Malagasy people

“ There are pure Africans in abundance (as we shall see) scattered about in certain districts on the west, imported through the Arab slave trade. And that African element has tainted the original Malagasy race. But no original and distinct tribe on the island has yet been pointed out as long settled 170African colonists: much less can the entire Malagasy people be identified with such a tribe. On the contrary the three great divisions of the Malagasy hold together; embrace almost the entire island ”

“ The Malagasy are very fond of their children—the parents would kneel by the pathway, the father on the one side, the mother on the other, pleading, with strong crying and tears, that the gods would spare their little one. Sometimes the cattle, with more sense than the people, when they came up to the babe, would sniff at it and step over it, and thus its life might be spared. This was the case, it is said, with Rainilàiàrivòny, the late prime minister of Madagascar, who was born during the unlucky month. ”

“ The Malagasy are a people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood. As a people they cannot originate anything, but they are great imitators, and they are also much readier to imitate the bad than the good. There is not much that is original in them, as a people, except ‘original sin,’ and of that virus they have a fair share. Overgrown children, they were attracted by what was sensational—especially in preaching—but not nearly so much by the tinsel in religion as might have been expected. ”

“ In certain respects its form differed from what I looked for: the outward civilisation of the Malagasy was less advanced. But the tide of Chrstian life through all the Central Provinces and its offshoots was flowing wider, deeper, stronger than I had imagined. The Christian renovation of the Malagasy people is truly the work of God; and by the direct use of his own instruments, the teaching of the Word, the bestowment of gracious gifts, and the discipline of sorrow, the Holy Ghost has long been leading, not individuals only, but multitudes of the nation toward himself. ”

“ And we were glad to find that many thoughtful men among the upper classes of Malagasy society feel it to be a serious evil, which must some day be carefully considered by the Malagasy people and be entirely abolished. ”

“ It will be to the lasting disgrace of France if she stirs up aggressive war, and so throws back indefinitely all the remarkable progress made by the Malagasy during the past few years; and it will be hardly less to our own discredit if we, an insular nation, jealous of the inviolability of our own island, show no practical sympathy with another insular people, and do not use every means that can be employed to preserve to Madagascar its independence and its liberties. ”

“ Hence the poor show the Malagasy made in fighting for their fatherland, until they found that they had been betrayed, and then they rose in rebellion against the French rule when it was too late. Madagascar and its people were betrayed, sold, bought, and paid for, and then the chief intriguer, who was also one of the arch-traitors, when he had done his infamous work was flung aside, while it is said that the other arch-traitor and some of his confederates had to pay large sums for their worthless lives. ”

“ This will form, in the estimation of many, one of the brightest jewels in the crown of the late great Queen, whilst it will remind some of the memorable message sent from Windsor Castle by Queen Adelaide in March, 1837, to the persecuting Rànavàlona I: “Tell the Queen of Madagascar from me, that she can [74] do nothing so beneficial to her country and her people as receive the Christian religion [22] .”’
Thus, from 1865 to 1896, the Malagasy people owed it to the late Queen Victoria that they enjoyed (what they once more enjoy) the fullest religious toleration. ”

“ The cruel instincts of a people like the Malagasy, just emerging from heathenism, can only be gradually eradicated by time. It will take a long course of Christian training, through many generations—as in our own and other lands—to effect a permanent change. It augurs well, however, for the future of Madagascar that so much has already been accomplished in that direction in so short a time. Volumes might be written on the progress of Christianity during the periods of persecution, as it would take volumes to recount the sufferings of that evil time. ”

“ Like all other barbarous people, the Malagasy are generous and hospitable, their own modes of living being so miserable that they are very willing to share freely with others. Where people rely upon the spontaniety of nature, or upon the labor of slaves for their food and shelter, it becomes an easy matter to manifest the ruder semblances of hospitality; but as for imparting Christian solace and comfort they know nothing. These they rather persecute and expel.
Should one be content to dine on locusts and silk worms, he could be highly entertained. ”

“ Since the death of Radama the trade of Madagascar has very much declined. The reasons are obvious. The government of the Queen, unsupported by Great Britain, does not hold that command over the [205] whole of the island which was accorded to Radama alone; and this want of confidence in themselves has revived that continued fear of invasion which harassed the Malagasy people for so long a period, and for more than two hundred years, in the person of the French nation, has been their persecuting demon. ”

“ By burning the idols the Malagasy government simply assumed a new attitude towards Christianity and Christian civilization. The vast majority of the people in the central province of Imèrina and the adjacent districts and provinces followed the example set them by the queen and government; but they did so mainly from loyalty or fear, and not from any real heart-love for the Christian religion. ”

“ In Mauritius slavery has entirely ceased, so also in its dependency of the Seychelles.
Madagascar has had the gospel of Jesus Christ preached on its soil; the germ of civilization has been planted in that extensive island; and the slave-trade is no longer tolerated among the Malagasy people.
In the African dominions of the Imâm of Muskat the slave-trade is forbidden; spice-gardens have arisen, the cocoa-nut is cultivated, and large exports of simsim seed annually take place. ”

“ We all felt much out of the world in Madagascar. To 145the great world which we had left, the trade, the government, and the people of the island, are linked by very slender ties. The Malagasy know very little of foreign lands: few understand the English language and the condition and affairs of England. Those who have been to England have not felt free to tell what they saw: in former days it would have been dangerous to tell it: for to depreciate Madagascar by showing the superiority of other countries was neither more nor less than high treason. Knowledge is increasing among them ”

