Tanala

The Tanala, whose name means people of the forest, are a Malagasy people of the forested inland hills of southeastern Madagascar around Manakara. The first inhabitants of their country were the Vazimba; in the 1600s the Zafirambo clan, led by the noble ancestor Ralambo, moved in from the coast and gradually made themselves masters of the Sandrananta and Manambondro valleys, expelling the Antemahafaly clan.

Through much of the 1700s the Tanala fought the neighbouring Antemoro, and near the end of that century they conquered the eastern coast; under King Andriamatahetany their kingdom stretched between the Faraony and Matetana rivers before splitting into two states around Manambondro and Sandrananta.

Famed as warriors and diviners, they later divided into the southern Ikongo group, which kept its independence, and the northern Menabe group, which submitted to the expanding Kingdom of Imerina in the 1800s.