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THE BANTU IN THE MALAGASY RACE AFFINITY. (With notes by Sir Harry Johnston.)

li FOR a very long time it has been known that Madagascar ethnographically belongs to Asia. One of the first, not to say the first European, who pointed out scientifically the race- affinity between the Malagasy and the Malayan was Hout- man in his Sfraeh ende Woordebech end* Maleysche end* Madagascarsche Talen, 1613. Since then Marre, Van der Tuuk, Kern, Brandes, Smidt, Branstettert and G. Ferrand have done great work with the help of comparative language- study to settle once for all the question of the Malagasy race origin. The result of these long and thoroughgoing researches could be summed up in the following terms t— 1. The belongs to the occidental branch of the Malayo-polynesian group of languages (the tongues of Formosa, Celebes, the Philippines, Borneo, the Malayan Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Madura, etc.). a. It is most closely related to the BATAK language of Sumatra. 3. The element of Sanscrit in Malagasy proves that the immigrations from the mother source—from Sumatra—took place after the epoch of the Indianising of the Malay language through the Indian invasions of the Malay Peninsula, Java, and Sumatra, which began about $00 B.C. It has therefore been generally agreed to call the Malagasy Indonesians in respect of their race-affinity. 4. It is not correct, as generally believed hitherto, that the

10 Vol. IB 306 JOURNAL OF THE AFRICAN SOCIETY

different dialects on the island date from different immigra- tions, of which that of the Hovas would be the most recent. The study of comparative phonetics has proved that the Malagasy language is a perfect unity, and that it has developed as a Malayan dialect. But the Hova form of it is the most remote from the primi- tive type. (See Phonit&que Comparie, G. Ferrand, pp. 188- 189.) 5. The existence of the light-skinned Hova-type of very pure Malayan origin (about 500,000 individuals), especially in the noble caste, could only be explained by the endogamic marriage customs strongly maintained.

The Arab Element It has also been known and strongly documented (Les Musulmans i Madagascar, G. Ferrand, 1891 and 190a) that Madagascar has received an important contribution to its population from Arabian sources, both pre- and post-Islamic. Although it is more a question of religious and cultural influ- ence than a mixing of the races, the Semitic type not having been able to prevail in mixing with the Indonesians in the island. The Arabic deposit in the language has been identified in chronological, astrological, salutation, and commercial ex* pressions, besides in words for cloths, dress, music, books, writing, etc. ( Annual 1876, p. 75). Last, but not least, the Arab immigrants were the first to introduce the art of writing in the island. Many of the written manuscripts have been preserved, some of them dating back earlier than 173a. And these Arabico-malagasy MSS. have been of immense value for the study of the phonetic development of the Malagasy language, and are fully used by G. Ferrand, the able French linguist and connoisseur of these old documents.

The Swahili and East African Element Partly in connection with the Arab immigration and partly quite independently thereof, there is to be observed a limited THE BANTU IN MADAGASCAR 307

influence of the Swahili and other East African Bantu people (i.e., Makua and Comorian) in the island. The modern type of Swahili is limited to the North-West coast, and is chiefly due to the traffic of sailors and merchants. But it is a general rule that both Swahili, Comorians and the descendants of the old Makua slaves do not mix with the genuine Malagasy tribes, but form small communities retaining their language and customs as far as possible. Ethnographically this move- ment is then not so interesting.

An Older African Element. Far more so are the many observations from the time Europeans began to frequent the island right up to the latest period of types and individuals who have been called negroes, blacks, Kafirs, Nigritians, Bantu, etc. In 1613 the Portuguese missionary, Luis Mariano, who lived for some months on the West-coast, wrote that he saw two different races: One intelligent but less robust, speaking " BUKI," 1 a language, he thought, much like the Malayan. The other one was less intelligent but more robust, and spoke another language (?), which he thought was identical with that of African negroes, of whom they looked like being the progeny. (Qoletim. Soc. Geog. de Lxsboa 7, series No. 5.) Since then the report of the Negrito-type living besides that of the Indonesian have been multiplied to such a degree that in the 'eighties men like Quatrefages, Harny, Grandidier, etc, classified many of the largest tribes in the island as Bantu negroes. But they wrote evidently under misleading information.

