By Sandra Evers
Journalist Arlette Kouwenhoven introduces the different regions of Madagascar to the reader by giving a description of the environment and its inhabitants. Throughout the book the information is brought to life by pictures of the Malagasy photographer Toussaint Raharison. What does make "the Red Island" different from two other recent publications on Madagascar: "Memo Madagascar" by the Belgian journalist Fred van Leeuwen, a anecdotal report of his travels in Madagascar, and "Madagascar", a more scientific publication that focuses on history and politics, by the Madagascar specialist Pierre Vérin?
Cultural wealth
After the historical introduction, Kouwenhoven recounts the immigration history of the
Malagasy population that started around the first century AD. Before the settlement of the
first immigrants Madagascar is said to have been uninhabited. In her reconstruction of the
past Kouwenhoven highlights the Asian and African migrations to Madagascar. The origin
of the Malagasy people is still a point of controversy among many Madagascar
specialists. Above all a debate rages among linguists on the question of where in Asia the
ancestors of the Malagasy came from and how they settled the island. Did they come
directly to Madagascar or did they settle first on the African east coast? Kouwenhoven is
not interested in engaging in this discussion because she describes the history of
Madagascar from a journalistic perspective. She evades the immigration debate by
choosing the theory that Madagascar was the last stop on the immigration route for
Southeast Asian migrants. According to this theory they settled first in Ceylon, the
African east coast and the Comoros. Whether further research on the Malagasy
immigration history will reveal the origin of the Malagasy population remains to be seen.
At the moment we can be sure of two facts. The Southeast Asian origin of the Malagasy
people is underlined by the national language, Malagasy, which is an Austronesian
language that is spoken all over the island. The African influence in the Malagasy
population stems mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries, in which period many slaves
from Mozambique and South Africa where transported to Madagascar.
The migrants who settled in different parts of Madagascar developed their own, social
economic, and cultural systems, in which traces of the Asian and African past are still to
be found. Today Madagascar has 18 official ethnic groups, but whether the use of the
word ethnic is correct in the Malagasy context or whether we should speak rather of 18
different population groups are other burning points of discussion. I do not really want to
walk a tightrope here by joining in this discussion and, as I can conclude from her book,
Kouwenhoven has not chosen this path either. In her "the Red Island" she takes the 18
officially acknowledged ethnic groups as reference points in the descriptions of the
various parts of the island.
The central theme of the book is the cultural life of the Malagasy, which comes most
strongly into its own in their rituals. Kouwenhoven bases her information on a literature
study of both published and unpublished material. Besides such armchair studies, she
visited Madagascar four times in the past seven years to travel over the island. To conjure
up her experiences before the reader's eyes, "the Red Island" is furnished with more than
300 photos taken by Toussaint Raharison.
Material Poverty
After reading the book the reader will know a lot about the so-called mysterious life of
the Malagasy. But how disappointed he or she will be when he actually sets foot on
Madagascar. None will ever be disappointed by the breathtaking Malagasy landscapes,
but discovering the treasures of Malagasy culture is quite another story. The traveller will
be confronted with enormous poverty as the island today is one of the poorest countries of
the world. And the hyperinflation of the most recent years has been a heavy burden for
the Malagasy to bear. For many Malagasy trying to survive is their first priority. This
fact of life takes a huge toll on the cultural life of the Malagasy. Most rituals require at
least one zebu to be offered to the ancestors. The lack of money makes this ancestral rule
very difficult to fulfil. In the highlands, where the reburial (famadihana) of
the ancestors is a focal point of the cultural life of the Merina and Betsileo, many families
are struggling to collect the money for the famadihana. Some families
eventually succeed in finding the funds, but even more do not. Officials note a reduction
of the number famadihana held in the highlands. Economic problems did and
still do impoverish the cultural wealth of the Malagasy. This has escaped Kouwenhoven,
she does no more than mention that the Malagasy only eat meat during rituals. This may
have been true in the past but nowadays the abstention from meat is more from economic
than cultural reasons.
It is obvious that the potential tourist -- Madagascar is trying to develop tourism -- is not
interested in the other side of the coin. But despite of this, it would have been elementary
in a book on Madagascar to dedicate some space to the explanation of its current
economic (and political) situation. Kouwenhoven did not choose to do so and focuses on
revealing primary elements of the cultural richness of the mysterious island. She has been
successful in achieving this goal and this makes her book, in combination with the
elaborate visual material, a unique document.
Arlette Kouwenhoven and Toussaint Raharison
Madagascar, the red island. 159 pp. ca. 300 colour illustrations.
Cloth.
Dfl. 69,50. ISBN 90-802656-3-2
The book is also available in a Dutch and a French edition and can be ordered
from:
WINCO Publishing
Breestraat 113a
2311 CL Leiden
Tel: +31-71-51434 552
Fax: +31-71-5141 488
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