Malagasy Genes Allude to Asia-Africa Migration
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
The Malagasy people of Madagascar carry the genes from ancestors in nearby East Africa and distant Borneo, suggesting a big migration from Asia to Africa 2,000 years ago, British researchers reported Tuesday.
The genetic study, published in the current issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics, supports the puzzling finding that the Malagasy language more closely resembles Indonesian dialects than East African tongues.
But the study does little to answer the question of how the settlers arrived.
Madagascar, the largest island in the Indian Ocean, lies 250 miles off the coast of Africa and is 4,000 miles from Indonesia.
