers the Vazimba as the island's first inhabitants, who held the central highlands before later dynasties. Highland tradition credits Merina rulers, beginning with Andriamanelo in the 16th century, with conquering the Vazimba kingdoms and founding Imerina, the heart of the later Merina Kingdom; archaeology places the start of this expansion in the 14th century. Early European visitors noticed the diversity of the islanders: by the early 1600s the Portuguese distinguished the Malagasy from mainland Africans, and in the 19th century English missionaries introduced the terms "highlanders" and "coastal peoples".

Malagasy are traditionally divided into named groups, often counted as eighteen, though the number is debated. The highland peoples include the Merina, Betsileo, Sihanaka and Bezanozano; among the many coastal peoples are the Betsimisaraka, the largest at about 1.5 million, the Tsimihety and Sakalava, at about 700,000 each, and the Antandroy, Antaimoro, Bara, Mahafaly and Vezo. The groups were set apart by farming, herding or fishing practices, house styles, music, dress and local taboos called fady. Many of these differences have faded, yet many Malagasy still take pride in belonging to one or more groups.

During the 19th and 20th centuries French colonial rule worked through existing Merina institutions, deepening inequalities between the highlands and the coasts. Madagascar became independent in 1960, and regional and ethnic identity has since often shaped electoral politics. In the 1970s many coastal people opposed a policy of "Malagasization" that favoured the Malagasy language, whose standard spelling is based on the Merina dialect, over French.

Almost everyone in Madagascar speaks Malagasy, which shares official status with French. Most Malagasy are Christian, divided roughly equally between Catholics and Protestants, and many combine Christianity with reverence for the ancestors. Among the Merina and Betsileo this is expressed in famadihana, the "turning of the dead", in which family remains are taken from the tomb, wrapped in new silk shrouds and returned after days of celebration. Significant Malagasy communities live in France, including Réunion and Mayotte, in the Comoros, in South Africa and in the United States, where some descend from people brought as slaves in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Our 800 and 900 maps label the island "Malagasy", covering all of Madagascar; the outline marks the island as a whole rather than real political borders. Earlier maps label it Vazimba, and from 1000 our maps show the Merina Kingdom.