“ Let us then fearlessly and lovingly commit these Malagasy converts and churches into His hands. He can preserve them from all evil. He knows them well and has loved them long. He brought their fathers across the sea to raise up a people whose Christian faithfulness all tribes and tongues should know. He formed their land and endowed it with its many rich resources for their good. ”

“ That the import trade into Madagascar has been active to the present time we can ourselves testify. Not seldom were pure African slaves, knowing but little of the Malagasy tongue, met with in the Capital and other parts of Imerina. The people in general know them as “Mójambíkas.” 327Still more numerous did we find them in the seven garrison towns in the north-west. Several came round us in Mevatanána. Márovoay was full of them. In Mojangá they form a large portion of the population in the lower town. ”

“ There is no doubt that the children thus educated at Réunion will help very much to extend the influence of the French amongst the tribes on the coast of Madagascar. These Jesuits cast their bread upon the waters, and after many days it will return unto them. They do so very judiciously, especially devoting their attention to the Malagasy girls, knowing well the great advantages of educating the future mothers of the Madagascar people in French interests. ”

“ The recent attempt of the French to obtain the upper hand in Madagascar, by creating a revolution in that island, has resulted in the most humiliating failure, and has given to the British interest that preponderance which it is sure to maintain with a noble race like the Malagasy [196] people, as long as our relations with them are conducted on just and honourable principles.
A. M. Lambert, of the late firm of Minon, Lambert, & Co., of Port Louis, Mauritius, visited Antananarivo in 1855, avowedly with commercial intentions ”

“ A rush was made on Antanànarìvo with a flying column, and the capital was captured on the afternoon of September 30. This event caused great excitement in France—the people went into ecstasies over it. In reality nothing could have been easier. The General knew there would be no serious opposition; the traitors had arranged matters beforehand. The Malagasy troops, who ought to have been there to defend the capital, had been carefully removed, and taken away to meet the French along a route by which it was well known they would not come. ”

“ It is surrounded by a deep fosse, and has on its north side a fine specimen of the Malagasy town-gate, with its round stone. In the centre of the little town are some royal tombs, shaded by five noble amóntana trees. All the principal families, once settled here, have removed to the capital and its neighbourhood: and the population is kept up by their dependents and a few aged people past work. The town stands in an open, undulating plain: but it has little population around it.
STONE GATE AT ARIVONIMAMO.
From Antongona westward the country has many beauties. ”

“ In the light of such sentiments, how absurd the tales circulated in France, and accepted by thousands of the credulous there as true! The British missionaries were accused of instigating the rising, and the London Missionary Society of supplying arms and ammunition to the rebels!
Many old scores were cleared off by malignant heathen and semi-heathen Malagasy during that reign of terror. Slaves who had been harshly and cruelly treated by their former masters took the opportunity of retaliating, and accused them of being connected with the rising; such people were at once arrested and shot. ”

“ If once you win their respect and love—and they are not difficult to win—you may do almost anything you like with them, and they in turn will do anything for you. Doubtless some of the above-named features are common to most heathen people; others are peculiar to the Malagasy.
It does not follow nowadays that when any great man in either the political or religious world changes his views, or his creed, all his followers or dependants change with him. ”

“ We had heard that Her Majesty was ill, but were startled that Friday forenoon by the firing of the guns in and around the palace yard; and by seeing the people rushing from the weekly market, the women taking down their hair as they ran—the Malagasy sign of mourning on the part of the women. All were rushing home to hide or to protect their property, as they feared there might be a ‘rising’; but the new queen was immediately proclaimed, and all passed off quietly. Rànavàlona II was born in the year 1829, and ascended the throne on April 2, 1868. ”

“ Not long afterwards the authority of France was recognized throughout the island. General Gallieni, whose firm and vigorous administration, and desire to treat the Malagasy justly and kindly, made him liked by the people, retired in 1905, and was succeeded in that office by M. Victor Augagneur, late mayor of Lyons. Since the French occupation the Malagasy have conformed pretty readily to the new order of things, although many of the most intelligent Hòva deeply regret that their country did not retain its independence. Justice is administered, on the whole, with fairness and impartiality ”

“ Gums, dyes from woods, nuts, and roots are in great plenty, and it only [204] requires the independence of this noble people to be secured, when the trade would be enormous.
The French will never obtain possession of the island, for the forests and fevers in the lower districts are its natural protectors; and while the present state of things lasts, there will be no roads made, for these would only facilitate the conquest of the island—a fact to which the Malagasy are quite alive.
A specimen of the coal from the north-west end of Madagascar was given to me when at Mauritius. ”

“ In the Malagasy proverbs and folk-lore you have some few of the ‘fossilized remains of former beliefs’; and in these the people were told something of God and goodness, of right and wrong, while hints were given of a life beyond the grave, where good men would be rewarded and wicked men punished. ”

“ THE NEW SCHOOL, AMBATONAKANGA.
GROUP OF SCHOLARS, TEACHERS, AND CHRISTIAN WORKERS.
Hugh Miller says: ‘There are two periods that are favourable to observation, an early and a late one. A fresh eye detects external traits and peculiarities among a people, seen for the first time, which disappear as they become familiar; but it is not until after repeated opportunities of study and a prolonged acquaintance that the internal characteristics of a people begin to be rightly understood.’ This is especially true with regard to Madagascar and the Malagasy ”