The African Indian-Oceanic world is deeply mixed and hybrid, yet it has retained singular and specific forms. Indeed, studies have shown that processes of creolization do not lead to the erasure of original languages and cultures, but rather to the coexistence of original and creolized forms. Pier Larson has shown how central Madagascar played a key role in the movement of peoples and their identities. Taken as captives to the European colonies in the western Indian Ocean, the Malagasy retained their language and rituals and deeply influenced their new cultures and societies. Thus, it would be wrong to view African languages as subservient to European languages in the formation of a creole language. The existence of Malagasy-influenced ancestor-related rituals in Reunion or Mauritius also shows their strength despite national policies (French in the case of Reunion, British or Mauritian in the case of Mauritius) that sought to diminish African legacies and presence. Further, Caribbean processes of creolization cannot be superimposed on Indian-Oceanic ones. Swahili culture, for instance, has been studied as a form of creolization different from the Caribbean and American processes. Swahili traders were important actors in diasporic formations. Historians have shown that these middlemen would come to stay with a family during their trip, often returning to the same family season after season and trading with that family. Often traders married into these families, cementing the economic alliance, usually through temporary marriages, and providing opportunities for peoples and ideas to circulate.