The dialogue with the ancestors
All Malagasy, from the Vezo fisherman to the President, are united around a common cult, the belief in the ancestors through which one is linked to a clan, a group, a community. In Madagascar, the notion of community prevails over that of individuality. The ancestors are perceived as demigods, closer to the living than the founder of the universe, Andriananahary, the lord of the ancestors, hence a faithful cult that permeates the daily life of the living and governs their lives. Malagasy culture cannot be understood without this constant reference. The ancestors are respected because they represent the roots of life, the origin of the people, the foundations of the family. The homage paid to them is profound and daily. For the slightest celebration, the ancestors are invoked. Often, rum is shared in honor of the ancestors, but a chicken, a duck, or a zebu is also sacrificed. Dances, songs and music accompany the ceremony. Consecrated places, feasts, ceremonies, art, poetry, proverbs, blood ties, and even circumcision, all contribute to glorifying the ancestors.
This omnipresence of the deceased may seem surprising in such a young society, where the child is supposed to be king. But for the Malagasy, who are very inclined to spirituality, death is not perceived in the Western way, as a rupture and an end. As a sublimation of life, it gives access to a higher state of knowledge, to wisdom, and allows the deceased to protect those who are still alive, to direct them on their path. The ancestors can be asked to help the living with love, health, work, and then thanked when the request has been fulfilled.
To enter into communication with the spirits of the dead, the Malagasy engage in ceremonies. They are invoked, they ask for fertility or the success of a harvest during tromba, possession cults during which the deceased speak through the possessed.
The zoky olona, or naoda, are the elders. In the villages, they have an important moral and spiritual power. They are asked for advice when important decisions involving the community must be taken. They are shown affection and respect. This status is due to their experience accumulated over the years, to their status as immediate ancestors, and to their close passage to the state of ancestor. Astrologers, tromba priests and diviners are often elders. Kings and queens are considered supreme ancestors. To become an ancestor one day is an important psychological element among the living, and to become an ancestor one needs children, grandchildren, and descendants, many if possible. Therefore, children are pampered and protected. Each birth is a celebration.
The famadihana, translated as "turning over the dead", is an important ceremony, especially in the Highlands, because it brings together the living and the ancestors. It can also be considered as a privileged place for the transmission of values from older generations to younger ones. The purpose of this ceremony would therefore be twofold: to inscribe the young in the lineage of their ancestors and to inscribe the status of families in the local context.
The hidden face of reality
For the Malagasy, everything has a meaning, and nature is full of teachings and hidden symbols. Thus, one will pay close attention to the phases of the Moon, the dominant star, symbol of fertility and femininity. To "live" this relationship with the ancestors, intermediaries are sometimes necessary: mediums, diviners and ombiasy (wizards or healers). They help to choose the best days for a wedding, a famadihana, or the construction of a building. For tromba (trances), the time of the new moon, which transmits movement and freedom, is chosen more willingly.
The importance of the occult also appears in the development of divination sciences, such as geomancy and astrology inherited from the Arabs. With the help of complex figures and seeds, the mpisikidy (sorcerer who guesses by the sikidy) determines the fate of the person who comes to consult him. People willingly submit to vintana (fate) and its ineluctability.
Bewitchment and unbewitchment are practiced in different regions. Illness is sometimes attributed to the wrath of the ancestors or to a malevolent neighbor; to cure it, people hire the services of a healer or diviner(ombiasy) who makes it disappear with the help of remedies(fanafody). The healer uses either medicinal plants whose curative virtues he knows, or antidotes if he considers that his client has been bewitched. Through the tromba, he can also invoke the spirits that help him to fight the evil spell.
A short description of the Malagasy "supernatural
Witch doctors or healers(ombiasy) have the power to contact the ancestors to know about illnesses and to heal them. Their knowledge of medicinal plants ensures them a fundamental role in the community. They are nicknamed Olona be hasina, that is to say: "people with great virtues". Other sorcerers, the Mpamosavy, practice black magic, cast spells, or bewitch people. They are not allowed to enter the family tomb and are excluded from the community.
Talismans(ody) are amulets - which can be wood, a zebu horn, a shell or a coin - used by the sorcerer. The powers conferred by the talismans are obtained in exchange for sacrifices
The destinies(vintana) are true cultural and spiritual rules that orchestrate the community life of the Malagasy. Their origin lies in Arab astrology and their lunar calendar. The position of the stars in the cosmos is a major source of influence for any daily activity.
The diviner(mpanandro) is an important figure in the village. His vocation as an astrologer allows him to know the right cosmic ascendances, in order to determine the days of marriage, exhumation, and all sorts of important ceremonies. His opinions are particularly listened to.
The Malagasy soul and the supernatural: the fady
Beyond the tangible and concrete world that man can rationalize, the Malagasy recognizes the existence of another world, which, with its laws, exerts on him both fear and fascination. However, he feels the need to neutralize it. Certain rites thus make it possible to domesticate this obscure universe: the fady are edifying examples. These are prohibitions, or taboos, which govern certain places, acts and situations in life. Everyone respects them, and it is particularly serious to break them. Legends are told about them that are as beautiful as they are unusual. In the city as well as in the country, the traveler must respect them.
