Report on October Speaker on Madagascar

Acknowledgement to photographer Yann Bertrand

Andreas Helwig, Senior Lecturer in Electro-Mechanical Engineering at the University of Southern Queensland gave a wide-ranging and fascinating talk on Madagascar. He began by giving some background information about the country: it is about a third of the size of Queensland, but its population is about 27 million; it lies off the east coast of Africa, but its formation is part of the Gondwana story, the supercontinent that was formed about 550 million years ago (mya). About 135 mya it split from Africa (as part of India). Then about 88 mya it split from India, as India made its way northward. It was thought to be peopled initially by Nazimba or Kimosy people (like Negrita pygmy people found in Andaman Islands). Migrations of Malayo-Polynesian peoples took place from 400 to 700 AD, followed by Arabs, Bantu tribes (in 1300s AD) and then the European arrival from 1580 onwards. As expected, these migrations have over time created a great amount of diversity in the Madagascar population.

It is currently a very poor country with most inhabitants falling into the class of ‘poor’ with wealth concentrated in the hands of a minority. Poverty and poor agricultural practices have led to a lot of slash and burn type of agriculture, to the detriment of the forests on the island. Many of the hills have been denuded and aerial photographs show that there is greenery only in the valleys between hills. Madagascar has very old geology, and has many minerals, which has attracted mining but does not seem to have diminished the levels of poverty. The landscape is very volcanic.

Biodiversity, which is under threat by development and poor policies, has provided the country with many plants with medicinal properties. Helwig gave as an example the story of the use of liana sap to heal a child that had got very badly burned on the stomach area. Currently, over 400 ‘medicinal plants’ are being investigated for their medicinal value – anti-malarial, for diabetes, for leprosy, for kidney stones and so forth.

There are a number of plants that are well-known and are native to Madagascar, amongst them the Poinciana, Bismarck palm, the polka dot plant (Hypoestes phyllostachya) and the baobab (Adansonia za). A very popular wood is the Malagasy Rosewood and its felling is having an impact on the rainforests of the island. Black ebony is another tree in which there is much illegal trading.

Photo from the slide presentation: Jewelled chameleon

In terms of fauna, there are a huge variety of lemurs, from one that would fit into the palm of one’s hand to one as tall as a person when standing on its hind legs. Radiated tortoises can live up to 300 years. The jewelled chameleon of Madagascar lives up to its name. The Madagascan giant spider lives up to its name also, judging by the size of the web it is able to spin – dwarfing the man who was in the picture also. There are seven species of silkworms.

Andreas Helwig conveyed wonderfully the variety of land formation, the diversity of people, plants and wildlife, but also the poverty that afflicts the country. One might wonder what an electro-mechanical lecturer was doing in Madagascar (he has visited this country annually for over twenty years). This was revealed at the end of his talk. He has been actively involved in a school for children in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. Project Madagascar, as it is called, is a Toowoomba-based not-for-profit committee of Civic Aid and Development, established in 2004. It aims to shift the Malagasy people from poverty to hope by providing affordable life-skills and education to the children of Madagascar in two Community and Learning Centres (CLCs) in Antananarivo. The following website provides further details about the school and the project: https://projectmadagascar.org.au/

(Report by Francis Mangubhai)