Jennifer Botello, age 13, of Orlando, Fla., for her question:
WHERE IS MADAGASCAR?
The Democratic Republic of Madagascar is a country that is located in the Indian ocean, separated from the southeast coast of Africa by the Mozambique channel. It is made up of Madagascar Island, the fourth largest island in the world, and several small islands.
Madagascar was annexed by the French in 1896 and became self governing within the French Community in 1958 as the Malagasy Republic. It then gained full independence in 1960 and took the name Democratic Republic of Madagascar in 1975.
The people of Madagascar are believed to be descended from Africans and Indonesians who reached the island in ancient times. A Portugese sea captain named Diogo Dias was"the first European to sight the island. He made a visit in 1500 on a trip 'to India.
During the 17th century the Portugese, the English and the French unsuccessfully attempted to colonize Madagascar. The French finally succeeded in establishing a few trading bases along the east coast in the early 1800s.
A central mountainous plateau dominates the island of Madagascar. The land slopes steeply to a narrow lowland bordering the Indian Ocean in the east and to a somewhat wider coastal plain along the Mozambique Channel in the west. The country's best soil is found along the coast and in river valleys of the central plateau.
Because of the mountainous terrain, only about five percent of the land is farmed. The chief food crops are rice, cassava, beans, bananas, corn and sweet potatoes. These commodities are raised mainly for local consumption. Importation of considerable amounts of food, especially rice, is necessary.
Cash crops include coffee, cloves, sugarcane and sisal, a fiber yielded by the agave and used for making rope and rugs. Also, Madagascar provides about 80 percent of the worlds supply of vanilla.
Madagascar has an ethnically diverse population of about 9 million. The country has two official languages: the Merina dialect of Malagazy, a language of Malayo Indonesian origin, and French.
Because only about 45 percent of Madagascar's adult population is literate, the government passed legislation in 1976 making five years of schooling compulsory. Subsequently, about 85 percent of all children in the six to 11 age group attended elementary school and some 11 percent of those between the ages of 12 and 17 were enrolled in secondary school.
The 1975 constitution of Madagascar provides for a president, who is popularly elected to a seven year term; a Peoples National Assembly, the 137 members of which are popularly elected to five year terms; and a 21 member Supreme Revolutionary council appointed by the president. Heading the government is a prime minister.
Madagascar is a member of the United Nations, the Organizations of African Unity and several other international organizations.