Afrique Orientale-Jeunes filles Masikoro

The Masikoro are a group of farmers and herders who inhabit areas surrounding the

Mikea Forest The Mikea Forest (or Forêt des Mikea) is a forested region of southwestern Madagascar, between Manombo and Morombe. More specifically, it stretches from Route Nationale 9 to the west coast and from Mangoky south to the Manombo River. It lies at ...

, a patch of mixed spiny forest and

dry deciduous forest The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest is a habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature and is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive ...

along the coast of southwestern Madagascar in

Toliara Province The Toliara Province (formerly Toliary or Tuléar) is a former provinces of Madagascar, province of Madagascar with an area of . It had a population of 2,229,550 (July, 2001). Its capital was Toliara. Near Toliara was the "Madagascar spiny thickets ...

. Along with

Vezo The Vezo is the term the semi-nomadic coastal people of southern Madagascar use to refer to people that have become accustomed to live from sea fishing. The Vezo speak a dialect of the Malagasy language, which is a branch of the Malayo-Polynesian ...

and

Mikea The Mikea are a group of Malagasy-speaking horticulturalists and foragers who are often described as the lowland hunter-gatherers of Madagascar. They inhabit the Mikea Forest, a patch of mixed spiny forest and dry deciduous forest along the c ...

, the Masikoro are

Sakalava people The Sakalava are an ethnic group of Madagascar. They are found on the western and northwest region of the island, in a band along the coast. The Sakalava are one of the smaller ethnic groups, constituting about 6.2 percent of the total populatio ...

, the difference being that Masikoro are of the land, Vezo are of the sea, and Mikea are of the forest.

Ethnicity

Some 90,000 of the Masikoro people, mainly concentrated in the districts of

Toliara Toliara (also known as ''Toliary'', ; formerly ''Tuléar'') is a city in Madagascar. It is the capital of the Atsimo-Andrefana region, located 936 km southwest of national capital Antananarivo. The current spelling of the name was adopted ...

and

Morombe Morombe is an urban municipality (commune urbaine) on the south-west coast in Atsimo-Andrefana, Madagascar. It can be reached by the National road 55 or pirogue from Morondava. It is situated at 283 km from Tulear. An airport serves the town. ...

, speak the Masikoro-Malagasy language, a dialect of the

Malagasy language Malagasy (; ) is an Austronesian language and the national language of Madagascar. Malagasy is the westernmost Malayo-Polynesian language, brought to Madagascar by the settlement of Austronesian peoples from the Sunda islands around the 5th ce ...

. At one time there was a Masikoro kingdom with a king ruling the territory. Masikoro according to some means "Those dressed in clothing made from rushes". The Masikoro belong ethnically to the

along with the

and the

fishermen, which trade products caught, foraged or cultivated in the forest among themselves. Some of the clan names are shared between the Masikoro and Mikea peoples.

Economy

As agropastoralists, the Masikoro typically raise cattle and cultivate

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

and

manioc ''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated a ...

"semi-intensively on a 12-to 15-month schedule". Weekly markets are held in villages of the Masikoro people in which the Mikea trade their products made from the forest such as

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

, tambotrika, tavolo powder, and ovy. Masikoro sell maize, manioc and rice from carts in Belo.

Culture

Historically, Sakalava kings resided among the Masikoro, rather than the Vezo, as the Masikoro have had more power and a larger population. It was important for the king to have a reliable boat available for transport, so if a Masikoro damaged a Vezo canoe, the punishment was beheading. Masikoro have "long, curly hair; high and broad foreheads; large and deep-set eyes; and wide nostrils". The women pound maize and rise on a daily basis, which calluses the thumb base. Funerals may continue for weeks or even longer.

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * * * {{authority control Ethnic groups in Madagascar Toliara Province