We Shouldn't Simply Reject Solehah's Statements Unless We Have Facts And Figures To Do So
When Malay seafarers sailed to Madagascar
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| Tan Sri A Samad Ismail assigned Kathirasen to fly to Madagascar, instead of a Malay journalist to do it, because he wanted an unbiased story |
International Islamic University Malaysia lecturer Solehah Yaacob sailed into a storm of controversy when she suggested that the ancient Romans learnt shipbuilding techniques from Malay seafarers.
The debate went full steam ahead in coffee shops, on social media and at events where people gathered, right up to Parliament. Solehah was ridiculed by many, with some saying she had gone overboard and others wondering if she might be on some kind of imaginary grog.
But the Arabic language lecturer battened down the hatches, insisting she was right. She managed to muster support from some politicians and social media users.
I do not propose to join the debate over her claim, which most knowledgeable Malaysians feel is dead in the water as it lacks academic rigour.
However, I do propose to write about Malay prowess on the seas in earlier centuries and how I was tasked with investigating the voyage of the Malays to Madagascar.
One day in 2001, the doyen of journalism, A Samad Ismail, who was then heading a panel of advisers managing the New Straits Times for a brief spell, called me over to his office. I was then foreign editor.
He asked me to take a seat, looked me directly in the eye and said: “I want you to go to Madagascar.”
Taken aback, I just stared at him. Noticing my look, he quickly continued: “The Malays are said to have sailed from here to there and I want you to check if this is true. Find out whether they sailed from Malaya or Indonesia and why they did so.”
I knew nothing about Madagascar except from what I had learnt in my geography lessons: that it was the fourth largest island in the world and that it lay next to Africa.
After a pause, mostly to digest what I had heard, I asked if it would not be better for a Malay journalist to do this. “Kathirasen, I want an unbiased story. You go.” With that he dismissed me.
So it was that I landed at the Ivato International Airport in the capital Antananarivo, which I later learnt from people there is pronounced “Tananarive”, for a three-week voyage of discovery.
The first thing I noticed was that many of the Malagasy (as both the people and the language are known) resembled Malays. The Malay look was particularly noticeable amongst the Merina tribe, one of 18 recognised tribes on the island.
As I mingled with them, I found them to be polite, humble and gentle – traits common to Malays.
With the help of an interpreter, I spoke to old-timers, residents and government officials, including the adviser to the prime minister. I also spoke to Malaysians working there and officials at the Indonesian Embassy, in addition to reading up local historical material.
Upon my return, I wrote a series of articles on my brief stay in Madagascar, including how Malay seafarers undertook the arduous and mind-boggling 6,400km voyage by sailboat from the Malay Archipelago to Madagascar.
The Malagasy I spoke to acknowledged that their ancestors were from the Malay Archipelago (which includes Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore).
In fact, the north-eastern corner of a Malagasy house is considered sacred. This is where they offer prayers. And whenever they want the blessings of their ancestors before undertaking some important activity – such as going for an interview, changing jobs or going on a tour or business trip – the Malagasy go to the north-east corner of their houses to offer prayers.
I was told that the north-east was special because this was the direction from which their ancestors had come to Madagascar. The Malay Archipelago lies in this direction.
How did they sail such a distance in wooden sailing ships? Historians agree that the early inhabitants of the Malay Archipelago were sturdy sailors who had a thorough knowledge of the monsoon winds and sea currents.
Historians say the Malays could have taken one of two possible routes. The first is a direct route from the Malay Archipelago to Madagascar with a stop at the Chagos archipelago, a group of coral atolls somewhere in the centre of the two land masses. In taking the direct route, they could also have stopped over at the Maldives before proceeding to Madagascar.
Another more plausible theory is that they voyaged to Madagascar with stops at the Andaman Islands, Sri Lanka, southern India and the Maldives before crossing the Arabian Sea to arrive at the island of Suqutra from where they went to the coast of East Africa (Kenya and Tanzania). From there they moved to the Comoros Islands and on to Madagascar.
Those favouring this theory note that even today outrigger boats, which are believed to be the invention of the Malays, can be found in Sri Lanka, the Maldives, the east African coast and the west coast of Madagascar.
