Madagascar

An island settled from Borneo, four thousand miles away, and a kingdom that Europeans dealt with as a state before destroying it. Malagasy is an Austronesian language closest to one spoken in southern Kalimantan, and the first settlers arrived by sea from Southeast Asia somewhere between the fifth and tenth centuries, later joined by East Africans - one of the longest migrations in human history and still not fully explained. The island's isolation produced species found nowhere else, including lemurs and the elephant bird, and around ninety per cent of its wildlife is endemic. The Merina monarchy unified most of the island in the nineteenth century, built a literate administration with missionary help, and exchanged ambassadors with Britain and France. France invaded in 1883 and 1894, annexed the island in 1896, and Gallieni abolished the monarchy and exiled Queen Ranavalona III to Algiers. The rising of March 1947 and its suppression killed tens of thousands and possibly far more. Independence came on 26 June 1960. Deforestation has removed most of the original forest cover. Vanilla is the best-known export. Antananarivo is the capital. The country has about thirty-one million people and is the fourth largest island in the world. Malagasy and French are both official. The Avenue of the Baobabs and the limestone tsingy of Bemaraha are among its best-known landscapes. Famadihana, the turning of the bones, is a distinctive burial custom. Cyclones strike the east coast most years. Around eighty per cent of Malagasy plant species grow nowhere else, and the lemurs are among the most threatened primates on earth.

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