Madagascar and Africa, Austronesian migration

Abstract

Abstract No large movements of Austronesians similar to that of the Lapita culture expansion in the Pacific are to be found in the Indian Ocean. However, Austronesian migrations towards the western Indian Ocean did occur in ancient periods. The discovery of phytoliths ofMusa(plantains of genome AAB. A is forMusa acuminataColla, B forMusa balbisianaColla, the main two species at the origin of the domesticated banana cultivars) in Cameroon dated c.500/400BCE(Mbida et al. 2001) constitutes evidence for the arrival of Austronesians on the East African coast probably at the beginning of the 1st millenniumBCE, where they may have also introduced the taro and the water yam (Blench 2009). Moreover, the East African highlands are a place of great genetic diversity for triploids AAA, the genome of which derives from a source between Java and New‐Guinea (Perrier et al. 2009). The East African coast also reveals a large variety of cultivars that were probably introduced more recently (AA, AAA, AB, AAB, ABB), partly in the first millennium of the Christian era (CE). The presence of a wild diploid (AA) banana on Pemba Island provides another clue of an early Austronesian presence, although it is impossible to date its arrival (a wild banana of insular Southeast Asian origin has also been found in northeast Madagascar).

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