Inhabitants of Malayo-Indonesian origin were not the first settlers. There were populations from Africa before. As you probably know, major African civilizations were not attracted to the seashore, for various reasons, including quest for healthier places, and this goes for Madagascar as well. When navigators from SE Asia arrived, they gained political supremacy and thus built their kingdom in the highlands (where Antananarivo now lies), while unmitigated Africans were more or less forced to move towards the coast. This is why the majority is Merina inside the country and Sakalave or related people near the sea (this is the same group as in the Comoros, for instance). This is just from memory, but I think that it should be basically right.
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