Antaifasy

The Antaifasy, whose name means people of the sands, are a fishing and farming Malagasy people of the south-eastern coast around Farafangana, in a homeland called Ifasy between Antaimoro country and Isaka.

Their uncertain early history is dominated by a long feud with the neighbouring Antaimoro: from the 1680s skirmishes ran through the eighteenth century, and after a period of Antaimoro overlordship King Maseba freed them again. In the eighteenth century they grew wealthy on coastal commerce, and King Ifara monopolized trade with European ships until he controlled all traffic on the Manampatra river.

Their society stayed split into three clans under their own kings and strict moral codes. In 1827 the armies of Imerina reduced the Antaifasy to vassals; resistance continued in the forests, though many were carried off to Antananarivo as slaves. They laid their dead in kibory funeral houses hidden in sacred forest.