Madagascar

Home> Countries> Africa> Madagascar

Country Name

Madagascar, or officially the Republic of Madagascar.

Location

Madagascar is an island located off the southern coast of Africa. Madagascar is bordered by the Indian Ocean and is east of Mozambique.

It shares maritime borders with Comoros, Mauritius, Mozambique, Réunion, Mayotte, and South Africa.

Capital

Antananarivo.

The reason for naming the country

The name Madageiscar was first recorded in the memoirs of 13th-century Venetian explorer Marco Polo as a corrupted transliteration of the name Mogadishu, the Somali port with which Polo had confused the island.

Flag

The Madagascar flag was adopted on October 14, 1958.

Madagascar gained independence from France on June 26, 1960.

The flag of Madagascar consists of a horizontal red stripe over a green stripe, with a vertical white stripe.

One theory on the Madagascar flag's meaning says that the flag's colors represent Madagascar's history, their desire to get independent, and traditional classes. The white is said to stand for purity and the red for independence and freedom; the green represents the coastal regions and symbolizes hope.