Cultures of Madagascar: Ebb and Flow of Influences

Independence, however, does not mean isolation. Madagascar is quite prepared to enter into cooperation with other countries, when the progress of higher education and scientific research is to be achieved. Actually, the Leiden congress bore witness to the broad range of international co-operation already achieved. Participants came from many countries: Australia, France, Germany, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, Great Britain, and, of course, Madagascar and the Netherlands.
The main themes of the congress are reviewed in the different chapters of the book. All contributions are published in the language of their original presentation at the congress, either English or French. Authors and editors have generally revised the papers for publication, taking into account oral and written remarks made during and after the congress. References and bibliographies have been checked as far as possible by the editors.
The opening address was given by His Excellency R. Ranjeva, currently Judge of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, formerly President of the University of Antananarivo, Madagascar. His topic was the changing role of the Social Sciences in Malagasy higher education since the creation of the University of Antananarivo in 1961. In the wake of political change, the Social Sciences have been successively a weapon in the fight against the post-colonial regime and, when the revolutionary power took control of the country, a means of legitimation. International cooperation is very much needed to encourage the exercise of honest scholarship which is a guarantee of authentic social relevance.

The quest for identity
All other papers have been divided into five groups of interest. This diverges from their order at the congress, which was based on the organization of higher education in the Netherlands and elsewhere in scientific disciplines. In the publication of the proceedings of the congress the choice has fallen on a unified interdisciplinary approach. Cultural and human reality is one complex phenomenon that is not split up by the division and specialization of scientific disciplines.
The first topic is the quest for the Malagasy cultural identity. Often this is defined by means of a reference to oral tradition; oral tradition, however, goes back to very obscure origins.
Countless studies have been devoted to the origins of the Malagasy people, of the Malagasy language and culture. A fairly new trend consists of admitting the plurality of origins and, consequently, of Malagasy cultures. The title of the present volume acknowledges this current of scholarship in history and cultural anthropology.
Professor Wolfgang Marschall reviews existing theories about the first inhabitants of Madagascar. Indubitably, the Proto-Malagasy came from the Indonesian Archipelago, but more research has to be done on the precise region of origin. Several islands may have been its original home. The Manyaan people of Borneo and Bajau traders and navigators are the probable ancestors of many contemporary Malagasy, according to the findings of comparative linguistics. Professor Marschall suggests that comparative research in fields other than linguistics may uncover new evidence. The study of such topics as material culture, village topography, agricultural techniques, weaving and metallurgy, for instance, has much to offer.
The congress devoted quite an amount of space to comparative linguistics. This is not surprising. It is a fact of life that the affirmation of Malagasy identity is strongly related to the possession of the Malagasy language. Several papers deal with the history of the language. One highlight of our congress was the confrontation between the old master of Malagasy linguistics, Professor Otto Dahl of Oslo, and Dr Alexander Adelaar of Melbourne University. They do not agree with each other about the number of Malay loan words in Malagasy, on the role of Indonesian groups like the Lom and Sekak, and on the chronology of influences, either before or after the coming of Islam in Indonesia. Dr Adelaar takes the view that more than one Indonesian language, and not Manyaan only, influenced Malagasy over a long period of time. Professor Dahl agrees that influences may have taken more time than it was originally thought; he also draws attention to the hidden influence of the Bantu substratum in Malagasy.
Professor Pierre Vérin and Narivelo Rajaonarimanana open new perspectives with their paper on Malagasy dialects which possess words originating in ancient common Indonesian.
Indonesia is not the only horizon of Malagasy identity. Actually Japan has always been a much stronger reference of identity. The Japanese model became an inspiration for national consciousness as soon as Western culture became a threat to the Malagasy identity. Yvette Ranjeva-Rabetafika exposes the roots of what she calls "the Japanese myth" in the nineteenth century and its contemporary relevance. Albert Roca's paper is firmly rooted in the present situation of Madagascar, trying to assess the role of ethnicity in the new definition of Malagasy identity today.

