Madagascar: The African island first settled by Asians
The island of Madagascar (which was portrayed in the animated movie Madagascar) has a very interesting history as well as geography. The island has a very unique population of flora and fauna, due particularly to being isolated from human beings for so long.
Although the continent of Africa is known as the cradle of the human species, due to the human species is known to have first emerged from there and subsequently migrated to the whole of planet earth, the island of Madagascar though being near to Africa was only settled fairly recently (compared to other places on earth), which was only around 500CE, which was 1,500 years ago, even though humans have been in Africa for 200,000 years
The most interesting thing is that, it wasn't Africans who reached the island first, but it was Asians, specifically the Austronesian people from the island of Borneo or Sumatra. These people who were sea-faring people, decided to travel westward possibly for trade or to migrate to new lands either due to overpopulation, dispute or simply a thirst for exploration (it was unknown the specific reasons), and eventually ended up in Madagascar.
When I first heard about this fact I was amazed and find it hard to believe. How long would the journey have taken? And is it really possible for the people to reach such a distant place especially at the time and survive? What were the odds?
Then I found out that in 2003, there was a voyage done to reenact just that very episode in human history. An Australian historian decided to work with several Indonesian craftsman and supported by the Indonesian government to create a ship used during ancient time in Indonesia. He bases it from images of an ancient ship from the ancient Srivijaya Empire portrayed at the Borobudur temple.
(Srivijaya was an ancient kingdom that ruled a huge part of modern-day Indonesia as well as the Malay peninsular. It was believed to be a Hindu-Buddhist kingdom with Old Malay being the common language used in the empire).
The ship was named Samudra Raksa, and the journey started on 15th of August 2003 from Indonesia and they reached Madagascar in mid-October, meaning to say it took 3 months for them to reach such distant location, and this could be roughly the same time period it took our ancestors to reach there, minus the modern navigation aid that were used by Samudra Raksa. So it is entirely possible and not too strange to think that a group of people (believed to be around 100) reached Madagascar from Indonesia, 1,500 years ago. Although I would imagine the number of people sailing initially would have been higher than 100 but several would have died on board along the way due to starvation or disease or other reasons. But the feat in itself is remarkable.
Although the continent of Africa is known as the cradle of the human species, due to the human species is known to have first emerged from there and subsequently migrated to the whole of planet earth, the island of Madagascar though being near to Africa was only settled fairly recently (compared to other places on earth), which was only around 500CE, which was 1,500 years ago, even though humans have been in Africa for 200,000 years
The most interesting thing is that, it wasn't Africans who reached the island first, but it was Asians, specifically the Austronesian people from the island of Borneo or Sumatra. These people who were sea-faring people, decided to travel westward possibly for trade or to migrate to new lands either due to overpopulation, dispute or simply a thirst for exploration (it was unknown the specific reasons), and eventually ended up in Madagascar.
When I first heard about this fact I was amazed and find it hard to believe. How long would the journey have taken? And is it really possible for the people to reach such a distant place especially at the time and survive? What were the odds?
Then I found out that in 2003, there was a voyage done to reenact just that very episode in human history. An Australian historian decided to work with several Indonesian craftsman and supported by the Indonesian government to create a ship used during ancient time in Indonesia. He bases it from images of an ancient ship from the ancient Srivijaya Empire portrayed at the Borobudur temple.
(Srivijaya was an ancient kingdom that ruled a huge part of modern-day Indonesia as well as the Malay peninsular. It was believed to be a Hindu-Buddhist kingdom with Old Malay being the common language used in the empire).
The ship was named Samudra Raksa, and the journey started on 15th of August 2003 from Indonesia and they reached Madagascar in mid-October, meaning to say it took 3 months for them to reach such distant location, and this could be roughly the same time period it took our ancestors to reach there, minus the modern navigation aid that were used by Samudra Raksa. So it is entirely possible and not too strange to think that a group of people (believed to be around 100) reached Madagascar from Indonesia, 1,500 years ago. Although I would imagine the number of people sailing initially would have been higher than 100 but several would have died on board along the way due to starvation or disease or other reasons. But the feat in itself is remarkable.
Indonesia (in green) and Madagascar (in orange)
These early settlers eventually started a colony on the island and later, when East Africans eventually landed on Madagascar from the mainland (the Bantu people), these two groups eventually intermarried and eventually created the current community, the Malagasy people.
As mentioned, due to the long isolation of the island before arrival of any humans, the flora and fauna on the island had evolved remarkably without interference. Several trees and animals could only be found on the island and not anywhere else, and this includes the lemur and the Baobab tree. Around 90% of the plants and animals found on Madagascar is not found anywhere else on earth.
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