Malagasy peoples

The Malagasy (French: Malgache or Malagasy: Gasy) are a group of Austronesian-speaking ethnic groups indigenous to the island country of Madagascar, formed through generations of interaction between Austronesians originally from southern Borneo and Bantus from Southeast Africa. Traditionally, the population have been divided into sub-ethnic groups. Examples include "Highlander" (ethnically mixed ancestry but more Austronesian and slightly less Bantu) ethnic groups such as the Merina and Betsileo of the central highlands around Antananarivo, Alaotra (Ambatondrazaka) and Fianarantsoa, and the "coastal dwellers" (predominantly Bantu with less Austronesian traits sometimes like mulatto) such as the Sakalava, Bara, Vezo, Betsimisaraka, Mahafaly, etc.

The Merina are further divided into two subgroups. The “Merina A” are the Hova and Andriana, and have an average of 34% African ancestry (20% of which is Bantu and Yoruba). The second subgroup is the “Merina B”, the Andevo, who have an average of 58% African ancestry (50% of which is attributed to Bantu and Yoruba). The latter make up 2/3 of Merina society. The Malagasy population was 2,242,000 in the first census in 1900. Their population had a massive growth in the next hundred years, especially under the French colonial period as French Madagascar.