Tin Waxhnba. When the European study of the African element in Madagascar began, one tribe, and one name in particular, made itself prominent in every respect, viz., that of The Wasimba. Already Robert Drury, in his famous Journal, mentioned the Wazimba and their pretension to be the aborigines of the 1 BuJdit the oldSwshm name to Hadagaawr,—H.H.J. 308 JOURNAL OF THE AFRICAN SOCIETY

island (Rob. Drwry's Journal, p. 313). He says that they had a peculiar language of their own, besides the ordinary Malagasy. In the interior, explorers, missionaries, and travellers everywhere came across stones (monoliths) and graves belong- ing to the so-called " Wato-mbazimba and Fasa-mbazimba («„ Wazimba-stones and Wazimbfrgraves), which were all regarded with awe and reverence. The traditions about these Wazimba are very scarce and incoherent. But it is main- tained that a people of rather small stature and ugly appear- ance lived in the country before the arrival of the now indi- genous race. They partly mixed with the new-comers, and partly fled westward. Apparently they became in time an extinct race. But their spirits are thought to hover about their old dwellings and graves, and the so-called " Wazimba-worship " consists in evoking these spirits and bringing them sacrifices. A con- siderable controversy has for years been carried on about these Wazimba. In Waitz's Anthropology the Wazimba of Madagascar were made out to be cousins of the Masimba of East (Vol. II, p. 358). Waitz was supported by the Revd. Dahle in the Antan- anarivo Annual, 1883. But the chief argument to support the hypothesis being based only on the name, men like Grandidier, Malzac, Gautier, etc., contested the theory on ethnological grounds. One good result of the Wazimba controversy was, how- ever, that attention was directed to certain philological strata in the Malagasy language which indicated a connection with the continent. So Mr. Dahle pointed out in the Antananarivo Annual, 1883, that names for domestic animals were unmis- takably of African origin. And later, during the discussion of the Swahili words in Mr. Richardson's Malagasy-English dictionary, he gave the following canon for distinguishing the so-called "original African element " in Malagasy : " Wherever a Malagasy word of common occurrence and referring to objects of common life is found, not only in Swahili, but also in other African language, it is almost certain that it has not been introduced into Malagasy through THE BANTU IN MADAGASCAR 309

Swahili, but belongs to the original African element in the language " (Ant. Arm^ 1885, p. 102). Besides words mentioned above of Swahili origin marked in Richardson's dictionary, several lists of pretended African words have been collected, but none of special interest. The chief work of later years treating the African element in Malagasy is L'Origine Africaine its Malgaches, by G. Fer- rand, originally a contribution to the Journal Asiatique. His conclusions could be summed up as follows:— 1. The root-word Zimba (Wa-ximba, Ba-zimba, Aba- zimba) is unquestionably of Bantu (African) origin, and is found as a tribal name in parts of East and Central Africa. 3. It is necessary to distinguish between the ancient and modern Swahili influence on the West coast and the element of original Bantu words which may be found in Malagasy speech all over the island. This last Bantu ingredient was not derived from travelling sailors and merchants, but came from a population which had root in the soil before the com- mencement of Indonesian immigration. 3. This now extinct population may possibly have be- longed to a pygmy Negro race (loc. cii., p. 150). If so it would explain the fact that all over the island the folklore and traditions point to a pre-historic pygmy population. These stories may be traced from the south to the north of Mada- gascar. The names of the pygmy race are given as: Ante- satrua, Untsua, Ampilampi, Umpire, Kimusi, Anakimusi, Kalanuru, etc^ etc. It is worth noticing that the Kimusi are specially mixed up with the Wazimba tradition. Monsieur Commerson was the first European who gave a detailed description of the Kimusi, or pygmy people, living in the mountain fastness near Fort-Dauphin. His report was published by Modave (Voyage a Madagascar el aux Jndes, Paris, 1791), and created some curiosity, but was not taken seriously. The whole matter was regarded as fictitious right up to the latest time. Monsieur Ferrand having taken note of these traditions, however, tried to find some traces elsewhere, and recorded the name of the pygmy tribe as " Antambahuaka." 3IO JOURNAL OF THE AFRICAN SOCIETY

He thinks the word is composed of Anta-vahwaka, " the people Vahwaka." He further derives Vahwaka from Wak- , synonoym of Baka, Bakebake, consisting of the Kwa- kwa or root-wood for pygmy Negro races belonging to the occidental branch, as contrasted with TWA, the root stem for pygmies belonging to the oriental branch. In want of farther information, however, the matter rests there.

Fragments ol the Waximba Language discovered on the West Coast of Madagascar. In 1913 the present writer commenced an investigation of the different Wazimba tribes living on the border of the Tsiribihina and Manambolo rivers, and was so fortunate as to continue the same for seven years. Lastly, the Bemara Wazimba and the forest tribes known generally as Mikeas were included in the investigation, owing to the development of the events. The net result was a collection of tribes' names and tradi- tions, special religious customs, list of words for utensils and plates, names of persons and places, and fragments of songs and prayers; all in a "foreign" language, incomprehen- sible to the people of to-day. The modern Wazimba grouped on the Tsiribihma and Manambolo form a different body from the Sakalavas. They are chiefly fishers and choose with preference their dwelling on the borders of rivers and lakes. They regard the coast people or " Vezo," together with the Betsileo, an inland tribe, as their special friends and brothers. Some of their traditions concerning origin tell about flight from the east before the Kova conquerors, others of ship- wrecks on the coast. But all agree that the genuine "Wa- zimba" are the BaQsi in the Bemara fastness. The other tribes are onry hybrid Wazimba.

