About Madagascar > History

Ethnologists agree that the first settlers arrived in Madagascar at the beginning of our era and there is wide proof that two large migratory movements, one from south-east Asia and the other from eastern Africa came in the 7 th century.

As trading was developing fast in the Indian Ocean, they settled in Madagascar - the Asians brought with them the techniques of rice cultivation and of the dugout canoe with pendulum, the Eastern Africans who were mainly fishermen and labourers cultivated the"badlands" and reared zebus which they brought with them. Madagascar rapidly became a very important trading place on the route to India and a melting-pot of races.

From the 15 th century onwards, Arabian, Portuguese, Venetian and Indian navigators stopped over, traded and competed with each other. According to historians, the name given to Madagascar originated from a mistake made by Marco Polo who thought that the Island was the Somalian harbour of Mogadiscio .