Malagasy peoples

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This article is about the ethnic groups of Madagascar. For their language, see Malagasy language. For the residents or citizens of Madagascar, see Demographics of Madagascar.
Malagasy

Top: A Malagasy street vendor; Bottom: A traditional Malagasy Valiha orchestra
Total population
c. 26.8 million
Regions with significant populations
Madagascar, Comoros, Mayotte, Réunion, Mauritius, France, United Kingdom, United States, South Africa, Australia, Canada, New Zealand
Languages
Malagasy (L1)
French (L2)
Religion
Christianity, Traditional Faiths, Islam
Related ethnic groups
Distribution of Malagasy ethnic groups.

The Malagasy (

Vezo, Betsimisaraka, Mahafaly
, etc.

The Merina are further divided into two subgroups. The “Merina A” are the Hova and Andriana, and have an average of 30–40% Bantu ancestry. The second subgroup is the “Merina B”, the Andevo, who have an average of 40–50% Bantu ancestry. The latter make up less than 1/3 of Merina society.[1] The Malagasy population was 2,242,000 in the first census in 1900. Their population had a massive growth in the next hundred years, especially under French Madagascar.

Genetics and origins of the populations

Sakalava
children

An expansive island-wide survey of the genetic diversity was performed from 2008 to 2018. This project was called "MAGE" (for Madagascar, Anthropology Genetics Ethno-linguistic[2]). Around 3000 inhabitants of Madagascar participated in this study and provided their saliva for a genetic study. Three hundred villages across Madagascar were sampled in terms of genetic, linguistic and cultural diversity. This research was led and performed by Malagasy and European researchers and academics. This study demonstrated that all Malagasy people have mixed African and Asian ancestry.[3]

But the proportion of ancestral genes differs. Coastal Malagasy populations, including the

mtDNA lineages, passed down from mother to child, are the opposite (42.4% African origin vs. 50.1% East Asian origin).[6][7]

Due to the proximity to Africa, the connection with Asian populations aroused the most curiosity. Around 1996, a study was launched in an attempt to identify the presence of the

Merina
, 22% in Vezo, and 13% in Mikea.

Based on this result, a study suggested that Madagascar was settled approximately 2,200 years ago by a very small group, which consisted of approximately 30 women; 28 (93%) of them had maritime Southeast Asian descent and 2 (7%) of them were of African descent. The Malagasy population developed through the intermixing of the first small founding population with African males. The closest Asian parental population of the Malagasy are found in what is now Indonesia, among the

Ma'anyan, a language from the region of the Barito River in southern Borneo
.

Historical subdivisions

The difference in origins remains somewhat evident between the highland and coastal regions [

Moheli was also ruled by a Muslim Merina dynasty founded by Abderremane, Sultan of Mohéli, who was a brother-in-law of King Radama I
. The military resistance and eventual defeat of most of the coastal communities assured their subordinate position vis-à-vis the Merina-Betsileo alliance. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the French colonial administration capitalized on and further exacerbated these political inequities by appropriating existing Merina governmental infrastructure to run their colony. This legacy of political inequity dogged the people of Madagascar after gaining independence in 1960; candidates' ethnic and regional identities have often served to help or hinder their success in democratic elections.

Within these two broad ethnic and political groupings, the Malagasy were historically subdivided into specifically named ethnic groups, who were primarily distinguished from one another on the basis of cultural practices. These were namely agricultural, hunting, or fishing practices; construction style of dwellings; music; hair and clothing styles; and local customs or taboos, the latter was known in the Malagasy language as fady.[citation needed] The number of such ethnic groups in Madagascar has been debated. The practices that distinguished many of these groups are less prevalent in the 21st century than they were in the past. But, many Malagasy are proud to proclaim their association with one or several of these groups as part of their own cultural identity.

Malagasy diaspora

Countries with a significant Malagasy diaspora include

Moheli), South Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and the United States
.

The Malagasy diaspora in the United States includes those descended from people who, slave or free, came during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Keenan Ivory Wayans.[18]

The first recorded African slave in Canada, Olivier Le Jeune, was taken from Madagascar to New France in 1628.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Genomic investigation of the ancestry proportion of six Malagasy ethnic groups". Researchgate.
  2. ^ "Madagascar, illustration inédite de la mondialisation génétique | INEE". inee.cnrs.fr (in French). Retrieved 2021-02-25.
  3. ^
    PMID 28716916
    .
  4. PMID 24395773
    .
  5. S2CID 22042499
    .
  6. PMID 28716916
    .
  7. PMID 33481023
    .
  8. PMID 22438500
    .
  9. PMID 27188237
    .
  10. PMID 27381999
    .
  11. ^ Malagasy expatriates in France
  12. ^ Wendy Wilson-Fall on Malagasy Americans, Afropop.org, Accessed January 18, 2020
  13. ^ John, Egerton (September 1, 1991). Shades of Gray: Dispatches from the Modern South. p. 134.
  14. ^ NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project, April 29, 2004. Accessed May 15, 2020.
  15. ^ An American Family: The Mahammett Family of Maryland, Muslimsinamerica.org, Accessed January 18, 2020
  16. ^ “Finding Your Roots”: Maya Rudolph, Shonda Rhimes and Keenan Ivory Wayans, Familytreemagazine.com, Accessed May 15, 2020
  17. ^ Henry Louis Gates Jr., Finding Your Roots, Season 2: The Official Companion to the PBS Series, University of North Carolina Press, 2016, pg. 163
  18. ^ “Finding Your Roots”: Maya Rudolph, Shonda Rhimes and Keenan Ivory Wayans, Familytreemagazine.com, Accessed February 10, 2020

Further reading

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