Antaisaka

The Antaisaka are a Malagasy people of the south-eastern coast south of Farafangana, named for the inland province of Isaka. Their kings came of the Zarabehava, a Sakalava royal line that crossed from the west coast between 1620 and 1650 to settle at Nosipandra.

Oral history names the founder Andriamandresy, born Repila: passed over for the succession after a violent quarrel in which he wounded his uncle, he was exiled and led his followers eastward to found a kingdom. By the early 1700s the Antaisaka realm ranked among Madagascar's four largest kingdoms.

From 1820 the armies of Imerina invaded the coast, killing captured men and enslaving women and children, and the kingdom lost its independence piece by piece. Their life was governed by strict marriage taboos, and twins were considered fady. Corpses were dried for two or three years before being carried through a special door to the kibory house in a sacred forest.