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Sakalava people

Ethnic group in Madagascar

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The origin of the word Sakalava is not fully known. The most common explanation is that their name means "people of the long valleys", or a similar modern Malagasy translation of long ravines, which denotes the relatively flat nature of the land in western Madagascar. Another theory is that the word is possibly from the Arabic saqaliba (which is in turn derived from Late Latin sclavus), meaning slave.

History

The Sakalava are considered to be a mix of Austronesian and Bantu people. Austronesian people from various southeast Asian and Oceanian groups started sailing and settling in Madagascar between 400 and 900 CE. The earliest confirmed settlements were on Nosy Mangabe and in the Mananara Valley, and date back to the eighth century. Bantu-speaking farmers, moving from Central and East Africa, arrived in Madagascar in the ninth century. According to Gwyn Campbell, "the most accurate genetic data to date indicates that the founding settlement, on the northwest coast, comprised a maximum of 20 households, totalling around 500 people, either genetically mixed, or half Austronesian and half African."

Portuguese traders were the first Europeans to arrive in the 15th century, followed by other European powers. Later, Swahilis, Arabs, Indian, and Tamil traders came to the island's northern regions. Enslaved people from mainland Africa were brought to the island in increasing numbers between the 15th and the 18th centuries, particularly to the region where Sakalava people now live. This influx of diverse peoples led to the formation of various Malagasy sub-ethnicities in the mid-2nd millennium.

The founder of Sakalava legacy was Andriamisara. After 1610, his descendant Andriandahifotsy ("the White Prince") extended his authority northwards past the Mangoky River, aided by weapons obtained through the slave trade. His two sons, Andriamanetiarivo and Andriamandisoarivo (also known as Tsimanatona) extended gains further up to the Tsongay region (now Mahajanga).

The chiefs of the different coastal settlements on the island began extending their power to control trade. The first significant Sakalava kingdoms were formed around the 1650s. They dominated the western region of Madagascar during the 1700s. The Sakalava chiefdoms of Menabe, centered in what was then known as Andakabe (now the town of Morondava), were principal among them. The influence of the Sakalava extended across what are now the provinces of Antsiranana, Mahajanga and Toliara. The Sakalava kingdom reached its peak geographic spread between 1730 and 1760, under King Andrianinevenarivo.

According to local tradition, the founders of the Sakalava kingdom were the Maroseraña (or Maroseranana, "those who owned many ports") princes, from Fiherenana (now Toliara). They may also be descended from the Zafiraminia (sons of Ramini) clans from the southwestern part of the island. The demand for slaves by Omani Arabs who controlled the Zanzibar slave trade and, later, European slave-traders led to Sakalava slave raiding operations and control over the major ports of the north and northwest region of Madagascar. Initially, the Arabs exclusively supplied weapons to the Sakalava in exchange for slaves. These slaves were obtained from slave raids to Comoros and other coastal settlements of Madagascar, as well as from merchant ships from the Swahili coast. The Sakalava kingdom quickly subjugated the neighbouring territories of the Mahafaly people, starting with the southern ones.

Merina oral histories and documents in Comoros mention a series of annual expeditions by Sakalava slave raiders against their villages through the end of the 18th century. These expeditions were aided by guns obtained from the Arabs, a weapon that both Comoros and the Merina lacked. The largest and one of the most favored ports for the slave trade on Madagascar was the Sakalava coastal town of Mahajanga. The Sakalava had a monopoly over the slave trade in Madagascar till the end of the 18th century. Although smaller by population, their weapons permitted them wide reach and power, allowing them to force other, more populous ethnic groups to pay tribute to them in the eighteenth century.

The Merina king Radama I bought guns in late 18th century and launched a war against the Sakalava Kingdom, which ended its hegemony and slave raids. The Merina Kingdom then reversed the historical enslavement their people had faced, becoming suppliers for the slave trade. Though the Merina were never to annex the two last Sakalava strongholds of Menabe and Boina (Mahajanga), the Sakalava never again posed a threat to the central highlands, which remained under Merina control until the French conquest of the island, a century later, in 1896.

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