International Congress
28-29 March, 1994
Leiden, the Netherlands

MALAGASY CULTURAL IDENTITY FROM AN ASIAN PERSPECTIVE

Madagascar forms a bridge between Asian and African cultures. Although
linguistically it is an Austronesian language Malagasy has a substratum of
Bantu languages. The population of the central highlands of Madagascar in
particular is closely akin to Indonesian populations. In objects in everyday
use and in its funeral rites Malagasy culture contains a great many elements
which can be related to customs in the Indonesian islands. The congress, held
in Leiden on the 28th and 29th March 1994, was the first congress on
Madagascar to be organized in the Netherlands. As the title indicates it set
out to study the Asian elements in Malagasy culture but it also offered the
lecturers an opportunity to elaborate on their work and to discuss their
research material.

By R.J. Barendse

The congress constituted a joint initiative by the African Studies Centre
(Leiden), the Interuniversity Institute for Missiological and Ecumenical
Research (Leiden/Utrecht), the International Institute for Asian Studies, and
Leiden University, which is in itself a unique collaboration and testifies to
the manifold interest Madagascar holds for various branches of research. The
twenty-one lectures by European and Malagasy scholars were organized into four
disciplines: cultural anthropology; language and literature; church history;
and general history. The congress was well-attended by 85 persons with a close
personal interest in Madagascar either by birth or profession. 
In this article I will give a description of the common themes in Madagascar
Studies as discussed during the congress.

LINGUISTICS
Linguistic research has long concentrated on the issue when and how migrations
from the Indonesian Archipelago to Madagascar took place. There are now
basically two positions: one that migration occurred around the sixth-seventh
centuries AD in one single sweep from one area in Indonesia. On the other hand
are those who argue that migrations stretched out over a longer span of time
between the sixth and the tenth centuries, and that various parts of Indonesia
were involved. These questions are far from being settled satisfactorily:
firstly, not enough languages in Indonesia have been adequately studied to
provide for a proper comparison with the Malagasy language. Secondly, many
Malagasy dialects are still insufficiently described. And, thirdly,
comparative research needs to consider a wider range of evidence provided by
artefacts and folklore to give a more satisfactory answer to the settlement
history of Madagascar. Moreover, the impact of African migration to Madagascar
has been far less thoroughly researched than Indonesian migration. Obviously,
since detailed archaeological research has not yet been undertaken,
archaeology has an important contribution to make.

HISTORY
The historical contributions at the congress focused largely on the
sixteenth-eighteenth centuries and on the slave-trade which is well documented
in European sources. Not surprisingly, the lecturers concentrated on the
daghregisters (daily registers) of the Dutch VOC, of which a great many are
still extant in the Algemeen Rijksarchief (General State Archives) in The
Hague. The role of Madagascar in the history of the VOC has been neglected by
Dutch scholars because they were mainly interested in the trading relations
with Indonesia. A study of the daghregister-data on Madagascar may furnish us
with essential knowledge about the formation of early states on the island.
However, although historians like Dr Allibert and Professor Rantoandro have
understood the value of this material there is also an urgent need for the
recording of 'oral history' which could provide a useful check on the written
material.
Church history was well represented by three papers, in one of which a new
ecumenical history of the church in Madagascar was presented by Prof. B.
Hbsch. But while the church history of the nineteenth century has been well
researched, the shift from a missionary to a local church in Madagascar in the
twentieth century has been little studied.

ANTHROPOLOGY
The possible contribution anthropology can make to history and linguistics has
already been mentioned. Apart from this, there is still a wide variety of
possible anthropological themes which are crying out for further research. A
particularly important subject is the formation of "ethnic" groups and
"ethnic" identity. Many researchers call Madagascar the "island of the
ancestors" in the sense that the ancestors have an important influence on the
daily life of the Malagasy. The "ethnic" groups of Madagascar have been
analyzed mostly from this perspective. Many scholars argue that a person who
is born in a certain group, automatically assumes the ethnicity of the group.
The crux of this argument is that people inherit their ethnicity from their
ancestors and attain their ethnic identity at birth. Therefore ethnic identity
is a state of being. In her lecture, Dr Rita Astuti of the London School of
Economics and Political Science presented a different view of ethnic identity.
She described how the Vezo of western Madagascar construe their identity by
transcending descent or descent-based features of the person. Taking children
as a convenient entry into the study of Vezo identity, she argues that to be
Vezo is to have learnt Vezo-ness, and to perform it: identity is an activity
rather than a state of being. Difference is construed by an analogous process
of identification: others (the neighbouring Masikoro) are different because
they have acquired and perform another identity. Both identity and difference
are not inherent in people, but are performative. Knowledge on the meaning of
ethnicity in Madagascar and the differencesbetween the 18 ethnic groups that
are officially recognized is still very limited. While the folklore and the
customs of the Merina, the largest ethnic group on Madagascar have been
reasonably well explored, other ethnic groups, particularly along the coast,
are so far almost virgin territory.

CONCLUSIONS
The participants in the congress stressed the need for the formation of an
institutional unification of the research on Madagascar and made an
impassioned plea for more research on Madagascar. Such an international
collaboration is needed to ensure that future research on the island is
successful and to fill the gaps in our knowledge about Madagascar. This is
particularly pertinent for Malagasy customs, history, and language which may
provide us with important keys on the past of Madagascar and, given the close
links between Malagasy and Indonesian languages and cultures, of Indonesia as
well.

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING
The congress was the first step in the direction of closer co-operation
between Madagascar-specialists. To provide a further contribution to the
growth and integration of knowledge on Madagascar the African Studies Centre
(Leiden), the Interuniversity Institute for Missiological and Ecumenical
Research (Leiden/Utrecht), the International Institute for Asian Studies, and
Leiden University have concluded a Memorandum of Understanding with the
University of Antananarivo. The priority of the MOU-research programme will
be interdisciplinary research by anthropologists, historians, and linguists
into ethnicity and state-formation in Madagascar. To augment the
internationalization and co-ordination of Madagascar Studies this programme
will be developed in close collaboration with Madagascar, Africa, and Asia
specialists from all over the world.