UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

Madagascar
Madagascar, perhaps from the southern regions of India. The Neo-Indonesians
may have also followed this route. We know that it is quite
practicable, for in 1930 some fishermen from the Laocadive Islands arrived
alive and well at East Cape, having come directly to Madagascar from their
own archipelago. The Neo-Indonesians learned the Malagasy dialect of the
eastern inhabitants and were in contact with the Muslims, who at that time
owned entrepôts on the eastern coast.
The pioneer Neo-Indonesians do seem to have made landings on the east
coast but the region where the first Indonesians actually settled is still
under discussion. Dahl has discovered that the names of the points of the
compass in Malagasy and in the Indonesian languages are very closely
related, but only coincide if the Malagasy compass is turned 90
degrees. Thus in Maanjan barat means west and timor east, whereas
the corresponding Malagasy words, avaratra and atsimo, mean north and
south respectively. This déplacement can easily be explained if we consider
that for sea-going peoples the points of the compass are defined in terms of
the winds: the north wind that brings the thunderstorms to the north-west
coasts of Madagascar corresponds to the wet west wind of Indonesia, while
the dry south wind has been identified with the dry east trade winds in
Indonesia. Dahl's explanation is only valid for the north-west coast of
Madagascar where he considers the immigrants would first have landed.
But according to Hébert this pleasing hypothesis does not stand up to
critical examination. If one pays more attention to the general
characteristics of the winds (such as rainy and dry seasons) than to their
actual direction, one understands that the Proto-Malagasy, who gave the
name of'barat laut' to the rain-bearing west wind in Indonesia, should have
given the name 'avaratra' to the north where the rains come from, adopting
a common measure between east and west in Madagascar, where in fact
the rains and thunderstorms of the hot season blow from a north-easterly
direction on the east coast and from a north-westerly direction on the west
coast. There is nothing that allows us to presume that the Malagasy
settled first of all on the north-west coast. 36
The African and Swahili immigration
This discussion of the various hypotheses as to the Indonesian origins
of the Malagasy should not allow us to forget that an important - and
possibly major - contribution to the settlement of Madagascar was from
Africa. Deschamps has put forward two hypotheses to explain this
Afro-Asian symbiosis, firstlythat there was ethnic and cultural mixing on
the east coast of Africa itself, and secondly that the Indonesians may
have raided the neighbouring coast from Madagascar. Kent also sees the
symbiosis in terms of strong Indonesian influence in Africa and a subsequent
36. J. C. Hébert, 1968a, pp. 809-20; 1968b, pp. 159-205; 1971, pp. 583-613.
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