Demographics of Madagascar - Ethnicity

Ethnicity

Recent research suggests that the island was uninhabited until Austronesian seafarers arrived around the first century A.D., probably by way of southern India and East Africa. Other historians believe that the Malays crossed the Indian Ocean and only reached the African mainland after establishing durable communities on Madagascar. Subsequent migrations from both the Malay Archipelago and Africa further consolidated this original mixture, and 18 separate tribal groups emerged. Austronesian features are most predominant in the central highlands people, the Merina (3 million) and the Betsileo (2 million); the remaining 16 tribal groupings are coastal peoples who are predominantly of East African origin, with various Malay, Arab, European and Indian admixtures. The largest coastal groups are the Betsimisaraka (1.5 million) and the Tsimihety and Sakalava (700,000 each). Malagasy society has long been polarized between the politically and economically advantaged highlanders of the central plateaux and the people along the coast. For example in the 1970s there was widespread opposition among coastal ethnics against the policy of Malgachisation which intended to phase out the use of the French language in public life in favour of a more prominent position for the Malagasy language, whose orthography is based on the Merina dialect. Identity politics were also at the core of the brief civil unrest during 2002.

The Malagasy language is of Malayo-Polynesian origin and is spoken throughout the island. French also is spoken among the educated population of this former French colony, primarily as a prestigious second language.

Indians in Madagascar descend mostly from traders who arrived in the newly-independent nation looking for better opportunities. The majority of them came from the west coast of India known as Karana (Muslim) and Banian (Hindu). The majority speak Hindi or Gujarati, although some other Indian dialects are also spoken. Nowadays the younger generations speak at least three languages, including French, Gujarati and Malagasy. A large number of the Indians in Madagascar have a high level of education, particularly the younger generation.

A sizeable number of Europeans also reside in Madagascar, mostly of French descent.