Madagascar A country I never thought spoke

French

by Mitchell Thompson

Madagascar is: •The 4th largest island in the world

• It is in Sothern Africa, in the Indian Ocean

•Formally an independent kingdom, Madagascar was invaded by the French in

1896

by Mitchell Thompson

•The French used Madagascar as a source for timber & exotic spices, like vanilla. Vanilla beans take a minimum of 2 years to grow, so they are quite expensive.

•Despite vanilla being expensive, the average worker earns approx $1 per day ,about 60p (which is less than a packet of crisps)

by Mitchell Thompson

Because of that, the Malagasy people live below the world poverty line (which means they are very poor), half the children under 5 are under fed and starving!

• Today, Madagascar is home to around 18 million people, they eat rice every day, because the meat is so expensive.• because they are a poor country they only live to around 55 years old.

•Madagascar has it good things too.. It won its independence back in 1960, yet they still speak French along with Malagasy. • 75% of its animals & plants don't exist anywhere else on earth, it has strange animals like lemurs, tenrecs – spiny hedgehog

• 27 species of bats, including the giant fruit bat, known as the flying fox

• Animals you would expect to find in Africa like Ape’s, Monkey’s Elephant’s, Zebra’s, Lion’s.. Don't live in Madagascar because it’s an island.•The country has 2 seasons, unlike our 4. its got a rainy season, December to April (we know what that feels like in Scotland!)• Dry season from May to November

• The island is heavily exposed to tropical cyclones whichBrings torrential rain & destructive floods

1 of the facts about Madagascar that IFound interesting is that Astronauts haveremarked that it looked like it’s bleeding to death from space, because it’s river runsblood red & stains the surrounding Indian Ocean

This is because of an environmental problem, soil erosion

“The most photographed house in Madagascar". Its simple design and cheerful flowers shows the home of a middle class Malagasy family

Questions ?

Mitchell A.j. Thompson