BaflJl My great surprise during the continued investigation of these BaQsi was, that they, contrary to the Wazimba on Tsiri- THE BANTU IN MADAGASCAR 311

bihina and Manambolo—whom I should like to call lake dwellers—were Troglodytes, cave dwellers, with a stone cult, the very parallel to that of the pre-historic Wazimba in the highlands. Further, it was stated that they really were a wild people exceedingly shy even for ordinary natives, and that many of them still live in the caves, though hunted up and forced to leave their wild nomadic forest life by the French administra- tion. They still keep fragments of their forefathers' language and I have been fortunate enough to collect a list of genuine Baflsi words, including terms describing fheir daily life, huntings, utensils, etc., person- and place-names, and some very sparse fragments of traditions. Very soon I became aware of the fact that these two groups represented two different races, both belonging to a low Negro type. A preliminary examination of the language showed an agglutinative character with prefixes much like those of a Bantu or semi-Bantu type. Many of the words seem identifiable with Bantu roots, but generally there is no plain connection with that language-family's vocabulary. On the other hand, there seems to me to be some relation between the Baflsi an3 certain Central African, even West African, languages. Besides these two groups of Wazimba, there seemed to be at third group derived from an East-African or Arab element. Ethnologically, the Wazimba lake dwellers showed signs of being connected with fishing tribes of African origin, while the Baflsi cave-dwellers exhibited parallel features with the forest people of East and Central Africa, and with the Bushmen.

Examination of the Older Bantu in Malagasy. To verify this result, a new examination of the so-called older (original) element of Bantu in Malagasy was com- menced on the supposition, that if any such races as those mentioned had lived in the island, traces of their speech would be found elsewhere than in Malagasy. This examination 313 JOURNAL OF THE AFRICAN SOCIETY

included the prehistoric Wazimba in the highland*, the West coast tribes with tradition of shipwrecks, the Mikea or forest people, and the Kirausi of South Madagascar. Lastly, I made a comparative study of synonyms and homonyms with Bantu words, etc. The net result might be summed up as follows:— 1. Traces of East African and Arab immigration was found in many coast tribes. Especially amongst the so- called Stttni and Sambi tribes (Swahili, Zama$, with which also the coast Wazimba are mixed. 2. TEe older element of Bantu in Malagasy penetrates to the speech of every tribe. The following is the scope of such word roots:— (a) Domestic animals and cattle breeding. (b) Daily life. (c) Religion and sickness. (d) Planting. (c) Hunting and fishing, (f) Forest and field.

Coodoslon. The linguistic stratum thus representing all fields of human life must have originated from an indigenous popula- tion. The language of that population has not been Swahili, though it was, perhaps, related to that language. But all expressions concerning domestic animals and cattle breeding have been introduced from East Africa. These are a few interesting parallel forms pointing to quite different sources: usi and beHger=goat; manga-haau and bala-haMv-cas&va; tsumanga and beU=yatos; kan, kemba, njari, barera=>woman; masova and nuuM°>sun. Tne following prefixes are found: Afa-, Mu-, Ki-, Tsu, Kit-, Ka-, La-, etc Ki-, is used as a diminutive, Tsi- (Chi-) is very common in names for fish and fowls. Both the vocabulary and the grammatical forms show resemblances to the modern type of southern and western Bantu dialects. This result was a satisfying one as far as concerning the THE BANTU IN MADAGASCAR

identification of the speech of the lake-dwelling Wazimba with the older element of Bantu incorporated in the Malagasy language. Concerning that East African immigration which brought the domestic animals and cattle-breeding to the island, it may be supposed that the immigrants were only partially of Bantu Negro stock. No Bantu tribe has ever been known as sea-faring. And guided by the Arabic stories, we can trace these Arab-Negro colonists and sailors (of whom Masudi writes) to the Zanzi- bar coast and islands, where the Arabs of pre-Islamic and post- Islamic times settled amongst the natives of Zing or Zang, and adopted their language. As will have been already noticed, practically nothing is found in Malagasy philology concerning the supposed pygmy- negro race, mentioned above. On the other hand, ethno- logical evidences seem to connect the Ba-flii with the Kumusi living in the An-usi. Also with the KSa (the same word, Kea, means "male " in the Baflsi dialect). In the Usi and BaUsi, it seems as though we have a relation- ship with Bantu tribal names from Central Africa. In 1918, the BaOsi vocabulary was completed with an im- portant supplement, which, it is to be hoped, will help to provide a clue to the origin and connections of this peculiar people. The whole material will be published as soon as possible. Concerning the Wazimba name, I have ventured to advance the following theory, read in a paper contributed to L'Aca- cUmie Malgathe, 1918:— 1. In the fragments of Wazimba and BaQsi words, there is no prefix of Wa, only Ba~, and Bt-; consequently, it cannot be an indigenous word. 2. The veneration of the legendary Wazimba is limited to the centre and the northern part of Madagascar. On the West coast, the Wazimba are despised. 3. Possibly, a non-Bantu people coming from the north introduced the term as an abuse, like the Masai calling the Waswabili Lashumba, or like the term Watyimba in Hererd. Or, it has been introduced by a Bantu people belonging to 314 JOURNAL OF THE AFRICAN SOCIETY

