Malagasy Independence Day is three days away and I am celebrating in my own way. I am reading
“Ilay sikajin’i Dadabe” or Grandpa’s eight cents (of wisdom?), written by Randriamiadanarivo. The book was recommended by BandyKV. Apparently it was required reading in “his” time. In exchange of this entimody or homework, I am recommending him (and anybody who cares to listen) the reading of “The Brief Wondrous life of Oscar Wao”, this year’s Pulitzer winner, a powerful and funny book, the first book written in Spanglish I am reading, whose time line enfolds unorthodoxally and which taught me many a thing about Dominican culture. I know now how you spell Idi Amin in Dominican :
Trujillo.
I somehow expected “Ilay sikajin’i Dadabe” to ooze nationalism. After all that is the reputation of this book, isn’t? This was a book which was banned in 1958. The general public could only appreciate it in 1975, after the Malagasy style red revolution. Nationalistic the novel is not in the more expected way, and I do not know if I was hoping for a Malagasy maquisard tale, the
Menalamba. “Ilay sikajin’i Dadabe” has its own very special flavor of patriotism that favors reconciliation and collaboration. Fihavanana is not a vain word here, but fihavanana on an equal footing with the French, with a hero that speaks better Malagasy than French and who was brought up in the Malagasy way.
The book is centered on “Goaibe“, so called because of his strength and height and physical prouesses. Goaibe is the ninth child of Rainitavao. His mother dies upon giving him birth. Of all his siblings, he is singled out by his father and brought up in the traditional way : he is kept home, does field work (as in rice growing etc…), and is not sent to school. His siblings grow up to become teachers, physicians, evangelists (this was a well respected profession back then), but Goaibe, big and strong and good looking as he is, is not able to read or write. This proves to be very important and something that he will bitterly regret. (But help is coming ! In the most unexpected form !)His father passes away, the French conquer Madagascar, all slaves are freed, and then all hell breaks loose. He has two slaves (his nursing mother and her husband, whom he loves and calls “dada” and “neny”) and his share of the paternal inheritance left. Not much. Worse, Goaibe is called to perform “fanompoana” or forced labor.
And forgive me for the longish history note here, but it is necessary for historical perspective :
Fanompoana or Telopoloandro or travaux forces or SMOTIG was forced labor by the French colonials and was the way east coast railroads and vast spices plantations and ports and government buildings were built on the cheap. Travelling the eastern railroads will not be the same again after you read “Sikajin’i Dadabe”. Many able men, between the ages of 16 and 60 were forcibly enrolled to work for French colons. Many Malagasy men (20%!!!) died of malnutrition, of disease, of exhaustion at the cruel hands of some French and Senegalese tirailleurs handlers. Fanompoana was abolished in 1936. Fanompoana was initially scheduled for 30 days, hence its name of “Telopoloandro”.
” Ces corvées terminées, dénommées les 30 jours, bien qu’elles aient duré en moyenne de 40 à 60 jours, et au moment où les susdits cultivateurs se préparaient à labourer leurs rizières…” , ” un grand nombre d’entre eux furent expédiés aux chantiers de chemin de fer où la plupart restèrent 60 à 80 jours “.
De nombreux paysans auraient fait ainsi 150 jours de corvée en 1919, pour des salaires dérisoires. “
Le SMOTIG (Service de la Main d’œuvre pour les Travaux d’Intérêt Général), fixé par décret du 3 juin 1926, est créé par le gouverneur général Marcel Olivier en vue de procurer la main-d’œuvre aux travaux publics. Il impose aux jeunes Malgaches une période de trois ans, puis deux ans, de travail forcé. Les travaux imposés sont extrêmement pénibles. Le chantier de la ligne ferroviaire F.C.E. commencent le 1er juin 1927 avec un effectif de 500 hommes, chiffre qui augmente progressivement pour atteindre 8 300.
More citations here)
« La multiplicité des graves abus qui s’y trouvent démontrés […] est simplement lamentable pour le bon renom de la colonisation française. Il a fallu toute la douceur, la passivité des Sihanakas et des Hovas pour que le régime instauré et rigoureusement appliqué dans la province de Moramanga par M. M. Sainjon et Ferjus [respectivement chef de province de Moramanga et chef de district d’Ambatondrazaka], et qui n’est qu’un succédané de la traite […] n’ait pas amené les plus graves incidents. Je crois avoir une connaissance suffisante de nos gouvernements généraux pour pouvoir écrire que nulle part ailleurs, ni en Indochine, ni en AOF, ni en AEF, de telles exactions ne seraient possibles. Au Tonkin, en Annam, au Laos, la rébellion ne tarderait guère. En AOF, ce serait soit la révolte, soit l’exode en masse vers les colonies étrangères voisines. Au Gabon-Congo, on aurait aussi très vite la révolte chez quelques peuplades énergiques […] mais ce serait plutôt l’abandon des villages […] ! » (CAOM, Mission Henri 1921-1923, rapport cité note 48, présentation par l’Inspecteur général.)End of note. Hope you learned how my people have suffered. It gives perspective to Goaibe’s actions and makes me appreciate his survival skills more. What a man !
