Ikongo

Ikongo lies beside the Sandrananta River in the forested hills of southeastern Madagascar. The Tanala, whose name means people of the forest, inhabit the wooded country between the highlands and the eastern coast. Rice cultivation and the forest both shaped the lives of communities around Ikongo, where local rulers governed distinct territories. Their kingdoms combined political authority with traditions surrounding the growing of rice.

During much of the eighteenth century the Tanala of Ikongo fought their Antemoro neighbours on the coastal plain. The struggle ended near the century's close with a bloody Tanala invasion of the coast. Relations between the forest interior and the coast were thus shaped by conflict as well as by their proximity across the eastern escarpment.