just people doing what all Malagasy people do: settling, moving on, fading away.” The problem, as Luke points out, is the use of the definite article; once you talk about “the Vazimba” rather than “vazimba,” you elevate their status from “just people” to that of an ethnic group.
A second wave of settlers from the Malay Archipelago arrived between the eighth and twelfth centuries. They were the Merina, Richard’s ancestors. They brought with them their traditional clan organization and agricultural practices, particularly rice cultivation. They settled mostly in the highland regions where the landscape of rice paddies today looks as if it could be anywhere in Thailand or Indonesia. Their skin color and straight dark hair make them Asian in appearance. However, many communities, especially in the coastal regions, are racially mixed, with generations of intermarriage between people of Asian and African descent, Arab seafarers, and later Chinese and Indian traders and European settlers.
From the seventeenth century, Madagascar became important in the Indian Ocean trade in silks, spices, and slaves, and a haven for pirates who preyed on merchant ships. Although successive European powers—the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, followed by the Dutch from the Cape Colony, then the French and the British—tried to establish trading and military posts, most settlements were short-lived. Other Europeans ended up on the island by accident, shipwrecked on its notorious reefs. The tribes, especially in the south, were often hostile, and disease and climate took their toll. The only group that adapted relatively successfully were the pirates who used the harbors of the east coast as bases to prey on merchant ships sailing to India; they had goods to trade for food, and some took Malagasy wives. By the mid-eighteenth century the British navy had sent most of the pirates scuttling back to the Caribbean. While other areas of Africa fell under European rule, Madagascar, relatively isolated and lacking exploitable agricultural or mineral resources, remained off the colonial radar. The island was divided between three large kingdoms and small feudal domains headed by warrior chieftains. They were almost always fighting each other, stealing zebu and taking captives to use as slave labor.
By the end of the eighteenth century, the Merina chieftain Andrianampoinimerina had subdued his rival kinglets and created a unified kingdom in the central highlands. He vowed that the Merina kingdom would have “no frontier but the sea.” In their imperial ambitions, the Merina kings had a willing ally in the British, who were competing with the French for military and commercial dominance in the Indian Ocean. The British struck a deal with the Merina kings—guns for slaves. In return for stopping the export of slaves to the French colonies of Réunion and Mauritius, Britain recognized Merina sovereignty over the island and provided economic and military aid, including firearms, enabling the kings to extend their domain outside the central highlands. The Merina replaced local chiefs with civil servants who collected taxes and imposed labor quotas. The irony is that while restricting the export of slaves—and so dealing a severe blow to the French plantation economy on Réunion and Mauritius—British support for the Merina boosted the internal slave trade. By the mid-1820s, the British-trained, musket-toting armies of Andrianampoinimerina’s son, Radama I, had conquered or subdued most of the island, capturing or taking as tribute thousands of Malagasy. A century after Britain abolished slavery in its empire, Madagascar’s slave markets were booming. 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