And now let us go back to the novel :
Goaibe is initially scheduled for the normal 30 day fanompoana, but his ignorance gets him to be enslaved for four times longer by an unscrupulous French “voanjo” or colon. He is also supposed to be paid, but again he cannot read nor write, does not know his rights, and an even more unscrupulous Malagasy translator takes advantage of him and Goaibe’s pocket does not contain one sikajy when he is finally sent home.
But wait, really not everything is dire ! Amidst all the sufferings, Goaibe proves a resourceful survivor, he swims these Franco-Senegalese-unfriendly waters with a champion’s ease. From now on, he is to become the leader during the fanompoana, he somehow manages to negotiate with the French voanjo for better nourishment for the whole forced labor camp, not to mention that the French voanjo not once hits him with the “karavasy” or whip that he parades with, Goaibe is even asked by the French voanjo to stay on as a well paid “rangazay“! Which he mercifully declines. Which is fortunate, because if he had accepted, I think I would have thrown away that “patriotic” book, and there would have been no new post today on the WoW of SipakV.
Goaibe goes on to another bout of fanompoana, this time near Moramanga. He is still a leader among the Malagasy. This time he is in the good graces of Capitaine Cadet, a French soldier in charge of the camp, and of the feared Senegalese tirailleurs, who are not all Senegalese as my Senegalese friends do not tire of reminding me (one of the Senegalese tirailleurs is called “Ghen” in the book. if you are Malagasy you know what that means). Anyway he does so well with Capitaine Cadet that he is taught to read, write and speak French. Which he successfully masters in less than two months. Yes. Two months, Sir! This dude beats the h*** out of our American Peace corps Volunteers who vaguely mumble some Malagasy after a three month stay in the country. And they did not have to learn to read and write.
Goaibe gets along with the Senegalese who show him how to cook the feared “menarana” snake and relish eating it too. Well the relishing part comes with a bit of coercion, but I notice that Goaibe does not throw up the viper either. (Did I forget to mention that the dude should win the politically savvy contest hands down in any environment? He is a survivor with a capital S. They should send him to the Middle East as a special envoy. Fihavanana will reconcile them all on an equal footing.)
If I was not convinced then that “Ilay sikajin’i Dadabe” was a book all about reconciliation among all people living in Madagascar, Malagasy or not, Merina or not, friend or foe, and not at all a book about fierce blind nationalism, all doubts evaporated after the following adventures:
- Goaibe meets three Sakalava witches who shield him from dahalos. This triggers an unintentionally hilarious passage where he wonders why they helped him to the risk of their own lives, while he only loves whom he “has to” love and not anybody else. This is after he passes through an area called Ampamoizankova. There is a touching passage in the book explaining the etymology and I remembered then my history buff mother telling me the story in detail at some point in my childhood when I was listening with only one ear.
- Goaibe befriends a former slave of his during a fanompoana at Moramanga. The former slave laments Goaibe’s illiteracy. Goaibe is mortified and resolves to learn while striving not to lose face.
- Goaibe ends up in another fanompoana camp following accusations by some Merina women of him being a “vagabao” or vagrant, but manages to avoid most heavy work thanks to his friendship with a Senegalese tirailleur.
- Goaibe ends up in jail following tsahos or rumors spread by a jealous Malagasy governor and is freed thanks to the testimony of two French persons : Capitaine Cadet, his bienfaiteur; More surprisingly, the turncoat French planter who shamelessly exploited him has now come to court in his favor. Needless to say Goaibe not only forgives him, but he says nothing of the Telopoloandro (30 days) that turned into 120 days and the never collected wages! (That would never fly in Hollywood).
- Goaibe defends an entire village from being taken to the cleaners by two Malagasy spooks who pretend to collect the old Malagasy coins to exchange them against new French ones since the fanjakana has changed hands and the Malagasy coins are now worth peanuts. This is where Goaibe’s new reading and writing skills come in handy as he is able to confound the bandits!
At the end of the book, Capitaine Cadet is ready to enroll Goaibe in a military school in France. Goaibe declines. Capitaine Cadet asks Goaibe if he wants to do business with a French man based in Antananarivo (as an associate, not an employee, mind you). Goaibe still declines. Or is Goaibe ready to become a “Komadaoro”? Because as the Capitaine Cadet says : good trustworthy Malagasy men like Goaibe are hard to come by. But Goaibe is a man with good sense and not at all interested in the $$$. All these offers come to no avail. Goaibe knows his place and his duties. His people need him. So long, Capitaine Cadet ! Thank you for all your good deeds…
* Fremigacci : le revisionniste de 1947, whose paper will make you grasp all the horrors of the forced labor :
Les chemins de fer de Madagascar (1901-1936) Une modernisation manquée
There is also another book “L’extraordinaire et le quotidien” edited by Pierre Vérin, Claude Allibert, Narivelo Rajaonarimanana where one can find a detailed (and more learned) review of “Sikajin’i Dadabe” written by Nirhy Lanto Ramamonjisoa. Thanks to google book search, you can get a sneak peek. Better if you have 33 euros, you can purchase it here.
The Global Voices Summit is over and I am hanging out at the hotel lobby waiting for my shuttle to take me to the airport, having just come back from a visit to the Great Synagogue of Budapest.