prompted both by opportunity (perhaps there were stronger opponents to be found in the more populated interior) as well as a desire to benefit from the export trade from St. Augustin Bay.75
Following the conquest of southwestern Madagascar, European visitors to the region in 1698 noted a dramatic change.76 When they arrived at St. Augustin Bay, the merchants were directed to trade at Toliara to the north for the first time.77 In the bay and at Toliara, Europeans now dealt with two rulers, holding the ceremonial titles of “King Baba” (also written as “Kinne Baba,” “Barbar,” “Baubau,” or “Bawbaw”) and “Prince William” (“Will” or “Ouil”). From his home in Toliara along the Fiherenana River, King Baba had access to stores of rice and slaves. The ruler in St. Augustin Bay, Prince William, was subservient to King Baba. As one observer noted later, Prince William “appears to me to be appointed by and to derive his authority from the king of Baba.”78 In spite of this dependent relationship, Prince William was still a powerful merchant in his own right. He was responsible for supplying Europeans with water, cattle, and miscellaneous other food items such as fish, poultry, and fruit, although he rarely had quantities of rice or slaves for sale. For those, Europeans learned that they had to negotiate with King Baba in Toliara.
The titles of Prince William and King Baba appear to have been hereditary and adopted to reflect European (particularly English) terms of nobility.79 The titles of prince and king were conscious choices, as the words are not related to Malagasy or East African words for king or ruler. It is hard to be sure of the exact origin of these titles, as we have little evidence beyond European observations.80 Given the long history of Euro-American visits to this part of the island and the presence of English speakers among the islanders, it would be hard to believe that the use of the titles was accidental. It seems far more likely that their use was a conscious effort at “similitude,” to use Jeremy Prestholdt’s terminology. Prestholdt deploys the term to describe how people in the Comoros strategically adopted cross-cultural practices, for instance in echoing the European political formations that they wanted their visitors to acknowledge.81 In southwestern Madagascar, the titles of Prince William and King Baba were readily adopted by European visitors, who would request to see these rulers upon their arrival at the island.
Judging by the frequency and size of food exports from Toliara, as well as comments made by the king himself, King Baba had access to the production of large tracts of land in the interior worked by laborers, including slaves, who grew food and oversaw the herding of cattle.82 The growth of the provisioning commerce following Sakalava conquest suggests that the king also drew upon trade routes and tributaries in the interior of the island to provide him with reliable supplies of desirable exports. The firearms, gunpowder, and bullets King Baba and Prince William acquired from the Europeans spread far into the southern interior of the island throughout the eighteenth century, further confirming that trade routes stretched across portions of southern Madagascar.83 Without these routes, the coastal rulers would have been unable to sell rice or other foodstuffs to European merchants, but we know little about the apparatus for this trade.84 It does seem that the export of food and slaves typically went hand-in-hand in this part of Madagascar, as slaves would carry food to the coasts and then would be sold to visiting slavers, although fewer slaves were exported from this (less populated) part of the island than elsewhere in Madagascar.85
European observers also described frequent wars between King Baba and neighboring groups.86 The close proximity of antagonistic neighbors to the south and east, along with the need to secure trade routes in the region, meant that King Baba and Prince William had to be able to raise a strong army of supporters and build fortifications.87 Prince William tried to prevent Europeans from trading with the Mahafaly “Prince Grimm” who lived to the south of the Onilahy River.88 Even when Europeans were able to strike up a trading agreement with the Mahafaly leader, they discovered that he lacked the supplies of provisions and slaves commanded by Prince Will and King Baba.89 Archeological findings confirm that warfare was frequent in southwestern Madagascar and some communities moved to more defensive locations in the drier interior of the island, fearing attacks by coastal groups. Evidence provided by European observations, paired with the construction of larger earthwork forts throughout southern Madagascar by the eighteenth century, suggests that coastal leaders were trying to protect themselves against rivals who may have wished to control exchanges with European visitors themselves.90
It does not seem, however, that King Baba went to war frequently with the Sakalava of Menabe. During the eighteenth century, most Europeans did not recognize any connections between the rulers of the Menabe region and those to the south, although Toliara was described as the most southern limit of the Sakalava Empire in European sources by the nineteenth century.91 Sakalava traditions recorded during the nineteenth century assert that the rulers in these regions were blood relatives and thus allied.92 Earlier European sources appear to confirm the existence of an alliance between the rulers of these two regions, although we know little about the networks of trade and migration that crossed western Madagascar.93
Far more is known about the connections between Sakalava rulers in west-central and northwestern Madagascar. While one brother ruled over Menabe and the other brother went south to St. Augustin Bay, Andriamandisoarivo (Tsimanato, Tsimenata) journeyed north. He may have even received support from his brother’s rivals in Menabe.94 According to traditional histories, his men fought for control of the northwestern coast of Madagascar through a series of clashes, including with Muslims long resident in the region. Throughout his march, Andriamandisoarivo relied upon an ombiasy to advise him (as the Raoandriana had in Anosy) and Sakalava traditions would later credit divine support as well as the power of an enchanted vy lava, a long iron knife, for his victories.95 By the early eighteenth century, Andriamandisoarivo, with the support of his eight-hundred-man army, founded a new Sakalava dynasty in the north which he named Volamena, meaning red money or gold. His descendants were known as the Zafibolamena, children of the Volamena.96 He died in the northern city of Bezavo around 1710, having cemented his name in traditions as the founder of a powerful new kingdom.97 His kingdom contained the port of Mazalagem Nova, or Massaliege, already a prosperous center for trade, as well as the new ports of Boina and Mahajanga (Majunga).98 Within decades, the rulers of the northern Sakalava branch had surpassed the Maroseraña dynasty of Menabe to the south in both military and economic power, as the Zafibolamena benefited from bustling trade networks already operating in the northwestern region.99 Traditions describe the respect the Sakalava held for the communities they defeated in the north, likely tied to their desire to maintain access to commerce with the Comoros and East Africa. During their march northward, Sakalava followers reportedly respected local grave sites and the sacred trees that surrounded them. They granted religious freedom and allowed Arab and Muslim traders to continue their trade with visiting merchants.100
These histories may have overemphasized the respect that Sakalava rulers paid to the people of the northwest, as the slave trade underwent a sudden burst of activity directly following Sakalava conquest.101 In 1695, Dutch slavers described their slaving negotiations with “Andiaximanatte” (Andriamandisoarivo?), the present king of Magelage (Massaliege) and “Maringande” (Manigare, a northwestern port). This king had used firearms, supposedly acquired through trade with the English, to overpower “unarmed tribes” in his battles for control. In a dramatic reversal of earlier slave-trading practices, the king told the Dutch that he would only accept guns, no cloth or other merchandise, in return for his slaves.102 American slave traders visiting the island during this period also reported that the king told them he had six thousand slaves for sale, obtained in his wars of expansion.103 Two years later, when Dutch merchants returned to the northwestern ports, they discovered that slaves were suddenly more expensive, costing two guns instead of one, although, thanks to the continuation of these “internecine wars” in western Madagascar, captives remained plentiful. The king told them that he still required “good muskets with which to destroy his enemies.” Even though the Dutch were able to acquire slaves with guns during this second
