16. The Austronesians of Madagascar crossed almost 5,000 miles of ocean, for reasons unknown, to settle the uninhabited African island
The island of Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world and located off the southeastern coast of Africa, was impressively and bizarrely first settled by Austronesians from Borneo between 350-550 CE. Traveling the almost 5,000 miles across ocean via canoe, it is unfathomable as to why these migrants elected to embark on such a journey and to reside so far from the remainder of their cultural and ethnic group, typically inhabitants of Southeast Asia and Oceania; it has been speculated that an early spice trade route may have existed via the African coast, but this is unverified conjecture in an attempt to justify their puzzling settlement of Madagascar.
The manner in which these early inhabitants lived is relatively unknown, but evidence of slash-and-burn agriculture suggests a combination of farming and hunting; some animal species, including the Malagasy hippopotamus, and fauna are known to have been made extinct during this time due to said practices. By 600 CE it is believed that settlers had moved inland to higher ground, although there is no archaeological evidence for human occupation in the highlands until around 1200, and had introduced the cultivation of rice, which would become a significant means of island subsistence a millennium later. Sharing the cultural traditions of other Austronesians, including Taiwan and Indonesia, the customs of these early inhabitants of Madagascar are better understood; these practices included the burying of the dead at sea in a canoe and the performance of music using traditional Austronesian instruments such as the “Antsiva” conch or “hazolahy” drum”.
The arrival of migrants from the 7th century sounded the end of the isolated civilization, with Omani Arabs first establishing trading posts along Madagascar’s northwest coast in the 7th century. Believed to have been refugees from the civil wars following the death of Muhammad in 632 CE, these Arab migrants introduced Islam, the sorabe alphabet, and astrology among other cultural imports; these introductions resulted in the gradual decline of the native culture and the end of a distinct Austronesian civilization on the island, with Marco Polo detailing that “the inhabitants are Saracens, or followers of the law of Muhammad” during his 13th century voyages.