What is "makoa"

The Makoa (or Masombika) are an ethnic group in Madagascar descended from slaves traded through the major slave trading ports of northern Mozambique in an area mainly populated by the Makua people. They are among the last African diaspora communities in the world to issue from the slave trade. They are sometimes classified as a subgroup of the fishing peoples known as the Vezo (who are themselves a subset of the Sakalava people), although the Makoa maintain a distinct identity, one reinforced by their larger physical stature and historic employment as police officers by the French colonial administration.