They argue that the coastal route helps explain the presence of African racial and cultural elements in the Malagasy population. It is believed that these Malays inter-married with locals in Africa, resulting in the proto-Malagasy.
Some historians say the expansion of the Bantu tribe to larger areas of Africa forced the proto-Malagasy to migrate to Madagascar.
There is also another theory: that the Malays could have settled and established a trading colony in Madagascar under the auspices of the Srivijaya Empire.
Whatever it was, these voyages were probably undertaken during the May-to-October period when the equatorial trade winds blew towards Madagascar.
How could so many people have gone in small outrigger boats?
Historians point to a bas-relief in the Borobudur temple in Java which shows a large ocean-going vessel with a tripod mast and outriggers. Since this was around 800CE, it is theorised that larger boats could also have been used during the migration. There is also reference, in the writings of Chinese travellers of that period, to the usage of Malay ships capable of carrying up to 100 people.
One of those I spoke to, Malagasy researcher Ndriana Rabarioelina, said the Merina tribe – whose physiognomy is closest to that of the Malays – assert that their ancestors were the last of the immigrants from the Malay Archipelago, reaching Madagascar around the 13th or 14th century.
When did they first start their voyages to Madagascar, or Africa?
Noting the presence of many Sanskrit loan words in the Malagasy language, and the fact that Sanskrit use was at its peak in the Malay Archipelago from 400CE, many historians argue that the immigrants must have come to Madagascar around that period or shortly after that.
Some historians put the date between the 10th and 16th centuries. Historian Otto Dahl, who studied the languages of the Malagasy and several Indonesian groups, puts it at around the 7th century AD.
Why did they migrate to Madagascar?
One theory is that they may have been pushed out by waves of immigrants from Thailand and Indochina. Another is that they fled the dominance of other Malay groups or the Srivijaya Empire’s rule. Yet another is that they may have been motivated by trade. Then there is the theory that the colonisation was done with the assistance of the Srivijaya rulers.
When I wrote the articles, there was no conclusive evidence as to the exact origin of the Malagasy but now science has given the answer.
Writing in The Conversation of March 7, 2018, researchers François-Xavier Ricaut and Nicolas Brucato, who worked with eight other researchers, say that the seafarers reaching Madagascar were largely the Banjar of Indonesia and that they interbred with the East African people, first in the Comoros archipelago around the eighth century and, later, in Madagascar around the 11th century.
After analysing the genomes of 3,000 individuals from 190 regional populations from around the Indian Ocean, they assert: “Our research has settled the debate on the African-Asian ancestry of Madagascar and the Comoros. We now know that Asians came to the Comoros archipelago first in the eighth century and then Madagascar in the 11th century.”
Writing in Molecular Biology and Evolution (Volume 33 Issue 9) in 2016, the 10 researchers noted that their analysis “reconciles both the linguistic and genetic data, strengthening our scenario placing the Banjar as the main Asian parental population of the Malagasy. Their current genetic diversity appears to be the reflection of the historical relationship between Madagascar, Southeast Borneo, and the Malay. The maritime routes linking Madagascar to Borneo were particularly exploited during the rapid expansion of trading networks led by the Hindu Malay Kingdoms, such as Srivijaya (6th–13th centuries).”
They add: “Before the probable date of migration (around 1000 years BP), the ancestors of the current Banjar would have contained both Malay and Ma’anyan (a Dayak group indigenous to Borneo) genetic diversity, and probably linguistic inheritances from both.”
So why is it that little is heard of the Malay seafarers after this period?
Dahl and other historians suggest that in the competition with the Arabs, the Malays lost out.
“The Arabs increased their traffic to the East and directly to Canton and therefore they no longer needed an entreport in Indonesia. They displaced the Indonesian traders and took over the leading position in the trade between China and the West and also the south African coast,” says Dahl.
And soon after, the Europeans arrived to take over the trade networks.
Adapted from the article written by A Kathirasen, first published by FMT on 24 November 2025.
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| Adapted by Fauzi Kadir Chief Editor
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