About Madagascar

Sunday, February 12, 2017
Fianarantsoa, Fianarantsoa Province, Madagascar
Madagascar, the world's fourth largest island, is 1600 km long and has a population of about 25 million.  It was originally settled by people from present-day Indonesia, and this origin is still apparent, although there have been later Bantu migrants from the African continent.  The most densely populated part of the island is a central highland region, from 750 to 1500 metres, which as a result has a very pleasant climate.  Rice is the staple crop.
Because of its isolation, most of the fauna and flora, including 100 species and subspecies of lemurs, are unique to this island, and it is considered a biodiversity hotspot.  Slash-and-burn agriculture has long been practised in some areas.  More than 90% of the original forest has been removed.  
There are about 18 ethnic subgroups, which were first united under a single ruler near the beginning of the 19th century.  Madagascar became a French colony in 1897, gained independence in 1960, and has since experienced various political upheavals.  The most recent election, in 2013, was deemed fair by observers.   Madagascar remains one of the world's least developed nations.  To the eye (mine) of a casual observer who has never visited Haiti, it appears to be the least developed nation I have seen.
The intrepid Irishwoman Dervla Murphy wrote Muddling Through in Madagascar after meandering around the southern half of the island for several weeks in 1983, partly on foot.  She was 51 and was accompanied by her 14-year-old daughter.  She makes the rather astonishing claim, "We saw no extreme poverty in Madagascar." (p 148)  Of course "extreme poverty" is subject to definition, and Dervla Murphy had seen a lot in her extensive travels, but Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times had no difficulty finding extreme poverty in southern Madagascar in 2017.
(Did I say she was intrepid?  On page 171, following a brutally uncomfortable truck ride, she casually notes, "Madagascar had become the fifth country in which my ribs have been broken.")
I also chanced upon Samuel Copland's 1822 book, A History of the Island of Madagascar, reprinted by the Negro Universities Press of Westport Conn in 1970.   Have you ever noticed how most travel writers try a bit too hard to impress their readers?  Not all, of course.  Some give you the straight goods.  But most are either excessively effusive (especially if they think none of their readers can fact-check them), or else they go to the other extreme.  Mr Copland was effusive:
"In general the face of the country exhibits all that is pleasing to the eye and to the imagination.  Nature here seems to have ... lavished her stores in a boundless profusion." (p 4)
But wait, he was just warming up:
"Abundance of the necessaries of life, and even of its luxuries, spring up spontaneously; and the natives want nothing but the art of living at peace among themselves, to render them, as far as natural advantages extend, the richest and happiest on earth." (p 5)
Now for some commentary from the studio.  Well, it still is a good-looking country, as you can see from the photos.  No doubt in 1822, before overpopulation and the cutting of most of the forests and various depredations associated with capitalism, it was a happier place than it is now.   (Certainly the sole invention since 1822 that unequivocally tends toward human happiness, i.e. modern medicine, has made little impact on Madagascar).  Still, one senses that Copland may have had a vested interest.  But let's get specific:
"The baboon grows to an enormous size, as large as a heifer of two years old, and consequently must be at least seven feet high when standing on its hind legs." (p 292)
"Some of [the yams] grow to a great size, as large as a man's body." (p 24)
"Wild boars come from the woods in droves, both by night and day; and if not watched, make terrible havoc amongst the yams and potatoes." (p 25)
A lot to unpack here, as they say.  From the words "must be" I gather that Copland didn't exactly see the baboon standing on its hind legs.  And I'm going to guess that he hadn't seen a two-year-old heifer doing that either.  In any case there aren't any baboons in Madagascar and never have been, so who knows what he was looking at.  None of the yams I saw were as big as a newborn, let alone a man, but I reserve judgment on what may have been the case before the wild boars made havoc amongst them.   
Now I can imagine you saying, "I understand that the yams and baboons were enormous and the boars were wild and in droves and shy about being watched, but what did justice look like back in 1822?"  Please turn to page 117:
"If one man break the head of another, and the wounded party have not returned blow for blow, the fine is three oxen.  If two men quarrel, and one curse the father or mother of the other (whether they be dead or alive), and his antagonist retort not the curse against his father or mother, the offender is fined two oxen.  If one man's cattle break into another man's plantation, he must give an iron shovel for every beast found there.  If a man be found guilty of adultery with the wife of one who is his superior, he forfeits thirty head of cattle, and a great quantity of beads and shovels.  If the parties are equal in rank the fine is twenty beasts; but if with the wife of a king or chief, the offending parties are put to death."
Finally, a question we have all struggled with:  You are having a party -- do you invite Europeans or pirates?  For the Malagasy of the 19th century, this was a no-brainer:
"Europeans occasionally touching at the island had committed great depradations, wantonly burning villages, plundering plantations, and either murdering or carrying off wives and children; while the pirates, knowing that their very existence depended upon a good understanding with the Malagasses, always carried themselves in a conciliatory manner towards them, adopted their customs and manners, and treated them at all times with friendship and respect." (p 152)
(Three extra photos below)

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