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In Madagascar the dead never leave. They become razana — ancestors who bless, warn and govern the living as intermediaries with God. The key that unlocks the island’s culture.

Why did Madagascar become the capital of Indian Ocean piracy? Geography, a sheltered bay, and quiet New York money. Inside the Pirate Round and the haven of Ile Sainte-Marie.

That fresh lychee at your European Christmas probably came from Madagascar — the world’s #1 lychee exporter. Inside the east coast’s six-week, 100,000-tonne litchi season.

Europe called her the ‘Mad Monarch.’ Modern historians see a nationalist who kept Madagascar free from empire for decades — though her reign was genuinely brutal. The real Ranavalona I.

Every 26 June, Madagascar celebrates independence. Behind the fireworks: conquest, the crushed 1947 uprising, a 1958 referendum, and the road to full sovereignty in 1960.

Madagascar has geysers — at Analavory, near Ampefy. This quiet volcanic lake district west of Antananarivo hides geysers, the Lily Falls and the island’s 4th-largest lake.

One plain rectangle of cloth explains Malagasy life: the lamba carries babies, clothes the living, cushions loads — and, as the lamba mena, wraps the ancestors themselves.

Antsirabe looks like a French spa town because it was built as one — by Norwegian missionaries in 1872, for cool air and thermal springs. The ‘Malagasy Vichy’, explained.