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Madagascar Minorities
Madagascar is also inhabited by nonindigenous
minorities who
constitute roughly 1.7 percent of the population. Because
of the
status of France as the former colonial power, Madagascar
is home
to many former French colonial administrators and military
officers. The country is also home to French
professionals,
businesspersons, managers of large plantations, and colons
(small
farmers) working their own holdings. Approximately 18,000
French
citizens lived and worked in Madagascar in the early
1990s.
The Comorans (currently numbering 25,000) historically
have
constituted a second important nonindigenous population
group,
but their numbers decreased after racial riots in
Mahajanga in
December 1976 resulted in nearly 1,400 killed; in
addition, some
20,000 were repatriated to the islands in the ensuing
months.
They have been concentrated in the northern part of
Madagascar,
along the coast, and prior to 1976 formed more than
one-tenth of
the populations of the port cities of Mahajanga and
Antsiranana.
Most of the Comorans, who adhere to the Muslim faith, have
migrated from the island of Njazidja (Grande Comore); they
typically work as unskilled laborers in the fields or on
the
docks of the ports.
Indo-Pakistanis (roughly numbering 17,000) represent a
third
nonindigenous minority group, and trace their origins to
the
regions of Gujerat or Bombay on the Indian subcontinent.
Like the
Comorans, they are for the most part Muslim. Despite
living on
the island for several generations (or even several
centuries),
the Indo-Pakistanis still maintain contact with their home
areas
in northwestern India and Pakistan. Historically, they
have
worked as merchants and small entrepreneurs and in the
past have
monopolized the wholesale and retail trade in textiles.
They tend
to be concentrated in the cities along the west coast.
The Chinese (numbering approximately 9,000) constitute
a
fourth major nonindigenous population group. Like the
IndoPakistanis , they are engaged primarily in commerce but are
found
mostly along the east coast and around Antananarivo. They
are
more commonly found in the rural areas than the
Indo-Pakistanis.
They work as small traders and often marry Malagasy.
Data as of August 1994
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