Madagascar: Ancestors of Indonesia

Avenue of Baobabs, Madagaskar (Photo: Instagram @lianne_ashton via Kumparan)

INDEPHEDIA.com - The Republic of Madagascar is an island country in the Indian Ocean, off the east coast of Africa.

The fourth largest island country in the world, after Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo (Kalimantan), it is also the second largest archipelagic country in the world after Indonesia.

In Madagascar itself there are many types of animals and plants that are rare, unique and some are not owned by any other country in the world.

Madagascar's typical flora and fauna include lemurs, baobab trees, ancient cycads, giant ferns and others.

Found Marco Polo

History records that the island of Madagascar was discovered by Marco Polo, a merchant and adventurer and writer from Venice. The existence of Madagascar is also mentioned in his writings.

However, the first European known to have visited the island was Diogo Dias, a Portuguese navigator in 1500.

He witnessed the existence of the island on August 10, 1500, after the wind blew his ship over the bow on its way to India.

In 1883, the French invaded Madagascar and in 1896 took control of the island which would later become a French colony and made French its official language.

The French used Madagascar as a source for exotic woods and spices, such as vanilla.

The Malagasy people carried out two major rebellions against the French, namely in 1918 and 1947.

However, Madagascar only gained independence on June 26 1960 and became the Republic of Madagascar.

Ancestors from Indonesia

Madagascar was first settled in the mid-first century by Austronesians, then aid migrants or ethnic groups in Africa.

This ethnic group in Africa crossed the Mozambique Strait from East Africa and they settled with Austronesian people around the 9th century AD.

It was also during this era that Arab traders arrived on the scene, when merchants began trading along the northern coast.

The first settlers in Madagascar who were called Austronesians turned out to be descendants of Indonesia.

According to a number of literatures, people from the archipelago came to Madagascar centuries ago via ship expeditions.

New Zealand Massey University molecular biologist Murray Cox said that around 30 Indonesian women became the founders of the Madagascar colony around 1,200 years ago.

The results of this research were obtained from mitochondrial DNA analysis, which strengthens previous studies.

DNA taken from 266 people with 3 different ethnicities living in Madagascar was searched for chromosomes derived from their mother's line.

As a result, in one of the ethnic groups whose chromosomes were taken, half had the genes characteristic of the people of Polynesia and a little of western Indonesia.

This indicates that if the results are correct, then approximately 30 Indonesian women will become the forerunners of the Malagasy population.

This study is only based on research from the mother's lineage, so it is possible that there were Indonesian men who were there at that time.

The simulation shows that the possible route that caused these women to reach Madagascar was through the trade route pioneered by the Srivijaya Kingdom.

Another piece of evidence that shows the people of Madagascar have a lineage from Indonesia is the dialect in the language.

Several types of letters in Madagascar are similar to Malay, Javanese or Sanskrit.

The daily equipment used is more or less similar to that used by ancient Indonesian people.

Likewise for daily necessities, such as outrigger boats, musical instruments such as xylophones and several types of cooking.

Apart from that, the similarity of the Malgache (Malagasi) language used by the people of Madagascar is also another sign.

There are several elements in Malgache that point to Celebes (Sulawesi), especially the Bajo and Bugis tribes, who are known as skilled sailors from Indonesia.

Therefore, it is not surprising that many people associate the existence of the ancestors of the people in Madagascar with Indonesians. (*)