Tuesday, January 13, 2004

Indonesians in Africa

Ed Cohn afficionados will have seen this piece in The Guardian about a theory that Indonesians were primarily responsible for the creation of African culture. I basically agree with Ed that this is more a media-friendly surprise theory than serious history, but also want to note that there is evidence of an Indonesian presence in the western Indian Ocean for very early periods, and that Malagasy is actually the westernmost Polynesian language. I vaguely remember reading an essay in this book that went into these issues, but don't recall the details.

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