Irodo

Irodo was a settlement at the mouth of the Irodo River in northern Madagascar, below the Ambohitra Massif. Known earlier as Antsampagnamahazo, it became a multiethnic stopping place between the trading centre of Vohemar and the Antankarana interior.

The Antankarana separated from the Sakalava in the sixteenth century under the Zafin'i'fotsy royal line. Their first king Kozobe ruled from 1614 and divided the north among his five sons. After Sakalava invasions, Andriantsirotso refounded the kingdom around Ankarana in 1692, sheltering his people in caves.