People

Madagascar’s main colonising push came from Indonesia although the precise path of colonisation is unknown. Over time a significant portion of Africans also settled in Madagascar blending with the Indonesian people and culture to create a unique race. More recently Arabian, south-Indian and European influences have been added.

There are eighteen official tribes in Madagascar:
• In central areas and around Antananarivo are the Merina tribe (25%), the most Asian looking of Malagasy tribes and the country’s political and economic leaders;
• Further south, in the central highlands are the Betsileo (12%), experts in rice terracing and wood-carving, and share the Merin’s privileged position;
• The Bara (3.3%) live in the southern, dry uplands keeping herds of zebu and are the main farmers of the country. The Tsimihety (7.3%) live in the north central part of the island and are regarded as the individualists of Madagascar;
• On the east coast the Betsimisaraka (15%) fish or tend fields of coffee, sugarcane, cloves and vanilla, and trace their ancestry back to the son of a British pirate and a Malagasy princess;
• South of the Betsimisaraka along the Mananjary river are the Antambahoaka (0.4%) and the Antaimoro (3.4%), who are said to guard sacred theological texts and have Arab ancestry, both tribes are known for their medical skills and knowledge of the supernatural;
• At the southern end of the Canal des Pangalanes are the Antaifasy (1.2%) with the Antaisaka (5.3%) farther south along the valley of the Mananara river;
• The Antanosy (2.3%) tribe live in the extreme south east of the island with the Sihanaka (2.4%) in the Alaotra lake region on the escarpment separating the east coast from the highlands and the Bezanozano (0.8%) and the Tanala (3.8%) tribes live to the south of Alaotra lake;
• Up and down the western coast and inland ranges are the Sakalava (6.2%), the most African of the country’s tribes and expert cattle herders. A sub-tribe of the Sakalava on the south west coast are the Vezo, expert fishermen and seafarers;
• The Antankarana (0.6%) live on the Tsaratanana Massif and in the far north and are cattle herders and farmers. The Makoa (1.1%) tribe live along the north west coast and are descendants of people brought from Africa by slave traders;
• In the arid south-west the Mahafaly (1.6%) and the semi-nomadic Antandroy (5.4%) raise cattle and practice limited cultivation.

Facts and figures

Population 18,595,469 (est. July 2006)
Population growth rate 3.03% per year (est. 2006)
Birth rate 41.41 births / 1000 population (est. 2006)
Death rate 11.11 deaths / 1000 population (est. 2006)
Infant mortality rate 75.21 deaths per 1000 live births (male and female) (est. 2006)
Life expectancy at birth 57.34 years (average for men and women) (est. 2006)
People living with HIV/AIDS 140,000 (est. 2003)
Religion Indigenous beliefs 52%; Christian 41%; Muslim 7%
Language Malagasy and French (both official)
Literacy 68.9% over the age of 15yrs can read and write

Source: CIA World Factbook, 2006.
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ma.html

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