Historically a fishing and farming people, many Antaifasy were heavily conscripted into forced labor (fanampoana) and brought to Antananarivo as slaves under the 19th century authority of the Kingdom of Imerina.

Antaifasy society was historically divided into three groups, each ruled by a king and strongly concentrated around the constraints of traditional moral codes.

Despite French colonization in 1896 and the collapse of the Merina monarchy in 1897, animosity between the two groups has remained and occasionally flared up into violent conflict, as occurred in 1922, 1936 and 1990, resulting in dozens of deaths.

[6] During the Malagasy Uprising of 1947, the Malagasy leaders of the resistance movement against French rule (some of whom were aligned with Merina interests) took advantage of the unstable political context to act on old grudges by instigating the Zafisoro to attack the Antaifasy.In the run up to independence from France, two Antefasy brothers founded l'Union Démocratique et Sociale (1957), one of the most successful cross-island political parties.

One of the party's founders, Norbert Zafimahova, was twice elected as president of the Territorial Assembly, delegated to represent Madagascar's interests in the French Senate in 1958.

The bark cloth from the Antaifasy region was made from a mix of fibers blended together for sheen and softness and became a specialty trade product of the area.

[12] Like the Antaisaka, the Antaifasy do not bury their dead but instead place them in a kibory funeral house located in a sacred and distant patch of forest.