MadagascarMadagasikara

Madagascar broke from Africa about 160 million years ago and from India about 88 million years ago. Since then its plants and animals have evolved alone, which is why around 90 per cent of its mammals, reptiles and plants exist nowhere else. There are no native monkeys, cats larger than the fossa, or large grazing herds; instead there are lemurs, tenrecs, chameleons and baobabs in six endemic species.

Lemurs probably arrived by rafting on vegetation from Africa and radiated into more than 100 species, from the 30-gram mouse lemur to the indri, whose song carries for kilometres through the Andasibe forest. Several giant lemurs, elephant birds and pygmy hippos vanished within the last two thousand years, after humans arrived.

The island's shape explains its climates. A spine of highlands catches the trade winds, so the east is wet rainforest, the west is dry deciduous forest and grassland, and the south is a semi-desert of spiny forest. Limestone plateaus in the west and north have eroded into the tsingy, forests of stone blades.

Most of the original forest has gone, cleared for rice and cattle through slash-and-burn farming (tavy) and charcoal making. Protected areas now cover a significant share of the land, and park fees and compulsory local guides are one of the ways tourism pays communities to keep the forest standing.

The first settlers sailed from the islands of south-east Asia, probably from the Barito region of southern Borneo, in the second half of the first millennium AD. Bantu-speaking people from East Africa followed, and Arab and Swahili traders set up ports on the north-west coast. The Malagasy language is Austronesian, with Bantu and Arabic loanwords.

Many kingdoms rose and fell: the Sakalava in the west, the Betsimisaraka confederation in the east, and the Merina in the highlands. From the late 18th century the Merina king Andrianampoinimerina unified the highlands from the twelve sacred hills around Antananarivo; his son Radama I expanded the kingdom across much of the island with British help.

Radama opened the court to London Missionary Society teachers, who wrote Malagasy in the Latin alphabet. Queen Ranavalona I then turned against foreign influence and persecuted Christians; later Merina rulers converted, and a Protestant-Merina elite ran a modernising state from the Rova palace until the French arrived.

France invaded in 1895 and annexed the island in 1896, exiling the last queen, Ranavalona III. Colonial rule built the railway from Tana to the coast, imposed forced labour and head taxes, and promoted coastal peoples against the Merina elite.

In March 1947 a nationalist uprising began in the east. French forces put it down over more than a year; tens of thousands died from fighting, famine and disease. The date, 29 March, is still a national day of remembrance.

Independence came on 26 June 1960. Since then Madagascar has swung between socialist rule under Didier Ratsiraka, liberalisation, and repeated crises in which street protests in Tana forced leaders out: in 1972, 1991, 2002 and 2009, when Andry Rajoelina took power with army backing.

In September 2025 young protesters took to the streets over water and power cuts. In October a military unit sided with them, Rajoelina left the country, and Colonel Michael Randrianirina was sworn in to lead a transition. How long it lasts and when elections are held are open questions — check current news before travel.

Most Malagasy are Christian, yet the razana, the ancestors, remain the centre of spiritual life. The dead are thought to watch over the living, and family tombs are often grander than houses. Many people describe themselves as both churchgoers and keepers of ancestral custom without contradiction.

In the highlands, famadihana, the turning of the bones, brings families together every few years to take ancestors from the tomb, rewrap them in fresh silk shrouds, and dance with them before resealing the tomb. It happens in the dry winter months and is a joyful occasion rather than a solemn one.

Fady are taboos handed down by ancestors, and they vary from village to village: eating pork, pointing at a tomb, swimming in a certain lake, or killing a particular animal. Some fady protect lemurs and forests. Guides will tell you the local ones; respecting them is part of being a guest.

The ombiasy (healer-diviner) and the Malagasy calendar of lucky days still guide weddings, building and journeys. On the west and south coasts, carved funerary posts (aloalo) and zebu horns mark the tombs of Mahafaly and Antanosy families.

Eighteen officially recognised groups share one language. The Merina of the highlands have a strong Asian heritage and long dominated the civil service; the Betsileo farm the terraced valleys around Fianarantsoa; coastal peoples such as the Betsimisaraka, Sakalava and Antandroy carry more African influences.

The split between the highlands (merina) and the coast (côtiers) has shaped politics since independence. Karana (families of Indian origin) and Chinese-Malagasy communities run much of the trade in towns, and a French community remains in Tana and Nosy Be.

Most people farm. Rural poverty is severe, and the far south faces recurring drought and hunger. The young, urban population is growing fast and increasingly connected, which is part of what drove the protests of 2025.

Madagascar eats more rice per person than almost any country, and the word for a meal, 'mihinam-bary', literally means to eat rice. Highland terraces and lowland paddies follow the rains, and a family's standing is measured in rice fields and zebu.

The humped zebu is wealth, ritual and food. Herds are sacrificed at funerals and circumcision ceremonies, their horns decorate tombs, and cattle raids by dahalo bandits are a serious security problem in the south and west.

The north-east around Sambava and Antalaha grows most of the world's vanilla, pollinated by hand because the orchid's natural pollinator does not live here. Price swings in vanilla create boom-and-bust cycles, with bursts of wealth and theft in the growing region.

Cloves, lychees, coffee and cacao round out the export list, and the highland vineyards near Fianarantsoa, started by missionaries, still make wine.