Chinese people in Madagascar
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (70,000-100,000 (2011)) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Toamasina · Antananarivo | |
| Languages | |
| Chinese (Cantonese · Mandarin), Malagasy, French | |
| Religion | |
| Roman Catholicism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Sino-Mauritians |
Chinese people in Madagascar are a minority ethnic group of Madagascar and form Africa's third largest overseas Chinese population with a population in 2011 estimated at between 70,000-100,000.
Chinese ceramic goods dating to the 16th and 17th century have been found in Madagascar; however, these are generally believed not to be evidence of a direct Chinese presence at that early date, but rather trade between the two lands through intermediaries such as the Arabs. Some folk theories once popular among the Chinese of Madagascar claimed a Chinese rather than Austronesian origin for the Malagasy, and a widespread joke even claimed that the ethnonym Hova was a transcription of a Chinese name He Huai (何壞). Suggestions were made in 1786 and 1830 that the French should establish a colony and import Chinese, Indian, and Mozambican labour to Madagascar to populate it in order to prevent the British from gaining a foothold there, but no action was taken on the idea.
The first Chinese migrant to Madagascar arrived in the east coast port of Tamatave (now renamed Toamasina) in 1862, where he opened a shop, and later married a local Malagasy woman. Six others came to Nosy Be off the northwestern coast in 1866, then three more in 1872. Fourteen were noted at Majunga (Mahajanga), also in the northwest, in 1894. Then, a contingent of five hundred arrived at Tamatave in 1896. The following year, three thousand Chinese more labourers were brought in at the initiative of the French general Joseph Gallieni to work on the construction of the railway. Contract workers, intending to return home after their stint on the island, often became ill while working on the construction of the railway; though they survived to board ships back to China, many died en route. In absolute terms the resident population remained quite small: 452 in 1904, with 76 in the north, 31 in the west, 24 in the centre, 315 in the east, and 6 in the south. The vast majority were men. They had grown slightly by the time of the 1911 census, which found 649 Chinese in the country, making up about 3% of the country's foreign population and a minute fraction of the total population of 3.2 million.
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