traditionally been viewed within the Zaghawa society as dirty and of inferior status, being people from different pagan and Jewish roots who slowly assimilated into the Islamic society.James H Vaughan (1970), Caste systems in the Western Sudan, in Social stratification in Africa, Editors: A Tunde and L Plotnicov, New Africa Press, pages 59-92 The term "blacksmith" has been a derogatory term in Zaghawa culture, states Anne Haour – a professor of African Studies and Medieval Archaeology, and "if born a blacksmith one will always be a blacksmith". Non-blacksmith castes of Zaghawa neither eat nor associate with the blacksmith castes. The lowest strata has been the slaves. The social stratification and castes such as for the leatherworker strata within the Zaghawa people is similar to those found in nearby Fur people. Southern Africa Merina people The Merina people are the largest ethnic group in Madagascar. They historically have had a highly stratified caste system.Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, Gulnara Shahinian (December 2012), A/HRC/24/43/Add.2, United Nations General Assembly, Twenty-fourth session, page 4 The Merina society emerged in the 15th century in the central high plateau region of Madagascar. Its society, like many ethnic groups in Africa, had two category of people, the free locally called the fotsy, and the serfs or mainty. These were divided into three strata: the Andriana (nobles), the Hova (freemen), and the lowest strata called Andevo (slaves). Each strata was hierarchically subdivided. The Andriana are divided into six sub-strata, for example, each had an inherited occupation, and were endogamous. The nineteenth century records show that Andevo or slaves were imported black Africans, and they constituted about a third of the Merina society. The Merina society sold highland slaves to both Muslim and European slave traders on Madagascar coast, as well as bought East African and Mozambique-sourced slaves from them for their own plantations between 1795 and 1895. Marriage and any sexual relations between the upper strata fotsy and the lower strata mainty were a taboo. According to a 2012 report by Gulnara Shahinian – the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, the descendants of former slave castes continue to suffer in contemporary Madagascar Merina society, and inter-caste marriages continue to be socially ostracized. Chronology The caste systems in Africa have been linked to the a pre-developed trading network, invasions from North Africa and the Middle