Madagascar has been inhabited by human beings for the relatively short period of about 1,300 years. Language and culture point unequivocally to Indonesian origins, but there is no empirical evidence of how, why, or by what route the first settlers came to the island. The major foreign communities are French, Comorian, Indian and Pakistani, and Chinese, although emigration in the late 20th century significantly reduced their populations. There has been no significant emigration of Malagasy peoples abroad.
Archaeological investigations in the 20th century indicated that human settlers reached Madagascar about 700 CE. Although the huge island lies geographically close to Bantu-speaking Africa, its language, Malagasy, belongs to the distant Western Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family.
Much of Madagascar was populated by internal migration before the beginning of the 16th century, giving the theretofore empty lands their tompontany (original inhabitants, or “masters of the soil”).
The Malagasy Republic became independent in 1960, after a brief period as an autonomous republic in the French Community from 1958. Between 1972 and 1975 Madagascar was under military rule. Socialist political and economic reorganization was instituted in 1975, and a new constitution was implemented later that year for the renamed Democratic Republic of Madagascar.
Source: https://
www.britannica.com/place/Madagascar/
Madagascar, island country lying off the southeastern coast of Africa. It is the fourth largest island in the world, after Greenland, New Guinea, and Borneo. Madagascar is located in the southwestern Indian Ocean and is separated from the African coast by the 250-mile- (400-km-) wide Mozambique Channel.
Madagascar consists of three parallel longitudinal zones—the central plateau, the coastal strip in the east, and the zone of low plateaus and plains in the west.
The hot, wet season extends from November to April and the cooler, drier season from May to October. The climate is governed by the combined effects of the moisture-bearing southeast trade and northwest monsoon winds as they blow across the central plateau. The trade winds, which blow throughout the year, are strongest from May to October. The monsoon, bringing rain to the northwest coast of Madagascar and the plateau, is most noticeable during the hot, humid season. The wind blows obliquely onto the west coast, which receives a moderate amount of precipitation annually; the southwest, which is protected, remains arid.
Source: https://
www.britannica.com/place/Madagascar/
Capital: Antananarivo (Tana)
Official languages: Malagasy, French
Government: Unitary semi-presidential constitutional republic
Total area: 587,041 km2
Population: 2016 estimate - 24,894,551
GDP: 2017 estimate - $40,055 billion (total)
Currency: Malagasy ariary (MGA)
Yes: èny/èka
No: tsìa
Hello: Salàma
Hello/How are you?: Manào ahòana ianào
Mister/Madam: Tòmpoko
Excuse me/Please: Azafàdy
Thanks (a lot): Misàotra (indrìndra)
Good/bad: tsàra/ràtsy
I am fine: Salàma tsàra àho
Welcome: Tònga sòa
Goodbye: Velòma
I don't understand: Tsy àzoko
Do you speak English: Mahày mitèny anglisy vè ianào ?
