Tarika

TarikaÆs music is always steeped in uncompromising pride for their cultural roots. A large part of their award-winning 1997 album, Son Egal, dealt with the legacies of colonialism, racism, and corruption in Madagascar. Historical connections are often an inspiration for the music and their songs also reflect the musical roots of their own Merina people in the Malagasy highlands. The first settlers of Madagascar around 1500 years ago were not from nearby Africa but of Malayo/Polynesian origin, arriving from Indonesia either by a circuitous coastal route around the north and down the east coast of Africa or directly across the Indian Ocean. They were related to the same people who, two thousand years earlier, had begun to spread out and eventually populate the Pacific, reaching Hawaii, Easter Island and New Zealand many centuries before European explorers.