A natural and sacred habitat
The traditional Malagasy habitat is composed of a single rectangular room and the roof is with two sides. The house is oriented north-south to protect it from the rainy southeast trade winds. Only the building materials change, depending on what the inhabitants have at their disposal: a Malagasy proverb says: "The bird makes its nest with moss, and the bee builds with earth In the north, raffia is preferred; in the southwest, aloe and sisal; among the Tanalas, split bamboo; on the east coast, ravenala; in the Androy, thorny wood; and among the Vezos, rush.
Wood was commonly used in the highlands. Today, raw brick or earth has replaced wood, with the tamboho or thick laterite walls that surround a property. The cob technique is used: laterite soil is moistened, then worked with a spade, trampled, and mixed with a binder such as chopped rice straw or wild grasses.
Elsewhere than in the central plateaus, the materials used are of plant origin. In the south and southwest, for example, "vondro" or water cattail is used, found in the swamps bordering the western mangroves. The vondro is abundant, light, handy and resistant (all good qualities), and it allows air to pass through, which is convenient in such hot regions. On the other hand, it harbors many insects and parasites.
We also use reed (as a support), papyrus (near Lake Alaotra), grasses (e.g. dried grasses) or palms, as well as raffia, or other palms such as vakoa or vakona (Pandanus utilis) for houses on stilts. Not to mention bamboo. The ravenala is commonly used, especially in the East.
In Madagascar, one does not build a house (trano) without consulting a soothsayer: the orientation of each room is of capital importance. The twelve months of the year thus correspond to as many locations in the house. As Christiane Ramanantsoa and Henri Ratsimiebo wrote in their book Tableaux de Madagascar (Arthaud): "The Malagasy house expresses much more than a simple response to material imperatives. It has a spiritual dimension that is not irreducible to the sole technical adaptation capacities of rural societies The interior design of the house corresponds to the daily rhythm of the inhabitants. The furnishings of the house therefore correspond to astrological imperatives, and the whole is always built to face west.
Inside, the floor is divided into three zones: red (favorable), black (neutral, or insecure), and white (unfavorable). The head of the family should always sleep in the northeast (Alahamady), which corresponds to the ancestors. The mats must be clean, the lamboany of silk. During a festival, a little rum is poured in this place to obtain the blessing of the elders. In addition, they can thus participate in the festivities. The southwest corner, which corresponds to the favorable fate of Asombola, is reserved for the silo and the rice mortar.
A very powerful family feeling
All social life is based on the indissoluble (or almost indissoluble) bond of the family, which links the child to the ancestors.
Women traditionally have many children. It is often recalled that Rainilaiarivony, Prime Minister, had 16 children by his first wife before marrying the Queen. Sterility is traditionally considered a divine punishment.
Of course, if a child does not come, a diviner is consulted and prayers and sacrifices are imposed. Certain sacred stones are said to have virtues, and spicy food can be eaten "to warm the belly", etc.
Pregnancy is then subject to numerous fady, which it is more important than anything not to violate: no drinking rum, crossing a ditch, eating crabs (otherwise the child will have deformed hands)... Food is also essential, since it modifies the child's behavior: for example, it is advisable to drink beef broth at the end of the pregnancy, to reduce the mucus surrounding the fetus. If the delivery is difficult, the mpampivelona, or midwife, practicesalanenina, a ritual charm that consists of lightly touching the patient's belly repeatedly with a rice pestle.
When the child is born, the umbilical cord must be taken care of. Traditionally, the Merinas cut it with scissors, the Sakalavas with a sharp bamboo, the Antandroys with a fragment of wood or glass, etc. The body of the infant should not be washed, but smeared with a little fat. Depending on the people, the placenta is buried (among the Sakalavas), thrown into the river (in the Southeast), or fed to an ox (Merinas). One should not be overjoyed at the time of birth either: exuberance could bring bad luck to the newborn.
The child is carried on its back(babena) from a very early age; it should not be dressed, because "it would not grow", nor should its hair be cut during the first six months (fady), and it is given a name that it will have the opportunity to change later, because the early imposition of a definitive name would allow evil spirits to take it over. In general, moreover, the child can change his name several times in his life, depending on the circumstances. This practice is much less widespread today.
The rejection of the family is the most terrible punishment to which a child may be exposed: he or she is forbidden to be buried in the common grave.
The wedding
Marriage has a trial period with no commitment. One can get married at any age, but in general, things have changed considerably in the last century, as boys used to get married at 14 and girls at 12. The agreement is made between the parents of the families, and great speeches about the details of the ceremony and the conditions of the marriage. On the appointed day, the assembly goes to the girl's home where the kabary ritual takes place: two characters represent the parents of the bride and groom, the Mpangataka (role of the groom) and the Mpanatitra (role of the girl). This speech reproduces the marriage proposal and the accession to it. Then, the vody-ondry is given, consecration of the alliance, formerly the right leg of a sheep with the tail, today a small sum of money. Afterwards, only the husband can decide to break the marriage; the wife has the right to separate from him, but she cannot remarry. This repudiation is called fisaoram-bady ("wife's thanks"). It can be provoked by adultery or the abandonment of the marital home, but in fact the Malagasy man acts according to his own pleasure.
Brotherhood: the fatidra
The Malagasy attach fundamental importance to social ties, as evidenced by the fokonolonas (popular assemblies). It is also possible to ratify an artificial alliance, outside family ties, in three different forms.
