Betsimisaraka

The Betsimisaraka, whose name means the many inseparables, are Madagascar's second largest people, holding the eastern coastal strip from Antalaha to Mananjary. From the 1680s British and American pirates settled there, marrying chiefly daughters and fathering the mixed zana-malata.

One of them, Ratsimilaho, born around 1694, led the northern clans against a southern invasion, took Fenerive in 1712 and was elected king, naming his followers Betsimisaraka. With Bezanozano and Sakalava allies his strong kingdom lasted until his death in 1754.

Successors were weak: a king was assassinated in 1767, the French seized Ile Sainte Marie, and the union fragmented by 1803. Radama I of Imerina marched on Toamasina and garrisoned the coast in 1817; after a failed 1825 revolt Queen Ranavalona I destroyed the remnants of the old ruling line. They kept ancestor veneration, tromba rites and famadihana reburial under fady taboos.