The Abolition of Slavery in Madagascar

Internal Malagasy slavery was linked up to the international slave trade through the complicity of Europeans, who became involved in the slave trade after Portuguese and Dutch traders first landed in southern Madagascar in the early 1600s. In the 18th and 19th centuries these two European states lost ground to the English and the French, the latter becoming the colonial power in 1896.
On 27 September 1896 the French officially abolished slavery in Madagascar. This year it will be one century since this event. During a Congress entitled: "Abolition of Slavery in Madagascar" (Antananarivo, 24-28 September 1996), organized by scholars of the University of Antananarivo, Fianarantsoa, Tamatave, and Tuléar, Madagascar specialists will have the opportunity to discuss the role of Madagascar in the international slave trade and the meaning of slavery in the Malagasy context.
The two main aims of the congress are: to build up the knowledge of the role of slavery in Malagasy history and the form which it took; to break the taboo about publicly discussing the implications of the slavery period for current interhuman relations in Madagascar.

Themes
Lectures will be held around five major themes: the international slave trade routes in the Indian Ocean; internal slavery; liberation of the slaves; abolition of slavery in relation to the colonial enterprise; and the legacy of slavery: persistence of racism and social fracture

Parallel to the Congress there will be an exhibition on slavery in Madagascar in the "Musée d'Art et Archéologie".

For more information on the Congress and the exhibition please contact:
Mr Rakoto, Ignace
Musée d'Art et Archéologie/
Institut de Civilisations
de l'Université d'Antananarivo
17, rue Docteur Vilette Isoraka
Antananarivo - 101
Madagascar
Tel: +261-2-21047
Fax: +261-2-28218