Britain’s emissaries diplomatically ignored the Merina use of slave labor—either imported slaves or those from coastal areas—in plantations and factories. Although slavery was officially abolished in 1877, the institution remained until the end of the monarchy.
As the European colonial carve-up of southern Africa continued apace, British interest in Madagascar and support for the Merina monarchy waned. In January 1895, the French landed fifteen thousand troops on the northwest coast. Although half the force died or had to be evacuated because of disease, the Merina army proved no match. After a one-day artillery bombardment of Antananarivo, the Merina surrendered. The monarchy was abolished, slavery banned, and taxes imposed; French settlers arrived, coming to dominate agriculture, commerce, and industry. The great Merina landholdings were broken up, and local leaders replaced Merina in administrative positions. The Merina kings had allowed Protestant missionaries to establish churches and schools, and many had followed the lead of the royal family, which converted in 1869. With French colonization, pragmatic Malagasy Christians sensed the way the winds were blowing and found the Catholic mass more politically and socially agreeable than the Methodist or Lutheran service. Madagascar remained a French colony until independence in 1960.
Ethnic Mix, not Melt
Although maps and guidebooks show the island neatly divided into eighteen ethnic groups, each supposedly protecting its own cultural terrain, ethnicity in Madagascar is muddled. There’s no single criterion for defining an ethnic group; some are based on racial origins, some are alliances of clans that resisted Merina conquest, some are classified by economic activity, such as fishing or zebu herding. Throughout its history, Madagascar has experienced almost constant migration, both from other regions of the Indian Ocean and internally, as people moved to flee conflict, find better farmland, or work in mines. Except in isolated rural areas, most communities have an ethnic mix.
The historical divisions between the highland peoples of Asian descent, including the Merina, and coastal peoples (côtiers), primarily of African descent, are key to understanding Malagasy society. The highland peoples have a complex social structure; at the top of the hierarchy are the noble clans (the andriana) that ruled the island until the French arrived; further down are the hova (commoners) and clans with less land, zebu, and political clout; at the bottom of the social strata are marginalized clans of migrant workers and the descendants of former slaves. Depending on whom you talk to, intermarriage between the highland peoples and côtiers is either taboo, extremely rare, or, in urban areas, a lot more common than it used to be. The ethnic mix has not yet melted.
Ethnicity is a complex and sensitive issue. I respect the views of Richard and others who believe that colonization by the French destroyed the national unity the Merina kings had built. At the same time, other ethnic groups, especially in the south, have long regarded the highland Merina as oppressors. In the nineteenth century, the Merina conquered their lands, stole their zebu, and sold them into slavery; today, the central government, dominated by the Merina political elite, taxes them without providing schools or social or medical services. Although the monarchy collapsed in 1897 when France took control, the Merina have remained the most politically and economically powerful ethnic group in the country. In the nineteenth century, the andriana ruled from their palaces and traveled in sedan chairs; today, the Merina elite rule from ministries and corporate headquarters and travel in SUVs.
The research study focused on five areas—health, nutrition, water and sanitation, education, and child protection. UNICEF wanted to know whether certain ethnic groups had specific attitudes and practices. Did one group fear needles and refuse to have their children vaccinated? Did another have food taboos? Did another believe that water from the river was cleaner than treated water from a well? The first time we asked our mostly Merina colleagues at UA about ethnicity, we faced a stone wall. “There are no ethnic groups in Madagascar, we are all Malagasy,” was the collective response. Knowing that most Malagasy identify by village or community and hold ceremonies to honor their ancestors, we came up with a roundabout way of asking about ethnicity in our questionnaire: Where are the tombs of your ancestors? If we had that information, we could be reasonably confident about ethnic origin because the boundaries of tribal regions roughly correspond to those of old kingdoms. Again, we were stymied. When the final versions of the questionnaires were translated from French to Malagasy, the question was cut.
When You Die, You Live Together in the Same Tomb (Malagasy Proverb)
You’d expect a road called Route Nationale (RN) 1 to be a major highway. Typically, the number one national route in any country is a major artery, connecting the capital with important regional centers, helping to drive the national economy. On that measure, Madagascar’s RN1 is a disappointment. It starts in the right place—the capital Antananarivo, familiarly known as Tana—as a divided highway heading confidently westward toward the coast. Outside the city, it reverts to a two-lane that winds lazily through the highlands. Seventy-five miles west of Tana, RN1 seems to hesitate and divides into two branches. They are reunited 60 miles further west at Tsiroanomandidy on the edge of the highland plateau. That’s where RN1 and the blacktop end, still more than 125 miles short of the coast and what should be its terminus, the fishing port of Manitrano. The fizzling out of RN1 is symptomatic of Madagascar’s infrastructure problems; without better road or rail connections, or electricity-generating capacity, economic development will always be hampered. For those traveling on from Tsiroanomandidy to the coast, the dirt road descends from the highlands to the savannah grassland, and then to the coastal plain. It’s a bone-rattling fifteen-hour trip by 4x4 or high-riding vehicle. In the dry season, the trip by taxi-brousse (bush taxi) costs 70,000 ariary ($23); in the monsoon season, it’s 100,000 ($32). The people of Manitrano call it “the devil’s route.”
MAP 3.1 Madagascar (map by Belén Marco Crespo)
The highland region west of Tana is called Imerina, literally the homeland of the Merina. RN1 winds gently up and down the low hills, skirting fields of corn, rice paddies, and secondary-growth stands of pine and eucalyptus; along the roadside, billboards feature images of politicians planting trees and declaring their commitment to environmental conservation. Brick kilns dot the fields; with most wood used for charcoal, homes are built from rough mud bricks fired from the red-clay soil of the region. The towns are agricultural and commercial centers, selling farm implements, seeds, and supplies and shipping produce to the capital.
Richard, Tina, and I stopped at the roadside to eat fresh corn, grilled in cocottes over charcoal fires. “This is an agricultural region, but the farmers are not self-sufficient,” said Richard. By tradition, land is divided among sons, so over generations farm plots have become smaller. The national average for a family farm, Richard said, is half a hectare—about half the size of a football or rugby field. “You can’t survive on that, and the population continues to grow. That’s why the people go to Tana every day to do petit commerce, selling farm produce, secondhand clothes or cheap consumer items.”
We stopped for lunch in Arivonimamo, the town of a thousand drunken soldiers, and visited Richard’s family home and the Catholic lycée where he studied. The first armed rebellion against the French occurred here in late 1895, soon after Tana surrendered, and the queen signed a treaty establishing a French protectorate. Some regarded the Merina monarch and political leaders as traitors for abandoning the religion and traditions of the ancestors, converting to Christianity, adopting Western ways, and accepting defeat and occupation. A force of two thousand men seized Arivonimamo and murdered the Merina governor, two Quaker missionaries, and their child. The force planned to regroup in Tana on market day, with arms concealed in their clothes, to attack the royal palace, the French residency, and the European quarter, but the plot misfired, and French troops were sent to Arivonimamo to quell the uprising. Insurrections broke out in other parts of the island in 1896 before the French were able to assert control.
FIGURE 3.2 Cooking corn in cocottes on charcoal grills at roadside on RN 1, west of Antananarivo