Stupid, do some research before posting. Bantu reached Madagascar long before they made contact with Arabs. It's Arab who reached Madagascar about 1000 year ago. Long after Bantus had settled the eastern potion of the island. Finally you get something right. So the discovery of a really old canoe and Bantu naval exploration is linked by.... nothing at all. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar       Madagascar, as part of East Gondwana, split from Africa approximately 160 million years ago; the island of Madagascar was created when it separated from India 80 to 100 million years ago. [3] Most archaeologists estimate human settlement of Madagascar to be between 200 and 500 A.D., when seafarers from southeast Asia (probably from Borneo or the southern Celebes) arrived in outrigger sailing canoes.[4] Bantu settlers probably crossed the Mozambique Channel to Madagascar at about the same time or shortly afterwards. However, Malagasy tradition and ethnographic evidence suggests that they may have been preceded by the Mikea hunter gatherers.[5]  The written history of Madagascar begins in the 7th century,[6] when Arab Muslims established trading posts along the northwest coast and first transcribed the Malagasy language into Sorabe.   They are not even sure about this, for all we know the natives could have evolved there from a common ancestor with the Indians or Africans, when the landmasses split...    We could even say that the Asians arrived there first, went to the mainland and brought the Africans...    Anyways civilization there began with the Arabs, assuming the Bantu did cross the channel on their own all they had was a backwards tribal society until the Arabs came along, and later the Europeans...    The Bantu from East Africa are basically the same people as the Bantu from West Africa, how come they ignored all the western archipelagos if they were such a seafaring people??