some prehistoric tribe with a name root of Zimba, to which a Ba-, A-, or Antu- prefix might be added. This supposition seems to be supported by the fact that a number of Malagasy tribes use the prefixial term of ANTE- ANTA-, in their tribe-names. 4. This invasion came from the north, and absorbed in a friendly manner the aboriginal BAKWA or pygmies. The Wazimba worship developed on the ordinary line of ancestor worship. In the south, the Indonesians were of a different race and human type* They showed pitiless hostility towards the aborigines, and therefore, we got no venerated Wazimba in the south, only despised Wazimba, Kimusi, Mfkea and BaOsi.

SracnoNs OF WAZIMBA AKD BAOSI WORDS. FiiHng: Ttiuta (one) » measure of three fathoms. klpampa *• floats on nets. kitofba - floats made of reeds. kuhau » hollow mortar to make a noise with. kondukondu •• long1 reed used as a mark. kahflrta - noise created by beating the surface of the water with the hands. rondra(nmda)- to chase the fish in a certain direction maisa - bait, kupi = oar. kings - bay. kimana - bow net. hiriji - idem. muklte — fish. kadadakC - idem. tsibarandanda- idem. Cooking: Bereti •> salted fish boiled and prepared, often as sacrifice, surundu •> bananas and fish stewed together, kuetnba - tubes of the lotus shelled and fried in fat. katakata - cut and boiled bananas, mukagl » casava and ground nuts mixed, buxi = piate of vegetables without meat tsutnirida » same as mukagl stewed in milk, «nari -water. Songs: Namororfi yftngu. MatI hOpa man^ohi. Yaia kamldza mbanja ka minza sokola masu fctil mafiinmda farfvibin-trtle. sadia kulmba nanau bikahuy. tuembala tuembala tuentumua tuetrjbala. THE BANTU IN MADAGASCAR 3*5

BaOsi Words: Kea -male, bada «• idem. jahamuke •> man. man* — child, kls&ru - house, kelu - kbm. otadrtdzl - cave, tarosfi -path, klsahfila - pot sabua «•spear, tega •• kind of lance, kazanl -wild swine, fala — kind of lemur, dahahi •• forester. buJOkfl - head, tadifie — nose. Prayer: KidrA kidrfimdn&mbe, klakia kSmba, ketra kambe ketra kamay nabdmbo kidra bfimbo. TiflgaAo muhihute milia kuku-zima. EMIL BIKKELI.

Ncmt BT SIR HARBT JOHNSTON. The Malay colonisation of Madagascar Is certainty one of the un- solved puzzles in human history. The Malagasy language, as Mr. Birkeli points out, is most nearly connected with the Batak speech of Sumatra, and the Malagasy tribes of Madagascar seem to contain dements of the Asiatic Negro (such as are found also in Sumatra), as well as of the African Negro. Did the successive waves of Malay coldnisation proceed direct across the three or four thousand miles of Indian Ocean that separate Madagascar from Sumatra and Java, or did some or all of these adventurous peoples follow the safer and more circuitous routes of Ceylon, the Maldiv, Chagos, Seychelles, and Almirante archipelagoes? There are traces in the Seychelles of pre- historic human habitation. The Malagasy came, no doubt, in canoes, and introduced this type of seafaring vessel to Zanzibar and the Zangian coast. Yet, having accomplished this tremendous voyage across the Indian Ocean, they seem to have rested content with such an exploit, and certainly ceased to become a maritime people. The idea of the outrigger canoe, indeed, may have been brought by Swahlll negroes from Madagascar and the Comoro Islands to the Zanzibar and Makua coast There Is no trace whatever of any Malagasy people having colonised any part of the East African coast. The utmost approach they made thither was to reach the easternmost of the Comoro Islands. On the other hand, It is obvious that the West and South coasts of