Madagascar

Podcast Transcript

Located off the Southeastern coast of Africa is the island nation of Madagascar. It is a massive island nation known for its beautiful and diverse wildlife.

Madagascar is a unique country in almost every respect. Geographically isolated from the rest of Africa, it has a history, people, and language which is unlike those of every other nation on the continent.

Despite its uniqueness, however, it faces numerous challenges today, including high poverty rates, inadequate infrastructure, and corruption.

Learn more about Madagascar, its fascinating history, and what makes the country unique on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Any discussion of Madagascar must begin with the country’s geography, as everything that makes the country interesting flows from its geography.

Madagascar is located off the coast of Southeast Africa in the Indian Ocean.

It has an area of 587,040 km² or 226,658 square miles, making it roughly the size of France.

It has a population of approximately 32.7 million people, ranking it as the 49th most populous country in the world, placing it between the Ivory Coast and Saudi Arabia.

Most of the country’s area is comprised of the main island, which is the fourth-largest island in the world and the second-largest island country in the world after Australia.

Madagascar can be split into five different regions, each with its own unique geography. These regions include the East Coast, the Tsaratanana Massif, the Central Highlands, the West Coast, and the Southwest.

The East Coast is made up of lowlands, which are areas at or near sea level, with steep bluffs and ravines leading into the Highlands.

Much of the Eastern coastline is considered hazardous due to its steep drop-offs and deep waters, which are home to a variety of wildlife, including sharks.

The next region, the Tsaratanana Massif, is at the northernmost portion of the island. It holds the highest mountain on the island, Maromokotro.

The Central Highlands contain the capital city, Antananarivo.

This region is mountainous and accounts for a substantial portion of the country’s agricultural output and population.

This region is renowned for its rift valley, which features Lake Alaotra, the largest lake on the island.

The West Coast holds deep bays and important harbors for the country.

Any non-coastal portion of the West Coast is largely swampland and has not been extensively developed.

The final region is the southwest, which is a Plateau and a desert.

While the country is often viewed as tropical, its climate varies. The coastline is tropical, but the center of the island is more temperate, and the south is dry.

Madagascar was once part of the supercontinent Gondwana, which comprised the continents of South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Indian Subcontinent.

After this continent split, Madagascar remained connected to both Africa and India, eventually separating from Africa 80 million years ago and from India 90 million years ago.

This left Madagascar isolated from the rest of the world. The result of this is that almost 90% of the island’s animal species, including lemurs, are endemic to the island.

Over 80% of the plants in Madagascar are unique to the island.

The amount of distinctive wildlife has made Madagascar one of the 17 most biologically diverse countries in the world.

Perhaps the most incredible fact about Madagascar is that its Initial human settlement actually arrived about 2000 years ago from what is today Indonesia, not Africa.

Given Madagascar’s proximity to Africa, this is surprising to many people. Still, it is perhaps the greatest testament to the fact that, for the most part, Africa didn’t develop seafaring cultures.

Madagascar is located approximately 270 miles or 435 kilometers from the African coast. Yet, it was people who came from over 4,000 miles away who ultimately settled the island.

Early settlers cleared the coastal rainforests for slash-and-burn agriculture.

Later, Arab traders arrived on the island between the 7th and 9th centuries, and finally, Southeastern Africans began to arrive on the island around the year 1000.

Arab traders made the first written record of Madagascar’s history. Some of whom would stay on the island, but rarely traveled to the interior.

The island was used as a slave trade hub, where the Arabs would buy slaves from the island and sell them to buyers in the Indian Ocean.

Though the Arabs were never able to convert the native population of Madagascar to Islam, many muslim practices have remained in the country, including circumcision and abstaining from eating pork.

European contact began with the Portuguese in 1500.

The Portuguese arrived with a bang, literally.

They attempted to destroy the Arab settlements and Christianize the natives. However, this effort failed when the native population massacred the missionaries.

Later, in 1548, they again attempted to settle in Madagascar and were again slaughtered by the native population.

The Portuguese didn’t make inroads until 1613, when the son of King Andriandramaka established relations with the Europeans after being taken hostage.

The King agreed to send his son to receive a Western Education and allowed the Portuguese to build a church, thereby initiating the process of Evangelization.

When the king’s son returned, he had hoped to create an alliance with the Portuguese and the native Malagasy and spread Christianity.

This process failed as many of the native people were not welcomed in Portuguese settlements.

This failure led to the death of some of the missionaries and resulted in the Portuguese pulling away from the island in 1615, viewing it as a death trap.

After the Portuguese left, the British and Dutch attempted to settle the island.

The Dutch first arrived on the East Coast and immediately began dying from malaria, hunger, and the local population.

Slightly later, the English arrived and were quickly massacred by the natives.

After these few settlement attempts, the effort was abandoned.

In fact, the Malagasy aversion to Europeans continued, with even European pirate vessels being massacred by locals if they landed on the island.

The next colonization attempt was led by the French.

They wanted to establish an outpost on the island to counter British influence in the Indian Ocean.

This colony was more successful, though the colonizers were still facing issues like disease.

The French were cruel to the native population and were basically in a constant state of war.

The locals would refuse to trade with the French, effectively blockading the colony.

Despite the best efforts of the French, history would come to repeat itself.

About thirty years after starting the French colony, the Malagasy massacred the colonizers, with a few lucky escapees, abandoning the settlement.

Through the 18th century, the island was ruled by various native Malagasy kingdoms.

One of the Kings in the East Coast region, Ratsimilaho, allowed the French East India Company to hold the island of Sainte-Marie, located just off the coast of Madagascar.

