Madagascar Rediscovered: A History from Early Times to Independence

Mervyn Brown, Madagascar Rediscovered: A history from Early Times to Independence. London: Damien Tunnacliffe, 1978.

Hard cover, dustwrapper, 310 pages, plates, maps.

Dustwrapper slightly scuffed with short tear (no loss) on the lower panel. Text clean. Very good condition.

The great African island of Madagascar has become a largely forgotten world to most English-speaking people. Yet this mysterious and exotic country once had strong links with Great Britain and also to a lesser extent with the United states.

'This history of Madagascar rediscovers of the island and its rich heritage to which many British and Americans have contributed. In particular, during the Victorian era when missionary and trading activity flourished, a genuine Anglo-Malagasy culture developed. Links were less formal and elaborate in earlier periods, but they were even more colourful. The island was at one time a famous haunt of pirates, many of whom came from Britain or from New England. The son of one of these pirates created a powerful Kingdom on the East Coast of Madagascar, while others led plundering expeditions far and wide. In earlier periods still, shipwrecked sailors sometimes lived to tell the story of their adventures and at least one of these accounts is worthy of Robinson Crusoe himself. 

Madagascar Rediscovered is both a highly-readable and scholarly history which gives special emphasis to the forgotten links with the English-speaking world. At the time Mervyn Brown traces the history of the island continent from before the arrival of the first inhabitants who originate it some 5000 miles (8000 kilometres) away in Indonesia. How successive waves of these intrepid people came to inhabit the island is only one of the surprises and delights of this fascinating study.