History of Madagascar
Europe knew of Madagascar through Arab sources; based on them "The Travels of Marco Polo" claimed that "the inhabitants are Saracens, or followers of the law of Mohammed", without mentioning other inhabitants. Other than its size and location, everything about the island in the book describes southeastern Africa, not Madagascar. European contact began on 10 August 1500, when the Portuguese sea captain Diogo Dias sighted the island after his ship separated from a fleet going to India. The Portuguese continued trading with the islanders and named the island "São Lourenço" (Saint Lawrence). In 1666, François Caron, the director general of the newly formed French East India Company, sailed to Madagascar. The company failed to establish a colony on Madagascar but established ports on the nearby islands of Bourbon (now Réunion) and Isle de France (now Mauritius). In the late 17th century, the French established trading posts along the east coast. On Île Sainte-Marie, a small island off the northeastern coast of Madagascar, Captain Misson and his pirate crew allegedly founded the famous pirate utopia of Libertatia in the late 17th century. From about 1774 to 1824, Madagascar was a favorite haunt for pirates. Many European sailors were shipwrecked on the coasts of the island, among them Robert Drury, whose journal is one of the few written depictions of life in southern Madagascar during the 18th century. Sailors sometimes called Madagascar "Island of the Moon".
Bahá'í Faith in Madagascar
In 1953 Shoghi Effendi, head of the religion after the death of `Abdu'l-Bahá, planned an international teaching plan to systematically implement the goals outlined termed the Ten Year Crusade. The first Bahá'í to pioneer to Madagascar arrived in 1953 when Meherangiz Munsiff, an Asian Indian arrived from Britain. She was able to stay through the hospitality of a local Muslim family and later with the Robert family, of Tananarive (now Antananarivo), who were among the first to become Bahá'ís in Madagascar and who later played an outstanding role in the history of the religion here. Suffering ill health, Munsiff left in January 1954 a day after Danile Randrianarivo, 29, joined the religion, becoming the first Malagasy Bahá'í. Jalal Nakhjavani, brother of Ali Nakhjavani, was elected to the first National Spiritual Assembly of Central and East Africa in 1954. It was at this time that he made extensive teaching trips visiting the islands of Zanzibar, Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion and the Comoro Islands. In 1955 the first Assembly of Madagagar was elected. By May 1955 five introductory pamphlets on the religion were published by the British Baha'i Publishing Trust in the Malagasy language. In April 1956 the religion was present in small numbers across 15 countries of southern Africa including islands. To administer the Bahá'í communities across southern Africa a regional governing body was elected based in South Africa to cover them all called the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of South & West Africa in 1956.