Post 12/01/2025

At one conference in Chile, several participants from Madagascar approached us—delegates from Indonesia—while speaking Javanese. Some of our group who were from Java admitted they couldn’t fully understand their Javanese, because many of the words came from an older form of the language. They greeted us warmly, as if meeting long-lost relatives. Their facial features also closely resembled those of Indonesians. They shared stories about their ancestors from Java, even though they had never set foot on the island.

Our impression was that they carried a strong sense of pride in having ancestral roots in Indonesia. They followed news about Indonesia’s rapid economic growth, which had climbed to the top ranks globally, surpassing several developed countries. They were also proud that Indonesia had been able to produce and export aircraft and other advanced technologies. They imagined Indonesia eventually standing alongside the world’s most powerful nations.

Madagascar lies off the east coast of Africa. Its inhabitants generally resist being identified as ethnically African. The country is home to about 22 million people. Roughly seven percent are Muslim, though other data put the figure between ten and fifteen percent. The majority follow local religions (52 percent) or Christianity (41 percent). Most of the Muslim communities live on the western side of the island, formerly known as the Malagasy Republic. They are largely descendants of immigrants from Yemen, Iran, Zanzibar, and other regions, including Javanese people who were once brought by the Dutch as plantation laborers. Around fifty thousand Muslim refugees from India, the Comoros, and Somalia also live on the island.

The Javanese community in Madagascar still preserves its cultural heritage. To this day, they build mosques facing west, following the orientation of mosques in Java, even though mosques of other communities face the opposite direction. Javanese arts such as gamelan and batik traditions remain alive on the island. Many members of the community can still speak Javanese, even if they do not understand Indonesian. They also continue to practice Sunni Islam with the same school of thought commonly followed in Indonesia.