Madagascar is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately 400 kilometres off the coast of East Africa. The majority of the population adheres to traditional beliefs, Christianity, or an amalgamation of both. The most populous ethnic group is the Tutsi, followed by the Tana, who live on the southern island of Lesotho.
About Madagascar in brief
Madagascar is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately 400 kilometres off the coast of East Africa. At 592,800 square kilometres, Madagascar is the world’s second-largest island country. The island’s diverse ecosystems and unique wildlife are threatened by the encroachment of the rapidly growing human population and other environmental threats. The majority of the population adheres to traditional beliefs, Christianity, or an amalgamation of both. Madagascar is a member of the United Nations, the African Union, the Southern African Development Community, and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. In the Malagasy language, the island of Madagascar is called Madagasikara ) and its people are referred to asMalagasy. The name Madageiscar was first recorded in the memoirs of 13th-century Venetian explorer Marco Polo as a corrupted transliteration of Mogadishu, the Somali name for the island. On St. Laurence’s Day, 1500, Portuguese explorer Diogo Dias landed on the island and named it S. Lourenço. No single Malagasian language predating the Renaissance was used by the local population to refer to the island, although some communities had their own name for all or part of the land they inhabited. At 43°S and 51°E, the country is the 47th largest country, the 4th largest island and the 2nd largest island in the world, according to the U.N. Madagascar belongs to the group of least developed countries,according to the United States.
The country is home to a population of around 2.5 million people, the majority of whom live in the capital, Antananarivo. It is the only country in Africa with a population in excess of one million, and one of the few countries in the region with more than one million people in the diaspora. The nation has officially been governed as a constitutional democracy from its capital at Antananrivo since 1992. In 2009, president Marc Ravalomanana was made to resign and presidential power was transferred in March 2009 to Andry Rajoelina. Constitutional governance was restored in January 2014, when Hery Rajaonarimampianina was named president following a 2013 election deemed fair and transparent by the international community. The monarchy ended in 1897 when the island was absorbed into the French colonial empire, from which the island gained independence in 1960. Until the late 18th century, the Island of Madagascar was ruled by a fragmented assortment of shifting sociopolitical alliances. The autonomous state of Madagascar has since undergone four major constitutional periods, termed republics. The largest are the Merina of the central highlands, of which the largest are the Merinas of thecentral highlands. Other groups continued to settle on Madagascar over time, each one making lasting contributions to Malagaskas cultural life. The most populous ethnic group is the Tutsi, followed by the Tana, who live on the southern island of Lesotho.
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This page is based on the article Madagascar published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 03, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
