This area consists of the large island of Madagascar(1)--587 thousand of the 595 thousand square kilometers included; islands in the Mozambique Channel(2), the Mascarene Islands(3), the Seychelles islands, Tromelin Island(4), the Agalega Island and the Cargados Carajos Shoals(5). Most of the smaller islands are volcanic--the tallest peak in the area is on Réunion, although the Seychelles are a mix of granite and coral isles.
Madagascar has a high center, falling steeply on the east, and more gradually westward, which includes a series of massifs: Andriggitra, Ankaratra and Tsaratanana are the tallest. The longer rivers flow westward. From north to south these are the Sofia, Mahajamba, Betsibaka(6), Mahavavy, Tsiribihina, Mangoky(7) and the Onilahy.
More than 22 million people lived here in 2007, almost 19 million of them in Madagascar. More than 17 in 20 speak Malagasy(8) as a first language. No other language accounts for as many as one in 20 native speakers, although French is learned is learned by many.
There is no majority religion. The local religion that focuses on razana--ancestral spirits--accounts for more than nine in 20 and of a majority on the island of Madagascar. The ancestral spirits are connected with a place, the tanindrazana, distant from the living place, where permanent tombs are located. Taboos, called fady, are mostly dietary, but vary with each locale.
Christians--more or less equally divided between Roman Catholics and Protestants--are the next most numerous: about four in ten.
Moslems are just under one in ten, but are very concentrated in the Comoros and Mayotte.
No other religious group amounts to one in 20. There is some syncretism.
There is only one city with a million people: Antananarivo(9), the capital of Madagascar. It is located near a headwater of the Ikopa River in the central highlands. A million and a half live in the city proper and another 200 thousand nearby. The Mohamsina sports stadium and the adjacent city center are the most frequently shown sites.
The Malagasy-speakers arrived from southeastern Borneo(10) long ago(11). Swahili traders arrived in Madagascar and in some of the smaller islands by the ninth century, bringing Islam. Islam gained force when Arabs conquered the Comoros and Mayotte about 500 years ago. Europeans impact on the big island was slower than on the smaller ones--some of which were uninhabited when they started visiting 500 or so years ago. They introduced Christianity to central Madagascar in the 19th century. British colonization of Mauritius encouraged migration from the Indian subcontinent while they shared rulers.
Fire desertification caused by the early Malagasy
Africa
France and its possessions
Françaises Southern and antarctiques Lands
(1) Madigasikara in Malagasy.
(2) These are divided between Madagascar, the Comoros (Comores, in French), and France (Mayotte, Bassas da India, Europe Island, the Glorioso or Glorieuses Islands and Juan de Nova Island. The French islands are administered by a high commissioner, resident in Reunion. A reef, the Banc du Geyser, is claimed by France but controlled by Madagascar.
(3) These are divided between Mauritius and Réunion.
(4) Administered by a French high commissioner, resident in Réunion.
(5) The Agalega Islands and the Cargados Carajos Shoals are administered by Mauritius.
(6) The Mahajamba and Betsibaka are connected in their middle courses.
(7) More than one river has this name. I am referring to one that reaches the sea.
(8) There are several dialects, the plateau (merina) one being the basis of standard Malagasy. Some consider the non-plateau ones as separate languages.
(9) Formerly Tananarivo. It means city of the thousand.
(10) Kalimantan in Malay/ Indonesian.
(11) Otto Christian Dahl is cited by Andrew Dalby, Dictionary of Languages (Columbia University Press, 1988) as giving a fourth century C.E. date.