History of Madagascar
By the 15th century, Europeans had wrested control of the spice trade from the Muslims. They did this by bypassing the Middle East and sending their cargo-ships around the Cape of Good Hope to India. The Portuguese mariner Diogo Dias became the first European to set foot on Madagascar when his ship, bound for India, blew off course in 1500. In the ensuing two-hundred years, the English and French tried (and failed) to establish settlements on the island.
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.