Antaimoro paper from avoha bark
Papel antaimoro de corteza de avoha
- Date
- c. siglos XV-XVI · confidence low
- Place
- Matitanana, Fitovinany, Madagascar
- Credited to
- Antaimoro people
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A handmade paper made from the bark of the avoha shrub (Streblus dimepate), hand-pressed and decorated with dried flowers, used by Antaimoro scholars to copy texts in Arabic-Malagasy script (sorabe). It is the only papermaking tradition of Madagascar.
Tradition says the Arab-descended Antaimoro introduced paper around the 15th century; no documents fix the date and surviving manuscripts date from the 17th century onwards.
What it led to
- preservation of sorabe manuscripts on astrology and genealogy
- a modern export craft
- an example of Arab-Indonesian-African technical transfer