|
Madagascar Peoples of the West Coast
The peoples of the west coast, known as the Sakalava
("people
of the long valley"), constitute 6.2 percent of the
population.
Their large territory of some 128,000 square kilometers
extends
in a broad band up the coast from the Onilahy River in the
south
to Nosy-Be in the north. The Sakalava were among the most
dynamic
and expansionist of the Malagasy peoples from the
sixteenth to
the early nineteenth centuries, when the Merina conquered
them.
During this period, Sakalava territory was divided into a
number
of kingdoms ruled by branches of the royal Maroserana
clan. In
the early eighteenth century, the kings of Menabe in the
south
and Boina in the north united these divisions into
confederations.
The Sakalava, along with the Bara people of the
southwest,
are considered the most "African" of the Malagasy peoples.
Specifically, several elements in Sakalava culture bear a
strong
resemblance to those of Africa, including the keeping of
relics
(such as pieces of bone) considered to have magical powers
and
the practice of spirit possession, in which a medium
transmits
the wishes of dead kings to the living. The Sakalava are
also a
pastoral people, and those who live in the hinterland keep
large
herds of zebu cattle that outnumber the human population.
The Sakalava are perhaps best known for the seafaring
skills
they developed throughout history. In the seventeenth
century,
they were potentially the first to receive firearms from
Europeans in exchange for cattle and slaves and, thus,
were in a
position to force many of the other peoples of the island
to pay
them tribute. During the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth
centuries, large fleets of Sakalava outrigger canoes went
on
seasonal raids to capture slaves in the Comoro Islands and
on the
East African coast, causing much devastation. They also
sought
slaves in the central highlands of Madagascar. Because of
the
Merina conquest and subsequent French occupation at the
end of
the century, Sakalava fortunes declined somewhat. They
have not
increased in number as rapidly as many of the other
Malagasy
peoples, and their territories, still the largest of all
the
ethnic groups, have been encroached upon, particularly by
the
Tsimihety people to the east. A people known as the Makoa,
the
descendants of slaves brought from Africa by slave
raiders, also
live along the northwest coast and constitute about 1.1
percent
of the population.
Data as of August 1994
|
