The history of the Comoros extends back to about 800–1000 AD when the archipelago was first inhabited. The Comoros have been inhabited by various groups and sultanates throughout this time. France colonised the islands in the 19th century, and they became independent in 1975.
Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's fourth largest island, the second-largest island country and the 46th largest country overall. Its capital and largest city is Antananarivo.
The History of Madagascar started from the ancient supercontinent of Pangaea, containing amongst others the African continent and the Indian subcontinent, and by the island's late colonization by human settlers from the Sunda Islands and from East Africa. These two factors facilitated the evolution and survival of thousands of endemic plant and animal species, some of which have gone extinct or are currently threatened with extinction. Trade in the Indian Ocean at the time of first colonization of Madagascar was dominated by Indonesian ships, probably of Borobudur ship and K'un-lun po types.
East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the African continent, distinguished by its geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the region is recognized in the United Nations Statistics Division scheme as encompassing 18 sovereign states and 4 territories. It includes the Horn of Africa to the North and Southeastern Africa to the south.
Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo, born Joseph-Casimir Rabearivelo, was a Malagasy poet who is widely considered to be Africa's first modern poet and the greatest literary artist of Madagascar. Part of the first Malagasy generation raised under French colonization, Rabearivelo grew up impoverished and failed to complete secondary education. His passion for French literature and traditional Malagasy oral poetry (hainteny) prompted him to read extensively and educate himself on a variety of subjects, including the French language and its poetic and prose traditions. He published his first poems as an adolescent in local literary reviews, soon obtaining employment at a publishing house where he worked as a proofreader and editor of its literary journals. He published numerous poetry anthologies in French and Malagasy as well as literary critiques, an opera, and two novels.
Azania is a name that has been applied to various parts of southeastern tropical Africa. In the Roman period and perhaps earlier, the toponym has been hypothesised to have referred to a portion of the Southeast Africa coast extending from southern Somalia to the border between Mozambique and South Africa. If this is correct, then during classical antiquity Azania was mostly inhabited by Southern Cushitic peoples, whose groups would rule the area until the great Bantu Migration.
Tsimanampetsotsa National Park also spelt Tsimanampetsotse, and known as Tsimanampetsotsa Nature Reserve is a 432 km2 national park on the south-west coast of Madagascar in the region Atsimo-Andrefana. The park is 90 kilometres (56 mi) south of Toliara and 950 kilometres (590 mi) south of the capital, Antananarivo. Route Nationales (RN) 10 to Faux Cap passes the park and the nearest airport is at Toliara. The national park contains and is named after Lake Tsimanampetsotsa.
The KingdomofMerina, also known as the Kingdom of Madagascar and officially the Kingdom of Imerina, was a pre-colonial state off the coast of Southeast Africa that, by the 18th century, dominated most of what is now Madagascar. It spread outward from Imerina, the Central Highlands region primarily inhabited by the Merina ethnic group with a spiritual capital at Ambohimanga and a political capital 24 km (15 mi) west at Antananarivo, currently the seat of government for the modern state of Madagascar. The Merina kings and queens who ruled over greater Madagascar in the 19th century were the descendants of a long line of hereditary Merina royalty originating with Andriamanelo, who is traditionally credited with founding Imerina in 1540.
Malagasy is an Austronesian language and dialect continuum spoken in Madagascar. The standard variety, called Official Malagasy, is an official language of Madagascar alongside French.
Unguja Ukuu is a historic Swahili settlement on Unguja island, in Zanzibar, Tanzania.
Julian Pender Hume is an English palaeontologist, artist and writer who lives in Wickham, Hampshire. He was born in Ashford, Kent, and grew up in Portsmouth, England.
Sonia Mary Cole was an English geologist, archaeologist, anthropologist and author.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Antananarivo, Madagascar.
Innocent Pikirayi is Professor in Archaeology and Head of the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Pretoria. He works on the state and societies in southern Africa. Pikirayi was amongst the first Zimbabweans to train in archaeology after Zimbabwean independence.
Nicole Lise Boivin is an archaeologist and former director of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
Timpoko Helène Kienon-Kabore is an archaeologist from Côte d'Ivoire, who is Professor at the Research of Human Society and Science Unit at the Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny. A specialist in historical metallurgy, she is an advisor on archaeological heritage at the Ministry of Culture and Francophonie of Côte d'Ivoire and was president of the Association of Archaeologists of West Africa from 2010-2014.
Gilbert Pwiti is an archaeologist. He is a pioneer of modern archaeological and heritage management research in southern Africa and Zimbabwe. Pwiti was amongst the first generation of indigenous historians to be trained in archaeology in postcolonial southern Africa and he was the first professor of Archaeology in Zimbabwe.
University of Antananarivo is the primary public university of Madagascar, located in the capital Antananarivo.
Panga ya Saidi is an archaeological cave site located in Kilifi County, southeastern Kenya, about 15 km from the Indian Ocean in the Dzitsoni limestone hills. The cave site has rich archaeological deposits dating to the Middle Stone Age, Later Stone Age, and Iron Age. Excavated deposits preserve an unusually long record of human activities, from around 78,000 years ago until around 400 years ago, a chronology supported by radiocarbon dating and optically stimulated luminescence dating. This sequence puts Panga ya Saidi alongside other key sites such as Enkapune ya Muto, Mumba Rockshelter, and Nasera Rockshelter that are important for understanding the Late Pleistocene and the Middle to Later Stone Age transition in eastern Africa.
Freda Nkirote M’Mbogori is a Kenyan archaeologist, who is Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA) and President of the Pan-African Archaeological Association.
