- Apr 7, 2013
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Would the Merina of Madacasgar qualify as an African tribe although they speak a Polynesian language and possibly racially Polynesian or partly? They used to be the rulers of Madagascar. The famous now long deceased Matriach of my clan descended from this tribe. She was a minor nobility most likely (although my family exxagerate her importance by claiming she was a princess). They were dispossessed by the French and ended up marrying a French sailor after their deportation to Mauritius (so she must have come from a fairly powerful family); their Queen was exiled to Algeria.
All the polynesians were black until their "discovery" by Europeans. Once the Europeans (French) took over, they brought in Japanese people to the islands to work on the sugar, etc. plantations (like Dole Fruit in Hawaii - brought in by Americans who stole that island). The original blacks either intermarried with them (like your ancestor) or were dispossessed by the overwhelming number of Japanese the Europeans imported.