Often endowed with a moral value, they have the function of maintaining the cohesion of a community, a people, a family or even a single person. They also reinforce the feeling of belonging to a group by differentiating it from others. Thus those of the Vezos are not the same as those of the Betsileos. Among the Zafimanirys, it is taboo to lean on the central post that supports the ridge of a house, at the risk of making lightning fall. The Betsileos, on the other hand, do not sit on the doorstep for fear of causing a rice shortage.
The fady applies to specific places, beings, objects, animals and periods. Thus, certain species are forbidden to be eaten, such as lemurs, the snake among the Betsimisarakas, or eels in Bekily, in the Taolagnaro region.
These prohibitions can have several origins. The fady that affect a single person may be designated by a diviner or an astrologer according to his or her natal chart. More often, they originate from the communities and are linked to the ancestors. Thursday and Tuesday are fady days for the turning of the dead.
Transgressing a prohibition leads to the unleashing of evil powers. If one arouses the anger of the ancestors, the whole community suffers the consequences. If only one person is involved, he/she brings bad luck upon him/her. Thus, cases of drowning have been reported following the non-application of a ban. Among certain peoples, to break the unleashing of the forces of evil, a sacrificial ritual must take place, even a bloody sacrifice.
Collective fady are hereditary and are transmitted as such: when a woman marries a man from another region than her own, she keeps her own prohibitions and observes those of her husband only if life in common forces her to do so. The origin of the fady is often very old, but is usually found in a story that is passed down from generation to generation. But not all fady are destined to last and the oldest person in the clan, the diviner, or the dead man himself, may one day decide to lift them.
Kings for a day: circumcision
Circumcision is a ceremony celebrated during the southern winter from July to September and until October in the East (the wounds can then heal more quickly). It is, literally, the feast of the young boy. It allows him to become a man within the community. This ritual, if it has lost its strength in the big cities, gives rise in the countryside to great celebrations that gather the families of the young men and friends from the neighboring villages for festivities that last more than forty-eight hours.
The rites present certain differences, according to the people. Some festivities attract thousands of people, as among the Antambahoakas of Mananjary, where the sambatra is held every seven years and lasts a month.
At sunset on the first day, and after having killed chickens, pigs or zebus (depending on the means of the group), they indulge in songs and dances. A meal of meat and rice is shared. From then on, everything is allowed, except sexual relations. The celebration continues until the day after tomorrow, the day of the circumcision. The young boy, often no older than 4 years old, is given special care. He receives gifts from his father; his mother gives him massages.
At the crowing of the rooster, the villagers leave in a dancing procession to draw "strong" water from a river. In each village they cross, the people they meet sprinkle them with water. On their return, they confront the villagers who try to overturn their containers in a traditional fight. Once the jugs are saved from danger, they are carried to the house where the ceremony takes place. The circumcision, performed by the village doctor or the astrologer, can then take place on the sleeping boys, dressed in their best clothes and held by their fathers. Then, the wounds are washed with "strong" water while the cries are deafened by the drums and the cries of the women, chanting "let ours be a male".
The zebu, emblematic animal
The zebu is at the same time a livestock for food, an animal of prestige and a sacrificial animal. A very close link attaches it to its owner. In the South, when a farmer dies, the whole herd is sacrificed and disappears with him. The bucranes (horns) are planted on the graves, symbolizing the prestige enjoyed by the deceased during his lifetime. The zebu is also regularly sacrificed at weddings and births.
The impressive herds that graze in Sakalava country could represent a good source of income. And yet they are there for the parade! This is why there has been talk of contemplative breeding in the South, among the Baras for example, where, to get married, the groom has every interest in putting a herd of zebus in the basket. Otherwise, he may lose the one he covets! But these traditions tend to be lost because of economic difficulties.
Imported religions
Other religions came to Madagascar from the ends of the earth. With the Arab traders, Islam was established from the 8th century on the east coast, in Antaimoro, near Manakara, and on the west coast, in Mahajanga. Here, on Sundays, in the torpor of the midday that is ending, the faithful chant the suras of the Koran in the large mosques. There are others in Morondava, Toliara, Belo-sur-Tsiribhina and Antananarivo. Islam here is the religion of a few and is marked by tolerance. It is a Malagasy Islam, a thousand miles away from the fanaticism of the madmen of God and other fundamentalists. Tolerance is a foundation of the Malagasy cultural identity.
Christianity was established in Madagascar in two stages. First, the British and Norwegian reformed churches took advantage of the relative "Europeanism" of King Radama I. But it is especially decades later that things became more complex, when the links between missionaries, French secret services and European traders worried Queen Ranavalona II, who feared attempts to subvert the state, certainly rightly so, since the emperors of Vietnam, at the same time, faced the invasion of French armies that had come under the pretext of defending the freedom of worship and trade, in a sovereign country located at the antipodes of France!
The influence of Christianity was accentuated when the Merina monarchy converted to Protestantism, as evidenced by a temple built within the walls of the Rova, the royal city, at the request of Her Majesty the Queen herself, in 1869. The Catholic religion became established mainly as a result of the establishment of the colonial army from the end of the 19th century. The benevolence of the colonial administration for several decades allowed it to exert a notable influence in all regions of the country and it is still the dominant religion today. On Sundays, the inhabitants dress in their best clothes and sometimes walk dozens of kilometers to go to mass.