The Dutch connection
The second topic is the historical relationship between Madagascar and the Netherlands, what we call "the Dutch connection". It is brilliantly exposed by Dr Claude Allibert and Dr Gabriel Rantoandro. Both of them highlight the presence of Dutch resources for the writing of this aspect of history. It began in the seventeenth century and lasted for several centuries. Dutch navigators, merchants, and humanists sailed to Madagascar and wrote travel accounts, diaries, and dictionaries. The trade was about fresh food and water, spices and Malagasy slaves, transported away to many countries, in the historical context of the European scramble for influence overseas. Political contacts were also made. Much more archival research is needed with a view to building up our knowledge of aspects of Madagascar recorded by merchants and travellers in old Dutch documents. One example is a seventeenth century Dutch diary presented by Gabriel Rantoandro in his paper.

The Island of Ancestors
The third topic is ethnicity. Madagascar has been called the Island of the Ancestors. Not all families, however, can boast of their ancestors. Sometimes ancestors represent liabilities which impede personal and social development, should there be a suspicion that these ancestors were slaves. Their descendants may be discriminated against or face many difficulties in their daily lives, in spite of the fact that slavery was abolished in 1896 and has been against the letter of the Malagasy constitution since Independence.
Three papers explore the painful memory of slavery. Professor Ludvig Munthe brings to light new documents on the slave trade in the region of Mauritius in the nineteenth century and the fascinating campaigns Mr John Jérémie waged against it. In a very erudite contribution, Dr Ren‚ Barendse tells the story of the slave trade in the seventeenth century, as it was experienced by Dutch merchants. The third paper lays bare the heavy legacy of slavery in today's society. Sandra Evers reports on her fieldwork in Betsileo villages where the descendants of slaves still bear the burden of their ancestors' condition.

Faithful unto death
The fourth topic is Malagasy Christianity. Since the nineteenth century, Malagasy culture has been deeply influenced by the Christian tradition in its whole gamut of diversity. The Malagasy martyrs in the reign of Queen Ranavalona I are famous in the history of Malagasy Christianity, but even in Indonesia in recent times they have been taken as examples of Christians "faithful unto death", as Professsor Marc Spindler discovered in an Indonesian booklet. Professor Bruno Hübsch, one of the editors of the pioneering ecumenical church history of Madagascar, tells the background and the scope of this impressive documentary project that involved more than twenty historians. Laurent Ramambason tries to explain why Christianity has not made serious converts among the Sakalava population of Madagascar, while it was so successful among the Merina. Paradoxically the very fact that the Merina set out to evangelize the coastal regions turned out to be a tragic handicap because this effort was seen by the Sakalava as legitimation of the Merina hegemony on the island. A huge ecumenical effort will be needed in order to overcome this historical development.

Rites de passage
The fifth topic is rituals. Not necessarily religious in every connotation of the term, rituals give structure and meaning to social life, as they provide people in all circumstances of their life with a sense of purpose and a feeling of safety. The study of "rites de passage" is well-known, but other rituals which could be easily overlooked by the outsider, are also observed. Dr Karen Middleton discusses rituals of conservation of the umbilical cord and the construction of graves among the Hazohandatse, a formerly nomadic population in the arid south of Madagascar. From birth to death and beyond, human existence is marked by identification rituals that give weight to life. The author points out similar rituals in Southeast Asia.
Dr Michel Razafiarivony offers an accurate description and profound analysis from the insider's point of view of rituals performed during the rice cycle in the Betsimisaraka region. Rice and its cultivation in the Tanala region are the subjects of the paper presented by Dr Philippe Beaujard. The cultivation of rice is far from being a simple agricultural technique; it is as a social process producing the social identity of the Tanala peasants.
This congress marked the initial step in the programme of international co-operation between the University of Antananarivo and the University of Leiden, which is planned to span a number of years. Using the word university, we include all institutions related to the University of Antananarivo and/or Leiden that contribute to Malagasy studies in one form or another. Leiden has a whole range of specialities in the field of Asian and African research, like the African Studies Centre, the International Institute for Asian Studies, the Department of Languages and Cultures of Southeast Asia and Oceania, the Interuniversity Institute for Missiological and Ecumenical Research, the Royal Institute for Linguistics and Anthropology, the Museum of Ethnography, to name a few. Without the generous support of all of them, this congress could not have taken place and the papers could not have been published.

Sandra Evers and Marc Spindler (eds)
Cultures of Madagascar: ebb and flow of influences / Civilisations de Madagascar: flux et reflux des influences. Proceedings of the International Congress on Madagascar, Leiden University, 28-29 March 1994. IIAS Working Paper Series 1995.

The book can be ordered from the IIAS secretariat.