Red Island spirit

Is it African or Asian? Is it a big island or a small continent? Is it real...? Madagascar, apart from being a country with a lot of "a", is a natural wonder, a gem anchored in the indian ocean. Some time back (165 million years ago) it broke free from the African continent after one of these cataclysmic earthquake they had back then. It took it the next 45 million years to drift around 250 miles to the northeast. For thousands of years the place has been heaven for animals that could find plentiful foodstuffs, and an almost total lack of predators (no lions, no sheetas, no poisonous snakes). Today still the island hosts life forms that have changed very little in hundreds of thousands, even millions of years. In many ways, Madagascar is literally a land that time forgot. Well, until the first humans arrived (around 2,000 years ago), most likely using outrigger canoes hailing from India, Africa, and Arabia. The newcomers were greeted by dense rainforests and an abundance of wildlife – strange monkey-like creatures known as lemurs, dwarf hippos, giant tortoises, ten-foot tall elephant birds (their enormous, thousand-year old eggs are still being found to this day), and over 100 other exotic species of animal found nowhere else on earth. Although they lived in tribes, the Africans, Indians, and Arabs managed to avoid segregation. Over many hundreds of years, an incredible synthesis of tradition, religion, language, and genetics took place, creating a society remarkable in its uniformity of language and beliefs.
Well, until the white man arrived - bringing dreams of trade and industrialisation along.If they managed to exploit the land and the people (with conscent of various local kings until Queen Ranavalona), the Portugese, French and British colonial powers just wasted their energy trying to change the mentalities of tribes like the Androy (south) who knew better than follow the stupid white man in its capitalist anxious quest.
Here the westerner has to forget his education and open up to a new way of approaching life and death, a different set of values and priorities. Even time is reversed here: tomorrow is yesterday and yesterday is tomorrow. Past is future and future is past.

Try to implement (neo-colonial) development programs with that cultural clash!!

Madagascar

Yes it's the title of a cartoon. Yes in the next James Bond there will be a plot involving the "Big Island". Yes it's in Africa, and yes it's a pretty long name for a country. But wait until they show you a bilingual dictionnary!So yes, we are in another third world nation made famous both by a Walt Disney blockbuster and severe rates of malnutrition, infant mortality and illeteracy.
We have embarked for a 5 months trip backpacking, the only way to really understand the complexity and diversity of foreign cultures and live with people at their pace(Theodore Monot was one of the oldest backpackers I know of). Mostly the idea is to trek every possible corner of Madagascar, meet people, learn the language, take pictures, do music, etc.
Security-wise the country is pretty safe. Compared to DRC or Tajikistan or Somalia this place is VERY quiet and people are super peaceful. I was told by a taxi driver this morning that some politicians here try to play the discord between the 18 ethnic groups present on the island. Despite the temptation to seize power the hardway like it is done in their neighbour african countries, Malagasy have managed to focus around a national identity rendering ethnic-based discourses useless... that in itself is amazing. Besides, you should be aware that mosquitoes are by far the biggest killers in Africa (which in a way makes of them our only untamed predators and puts us only second position on top of the food chain).
Anyway, I am positive the rest of our trip will teach us many more lessons about the place, the rituals, the music, the people and of course the beautiful wilderness (so poorly captured by Walt Disney studios).

Get more data from Madagascar Govt Website
If you want to learn more about Fighting Malaria in Africa
If you have doubts on Disney's ethics, read this one!