Madagascar is a fascinating place for many reasons. We have already examined some of the history of the island and established that the people are largely of South East Asian heritage and do not consider themselves to be Africans. There was also mention of the distinctive tribes that make up the island’s population. The number of actual distinct tribes seems to vary between 18-20 depending on the source. Many of the larger tribes have subgroups, which is one possible…
The Malagasy, which is what the people of Madagascar are called, do not consider themselves to be Africans. Although the large island lies off the southeast coast of the African continent, it’s people are to a large extent, descendants of settlers from the region of southeast Asia. One theory-there are several- is that the first settlers arrived from Borneo, with subsequent migrations from the Indian subcontinent and a few Bantu migrants who crossed over the Mozambique Channel. There are traces…
I am already very excited about our next island destination. I already thought of Madagascar as a unique and exotic place, but I did not know that as much as 90% of the flora and fauna on Madagascar is unique to the island. I was familiar with the bizarre baobab tree, but was intrigued to find out that in some nearly inaccessible parts of the island, where razor sharp cliff formations nearly enclose them, there are areas with landscapes and…