African Kingdoms

Modern Madagascar
AD 1960 - Present Day
Incorporating Heads of State (1960-2025)

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Madagascar is a large island off the African east coast, one that has been isolated by the sea for several million years. This has produced a largely unique array of mammals, along with half its birds and most of its plants being found here and nowhere else. Sitting in the Indian Ocean and separated from mainland Africa by the Mozambique Channel, its closest neighbours on the mainland are Tanzania, Mozambique, eSwatini, and South Africa, with Mauritius and Saint-Denis some way distant from the island's own eastern coast.

Two main theories provide for the arrival of the first Malagasy - either that they reached the island between AD 200 and 500 from South-East Asia, or that a wayward Indonesian vessel made landfall around AD 800 and a ship's compliment that included thirty largely Indonesian women provided the core of the original population. The latter theory is provided by DNA evidence.

However, the discovery in 2018 of the fossilised bones of a giant emu-like bird were discovered to contain tell-tale cut marks. This seemed to confirm that they had been hunted and, having been dated to around 8000 BC, they were hunted by modern humans a long time prior to any previously estimated permanent settlement of the island.

Modern Malagasy are roughly a fifty-fifty mix of Indonesians and East Africans. The island's history is largely obscure before around AD 1300, when a series of kingdoms or states began to emerge. Of these, the Merina state was the strongest, and it almost completely saw out the nineteenth century before the French took control.

As with many colonised states around the world, Madagascar gained independence following the Second World War, in this case in 1960. A new republic was declared on 26 June 1960 with a president being elected to the post - Philibert Tsiranana of the Democratic Social Party of Madagascar (Parti Social Démocrate de Madagascar in French). Since that time the republic has seen coups, power struggles and assassinations mar its history. Poverty is not far from the doors of many ordinary Malagasy while the island's unique flora and fauna is being placed under great strain by competition for agricultural land.

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(Information by Peter Kessler & John De Cleene, with additional information from the John De Cleene Archive, from Encyclopaedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition, Cambridge (England), 1910), and from External Links: BBC Country Profiles, and the US Library of Congress Country Studies: Madagascar, Helen Chapin Metz, and the Institute for Security Studies.

1960

Madagascar has achieved independence as a republic and Philibert Tsiranana becomes the island's first president as the leader of the Democratic Social Party of Madagascar (Parti Social Démocrate de Madagascar or PSD) which had always favoured self-rule while maintaining close ties with France.

Philibert Tsiranana was Madagascar's first independent president, albeit one who was elected under French rule, but his eventually unpopular period in office was a sign of things to come

1972

Amid popular unrest, Tsiranana dissolves government and hands power to army chief General Gabriel Ramanantsoa as head of a provisional government. Ramanantsoa takes steps to reduce the country's ties with France in favour of links with the Soviet Union. This ends the period of the 'First Republic'.

1972 - 1975

Army major-general. Stepped down due to unpopularity.

1975

Army colonel. Assassinated after six days.

1975

Army general. Replaced after four months.

1975 - 1976

A military coup sees Lieutenant-Commander Didier Ratsiraka seize power with the aim of achieving a socialist paradise - the country's 'Second Republic'. The country is renamed the 'Democratic Republic of Madagascar' and Ratsiraka is 'elected' president for a seven-year term. The following year, Ratsiraka nationalises large parts of the economy and forms the Arema party. Over the years he increases state control over the economy until 1986 when he changes tack and promotes a market economy.

1975 - 1991

Naval vice-admiral.

1991

The hoped-for socialist paradise has failed to materialise. Instead the country has seen its economy go into decline and in the 1980s the authorities had been forced to adopt a structural adjustment programme imposed by the International Monetary Fund. Didier Ratsiraka establishes a transitional government and loses the resulting elections (although he subsequently returns as elected president in 1997-2002). This is the start of the third republic.

2000 - 2001

Thousands are made homeless after two cyclones hit the island and also Mozambique in March 2000. In December of the same year Arema wins provincial elections in most of the cities, apart from Antananarivo. The elections are for a new system of local government but some seventy percent of voters stay away after the opposition call for a boycott. They claim that voters had not been properly informed about the reforms.

In February 2001, an opposition parliamentary group, the 'Crisis Unit for the Defence of Democracy', is established following the jailing of MP Jean-Eugene Voninahitsy for insulting the president and also for cheque fraud. In May the senate reopens after a gap of twenty-nine years, completing the government framework provided for in the 1992 constitution, which had replaced the socialist revolutionary system. The new framework comprises the presidency, national assembly, senate and constitutional high court.

2002

Claiming victory in 2001's late presidential elections, opposition candidate Marc Ravalomanana and his supporters mount a general strike and mass protests after being prevented from taking office. Violence breaks out between rival protesters before the High Constitutional Court declares Ravalomanana to be the election winner. This decision is recognised by the USA and the previous incumbent, Ratsiraka, goes into exile.

2006

Madagascar experiences an attempted coup during the lead-up to a presidential election. On 18 November, General Andrianafidisoa declares military rule and uses a site near the capital's airport as his base. However, the coup soon peters out and is disguised as an attempt to declare the unconstitutional nature of the government. The general is eventually arrested and sentenced to four years in jail.

2006

Retired army general. Attempted coup leader.

2009

Riots follow the forced closure of opposition television and radio stations. Opposition leader Andry Rajoelina forces the current president, Marc Ravalomanana, to step down, and assumes the role of acting president. He promises elections in 2011, but his government is not recognised internationally.

Andry Rajoelina, former mayor of Antananarivo and leader of the opposition in 2009, effectively seized power that year but was not recognised by the rest of the world as a legitimate leader

2009 - 2014

Seized power by force. Allowed elections in 2014.

2014 - 2015

The regime of Andry Rajoelina has not been recognised internationally. Instead the country has been isolated and deprived of foreign aid until the election of a new president in 2014, Hery Rajaonarimampianina. His failure to improve the country's economic plight leads parliament to vote for his impeachment in May 2015, threatening Madagascar with a return to constitutional uncertainty.