MZANZI ISSUE 16

Explore Africa
is the fourth largest island in the world and the second largest
island-country. From its northern tip at Andranovondronina to
its southern tip at Faux Cap, Madagascar is almost 1,600km
long as the crow flies, and at its widest is about 570km across,
giving it a land mass of 592,800 square kilometres. To give
you a better idea, its length is 100km short of the full length of
South Africa between Cape Town and Beit Bridge.
Rich cultural mix and
tradition
Situated about 400km off the African mainland coast across
from Mozambique in the Indian Ocean, Madagascar is where
Africa meets Asia, the Malay Archipelago and all of Oceana. This
confluence shows in its people and their cultures and traditions.
The first people to have arrived on this piece of paradise were
crazy people of Polynesian descent who paddled there all the
way from Borneo, itself the world’s third largest island. They
ventured 6,700km across the stormy southern Indian Ocean
in the most elementary of open outrigger canoes sometime
between 350 BC and AD 550. Anyone who’s ever been in that part
of the ocean even on a big ship will know what a mind-boggling
feat that was. Many of them must surely have perished during
that hazardous crossing.
Soon Africans crossed the Mozambique Channel and joined
them, with more people following from China, India, the Arab
Peninsula and Europe. In the 17th and early 18th centuries even
pirates came to make the island with its many small coves,
bays and islands their hideaway home. Today all of these
influences are evident with each making lasting contributions
to Malagasy cultural life. Some 18 sub-groups make up today’s
Malagasy people, the biggest of which are the Merina of the
central highlands around the capital Antananarivo.
Upon landing here at Antananarivo’s international airport the
first time, I immediately came to know and appreciate the warm
hospitality of the Malagasy people. Waiting to meet me with
a beaming smile as if he had known me all my life but whom
I had never before met, was my host Georges Ernould and his
entourage that filled three large SUVs. Not only would George,
his family and friends show me their beautiful country, but
they also introduced me to its wonderful cuisine, customs and
cultural delights and opened their homes to me.
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