The first is blood brotherhood, an artificial union consecrated by a deity for emotional or selfish reasons. There are variations according to the people, but generally the two contracting parties must drink a few drops of blood from a slight wound made to the other. The two new "brothers" must then provide each other with material and moral assistance.
The lohateny (among the Sakalavas for example), a kind of reciprocal agreement between members of different castes, which obliges them to help each other.
The grouping of collective work, findramanolona or valin-tanana, by which the inhabitants of a village lend their help to one of the inhabitants for the execution of a painful work (preparation of rice fields...).
Clothing
The basis of Malagasy clothing is the salaka or sikiny, a narrow strip of cloth about two meters long, which men tie around their kidneys by passing it between their legs while letting one end hang down in front and the other behind.
For women, the sikiny or kitamby is a cloth tied around the kidneys as well, which resembles a short petticoat. As it lengthens, this garment is called a salovana. This piece is currently used more in rural areas, as women who leave their breasts uncovered are increasingly rare. These clothes find happy variants in each tribe of the Big Island.
The clothing has changed considerably during the last century. The European influence is evident in the cities, and one dresses a little as one can in the bush, with old tee-shirts or faded jeans.
The lamba is the traditional clothing of the Malagasy. Little by little abandoned in favor of a more European fashion, the lamba is however again sought after for its beauty. It is made of raw silk, sometimes associated with cotton(Arindrano landihazo) or raffia(Arindrano jabo-landy). In the past, lamba fanto was also made from crushed tree bark (like fanto itself, and nonoka, which is a ficus): this practice is no longer really used today.
Traditionally, the lamba is white with various shades of patterns for women, and brown or red with white, black or brown lines for men.
There are three types of lamba: the lambamène, mostly dark red in color, used as a shroud; the lamba arindrano, or ceremonial garment for nobles, the wealthy or the elderly, decorated with black and white stripes on the front and red on the edges; and the lamba telo soratra, whose stripes represent three basic colors.
The tabake is more of a coquetry than a garment, and also provides protection from the sun. Among the Vezos and the Mahafalys in particular, this singular facial ornament resembles a drawing made up of spots, dots or lines, mostly white or yellow. The ointment that allows this delicious variegation is made of white clay or tanifotsy mixed with water, aromatic plants and dyeing roots like saffron. Once applied to the skin, this artistic cream dries and adheres. There are many forms of tabake, with multiple arabesques, which aim to soften and beautify the skin for example.
Health
The health situation in Madagascar is quite delicate, not to say failing. Health services are far from optimal and medicines are often in short supply. In spite of international aid and some new hospitals inaugurated in the provinces, the health sector is perpetually in crisis: administrative and financial management problems, lack of planning, deficient infrastructures... Some characteristics: high infant mortality rate, low contraceptive prevalence rate, undernourishment and malnutrition, endemic presence of malaria, diarrheal diseases, increasing prevalence of HIV, sometimes shortage of drinking water..
Manners and customs
According to Raymond Decary: "A great freedom of morals has always existed among the Malagasy with a sensual and voluptuous temperament, who sums up the pleasure of existence in the phrase: sweet is life(Mœurs et coutumes des Malgaches.) This is not to say that Madagascar is licentious or immoral, as some have sometimes told. Patient, alert, willingly sensitive when he evokes his native land, very attached to family ties and to the respect of certain rites, of certain customs, and even of a certain morality, the Malagasy is eminently sociable.
The former chief administrator of the colonies, who understood that a different morality is not the absence of any morality, then depicts the daily existence of these people who live in good understanding: "In their long conversations, in the shade of a wall or a tamarind tree with thick foliage, they speak with volubility, developing arguments sometimes tortuous but most often struck with the corner of good sense These are the kabarys, where the interlocutors confront each other in metaphorical verbal jousts. These proverbs, naive, touching, deep, as clear as clear water, testify to their great wisdom:
"Have a mouth like a snuffbox": always borrow.
"To carry two jugs on your head": to take care of several things at the same time.
"To be like a rooster that crows at night": to speak without moderation.
"To be like the boar that swallows the mosquitoes": to be satisfied with little.
"The roof of God": the sky; "the celestial creeper": the Milky Way; "the eye of the day": the sun; "the prince of the eye": the sloe; "the child of the mountain": the hill; "the branches of the hand": the fingers..
Love also has the right to its beautiful words; a proverb says that it is "Like rice, it grows where you sow it"; others report that "true lovers do not see the night coming."
Place of the woman
As in so many other countries of the "South," the situation of women varies considerably according to social class. Wealthy households lead a life quite similar to that of the wealthy classes in the West, and tasks are more or less equally shared with the husband or spouse; housekeepers are almost always hired. On the other hand, in poor families, the woman has to sacrifice herself to domestic tasks such as washing, selling handicrafts, when it is not a question of begging... In the south of Madagascar, in a region turned towards the sea, the man works on his pirogues, goes fishing, while the woman sells the products of the latter. At the same time, during the day, she takes care of the household.
The schooling of girls has taken on a salutary importance. It is true that large-scale decisions are often taken by men, but there are women ministers, deputies and senators! They also abound in companies, in NGOs, in administrations and in the judiciary. In fact, for a long time, women have had the right to be part of the Fokonolonas, community assemblies and places of public decision-making. And it is not uncommon to see self-made women at the head of companies, especially in the travel industry: we hope you will meet them on your way!