The company arrived on the island around 1750 and was mostly wiped out by disease in a few months. The Native people once again massacred the survivors.

The French retaliated by destroying villages and killing natives in a brutal campaign.

This colony was later abandoned in 1761.

One European who did not get himself killed was the Polish-Hungarian Noble, Maurice Benyovszky.

He proposed a new French enterprise in Madagascar, wanting to reassert influence over the island.

Arriving in 1774, he was very popular in Madagascar, aligning himself with native chiefs and creating infrastructure such as roads and canals.

He was eventually proclaimed the Sovereign Chief of Madagascar by the Malagasy.

His good relations with the people ultimately backfired.

When he returned to France to present the people’s submission to the King, he was not trusted by the French and was therefore unable to forge any alliances.

Benyovszky returned to Madagascar and was immediately welcomed.

Benyowski then proclaimed himself to be the King of Madagascar and consolidated power across the island.

The French were threatened by this and sent in a military team….and they killed him in 1787.

Afterward, the island fell under the control of the Merina Kingdom.

An initially smaller kingdom from the highlands, they would be the group to unify the country at the beginning of the 19th century. This eventually became the Kingdom of Madagascar.

This can mainly be attributed to the efforts of King Radama I, who struck a deal with the British to abolish the lucrative slave trade, which was being conducted by the French, in exchange for British aid.

The unified Kingdom of Madagascar lasted for roughly a century and was characterized by the development of schools, the transcription of the Malagasy language, and the adoption of new technologies. Yet, it also had some strong isolationist tendencies.

The most notable leader of this time was Queen Ranavalona I, who ruled for 33 years from 1828 to 1861.

At the start of her rule, Europeans had been trading with the island and making political and religious inroads.

Her reign was highlighted by extreme isolationism. Determined to keep European influence at bay, she expelled nearly all missionaries, banned Christian worship and education, and had those who refused to renounce the faith tortured or executed.

Her ruthless internal purges led to the population of Madagascar dropping by half in just the first 6 years of her reign.

She was given the name the Mad Queen of Madagascar.

In 1883, the French, angered by their diminished control over the region, invaded in the first Franco-Hova War, which resulted in part of the island’s northern coast being ceded to France.

Later, when the Continent of Africa was being divided by European Powers at the Berlin Conference in 1884, control of Madagascar was given to France.

The country was officially named a French colony, but, as you can guess, that didn’t sit well with the native population.

To force the people into submission, parts of the island were militarily occupied.

Due to the tyranny faced under the Merina Kingdom, many common people collaborated with French forces, and the monarchy surrendered in 1895.

The French were instructed to use restraint towards any population that was not Merina, and for the most part, they adhered to this guidance.

Under colonial rule, slavery was permanantly abolished, and plantations were formed.

Many former slaves became sharecroppers and were still harshly discriminated against.

Under colonization, mining and forestry companies were established. Taxes were typically paid in labor, creating a cheap workforce for French colonists.

Independence movements began to grow in the 20th century.

French occupation by the Nazis in World War II caused the colonial forces to become even more unpopular, and independence movements began to gather more traction.

A Malagasy Uprising began in 1947, and in response, the French reformed their colonial institutions in 1956.

By 1958, the “Malagasy Republic” was considered an autonomous French state and became fully independent on June 26, 1960.

Since gaining independence, Madagascar has experienced significant political instability. It has seen the creation of four different republican governments.

The First Republic had a French-appointed president named Philibert Tsiranana. He maintained many of the colonial ties to France and kept many institutions French in language and culture.

He lost power in 1972.

Following his rule, a series of short spurts of leadership occurred.

Eventually, the Second Republic was formed in 1975 and lasted until 1993.

This Republic had a Marxist-Leninist orientation and was led by Didier Ratsiraka.

The second Republic was closely tied to the Eastern Bloc and destroyed the country’s economy.

In 1991, Ratsiraka was ousted in the Presidential election, and a transitional government was formed.

The Third Republic roughly lasted from 1992 to 2010.

The country had a new constitution that created a democracy and emphasized human rights and freedoms.

This period was plagued by continued economic stagnation and corruption.

A coup d’état occurred in 2009, and a new Constitution was created in 2010, establishing the Fourth Republic.

The Fourth Republic hasn’t done much to improve the lives of most people in the country, as a massive famine occurred in 2021 and 2022.

As of today, the nation’s gross domestic product is approximately US$17 billion, with 69% of the population living below the poverty line of 1 dollar per day.

Madagascar is a paradox. It is technically considered part of Africa, even though it is geographically, ecologically, ethnically, and linguistically different from every other country on the continent.

Those differences are what make Madagascar special and unlike any other country on Earth.

The Executive Producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The Associate Producers are Austin Oetken and Cameron Kieffer.

Research and writing for this episode were provided by Olivia Ashe.

Today’s review comes from listener Ameripithicus cogitans over on Apple Podcasts in the United States. They write:

A must listen for the curious mind.

The variety of subjects and the “bite-sized” format is what sold me when I discovered this podcast. Gary is an engaging host who does a great job of distilling his research into a little packet of goodies for the brain.

I have just become a new member of the Pacific Northwest Completionist Club, Western Washington Chapter. So now I guess I start over, or maybe go backwards?

Hmm… Thanks, Gary, for being a regular companion over the last year!

Thanks, Ameripithicus! Congratulations on achieving completionist club membership. It is quite an accomplishment. However, your path to platinum elite status may be even more rewarding. Many are called, but few are chosen.

Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostagram, you, too, can have it read on the show.