Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country in the Indian Ocean 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.
Following the prehistoric breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana, Madagascar split from Africa during the Early Jurassic period, around 180 million years ago, and separated from the Indian subcontinent approximately 90 million years ago. This isolation allowed native plants and animals to evolve in relative seclusion; as a result, Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspotand one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries, with over 90% of its wildlifebeing endemic. The island has a subtropical to tropical maritime climate.
Madagascar was first permanently settled during or before the mid-first millennium AD (roughly AD 500 to AD 700) by Austronesian peoples, presumably arriving on outrigger canoes from present-day Indonesia. These were joined around the ninth century AD by Bantu groups crossing the Mozambique Channel from East Africa. Other groups continued to settle on Madagascar over time, each one making lasting contributions to Malagasy cultural life. Consequently, there are 18 or more classified peoples of Madagascar, the most numerous being the Merina of the central highlands.
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Links to Peel[]
The first Madagascan music Peel is known to have played was a track from the BBC Archives in 1969 called the Three Little Valletas. It wasn't until the mid-80's, that Peel started to play more Madagascan music on his shows especially the compilation albums, released by GlobeStyle.
One prominent Madagascan artist, named Freddy De Majunga, was often played by Peel on his radio programmes between the 80's and 90's. However, Freddy's music was a mixture of salegy (local Madagascan music) and soukous originating from the Democratic Republic Of Congo.
In the 00's, Peel continued playing Madagascan music, especially Joel Noel from the compilation album, Tulear Never Sleeps (Tsapiky Guitars From South West Madagascar), which was released on the Earthworks label in 2004.
Artists Played[]
(This section covers Madagascan artists Peel first played)
Rakotozafy - Hitako O!
Performing Artist | Song | First Known Play
- Martin Rakitoa Alimanana: King Song 15 June 1991
- Jaojoby: Samy Mandeha Samy Mitady 11 July 1992
- Freddy De Majunga: Soudé Madiaba 08 November 1989
- Jean Noel: Ela Lia 05 October 2004
- Georges Norbert & L Honore Rosa: Bonne Annee Amin Ny Tanana 05 November 1986
- Rakotozafy: Hitako O! 15 August 1988
- Tarika: Raitra 06 January 1999
- Daniel Tombo and Marceline Vaviroa: Fean Baliha 27 April 1991
- Unknown Artist: Three little valletas from Madagascar 30 April 1969
- Zeze Et Groupe "Son": Ento Rora 12 November 1986