The Literature of Madagascar

Abstract

Madagascar belongs to the African continent both geographically and owing to the fact that one part of the original population came from the continent. There were later Malayan migrations and the unification of tribes led to the formation of the Malagasy nation with its language, Malagasy, belonging to the Malayan linguistic group. It is interesting that the Comoro Islands, which politically belonged to Madagascar (now the Malagasy Republic), have preserved their own Bantu language, with a few dialects, which is closely related to Swahili on the nearest coast of the African continent. Moreover, Swahili has become a commercial language on the northern coast of Madagascar, mainly at the ports and in business centres. It has been assumed that the island was settled by Bantu tribes in pre-Malayan times, but this is not certain. The fact is, however, that a great number of Bantu words have penetrated into Malagasy vocabulary.