Mahajanga

Mahajanga grew where the Betsiboka river meets the Mozambique Channel, on a coast that traded with Africa and Arabia long before Europe arrived. Swahili and Arab merchants worked these bays from the medieval period, and around 1700 the Sakalava kingdom of Boina rose in the north-west with Mahajanga as its port, which became the island's largest port for the slave trade. Traders from the Comoros, the Swahili coast, Gujarat and Arabia settled and intermarried, giving the town its enduring outward-facing character.

In the nineteenth century Merina armies from the highlands pushed into Sakalava country and took control of the port, which remained the gateway between the plateau and the sea. In 1895 the French expedition that ended the Merina kingdom landed at Mahajanga and marched inland towards Antananarivo; under colonial rule the town, known in French as Majunga, gained new port quays, a hospital and a road to the capital, and its merchant communities grew.

After independence the port kept its place as the outlet for the west, but the city's history has not been calm. In 1976 deadly rioting was directed against Mahajanga's large Comorian community, and many Comorians left the country afterwards. Since then Mahajanga has lived from shipping, fishing and prawn farming and a domestic holiday trade, and it remains one of the largest cities in Madagascar.

Mahajanga is Sakalava at its base but cosmopolitan in practice. Comorian families, Indian and Pakistani trading families known as Karana, Arab-descended households, Merina incomers and coastal Malagasy all live in the same streets, and Islam is far more visible here than on the highland plateau, with mosques through the centre alongside Catholic and Protestant churches. Ancestral religion runs underneath all of it.

Sakalava royal tradition remains strong in the region. Royal relics are kept in shrines called doany, and tromba — possession by the spirits of dead kings, in which mediums speak with royal voices at gatherings accompanied by music — is part of religious life. Sacred sites, including springs and pools where fish are protected by taboo, are treated with care, and fady, the system of local prohibitions, varies from family to family.

The soundtrack is salegy, the fast northern dance music of accordion, electric guitar and drums, which fills bars and seafront gatherings at weekends. Women often wear the brightly printed lamba and paint their faces with masonjoany, a paste of ground wood used as sunscreen and decoration. Life is organised around the heat: work early, rest through the middle of the day, and a long evening on the Bord de la Mer, where families walk, children play and stalls sell grilled food until late.

About 246,000 people lived in Mahajanga at the 2018 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Madagascar. The centre, around Mahajanga Be and the seafront, holds the administration, the hotels and the older trading houses; the quarters around Mahabibo are busier and more densely built, and the city spreads north in low suburbs towards Amborovy and the airport.

The port is the city's reason for being, handling cargo for the west coast and maintaining sea links to the Comoros. Fishing, prawn farming and processing, oil mills and soap works, trade through the market quarters and a domestic tourist trade built on the beaches make up the rest of the economy. Many households live by small-scale commerce, and incomes are low.

The day begins early and empties out at midday, when the heat is at its worst, before the evening brings the city back onto the promenade. Water and electricity supply are unreliable, as they are across the country, and the rainy season brings flooding to low-lying quarters and cuts roads inland. Malaria remains a serious everyday health problem on this coast.

Mahajanga eats rice with the sea. Fish, prawns, crab, octopus and squid from the Mozambique Channel are grilled or cooked in coconut milk, and chicken in coconut sauce is a coastal standard. The everyday meal is vary — rice — with a laoka, a side dish of fish, meat or greens in a light broth, and sakay, a fiery chilli paste, on the table.

The trading communities have left the strongest mark. Samosas, called sambos here, are sold on every corner; curry-spiced dishes appear on restaurant menus; and khimo, a dish of finely minced spiced meat, is associated with the city above all others. Street food is the city's real kitchen: zebu brochettes over charcoal, grilled corn and cassava, fried cakes and doughnuts, and mofo gasy, rice-flour cakes eaten at breakfast.

Fruit follows the seasons — mangoes, cashews, lychees, papaya and coconut — and juices of tamarind and baobab fruit are sold cold along the seafront. To drink there is ranon'ampango, the smoky water boiled in the rice pot, strong sweet coffee, Three Horses Beer, and rhum arrangé, rum steeped with vanilla, fruit or spices.