In Madagascar, an exhibition to tell the story of the first gold mining on the island
The guests discover the old iconographies: the gestures and techniques used by the artisanal gold miners of the time are the same or almost the same as today.
© Sarah Tetaud/RFI
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
In Madagascar, hardly a day goes by without the national media reporting facts of gold trafficking.
A precious metal which is popular and which has enjoyed, since Wednesday, March 30, an exhibition in its name.
Entitled "
Or, Volamena, Gold
", this new exhibition presented by the Museum of Photography of Madagascar offers the public a journey through the centuries.
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With our correspondent in Antananarivo,
Sarah Tétaud
The first writing found about the exploitation of gold on the island of Madagascar dates from 1545. However, it will be necessary to wait three and a half centuries before the metal can officially be extracted from the basements.
In the Kingdom of Madagascar, gold has a sacred value: anyone caught looking for it is severely punished.
Among the guests at the opening, Rado Andria, is writing his thesis on the impact of artisanal gold mining on local development.
“
The very first concession, the very first official exploitation right, was granted by the Malagasy kingdom on December 2, 1886 to Léon Suberbie, a French businessman, in return for 10
million francs
(an astronomical sum for the era, Editor's note)
of war damage claimed by France during the Franco-Merina war 1883-1885
", comments the history student.
“
It was he who started mining gold in a town in northwestern Madagascar, in the district of Maevatanana, in Suberbieville
(now a ghost town).
»
Since that date, gold has not ceased to be extracted.
In a traditional way, a lot, then in a more intensive and mechanized way, in order to satisfy the dizzying dreams of large operators, recalls the co-founder of the museum Cédric Donck.
“
It was only at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century that gold really took on its more economic dimension and where mining became industrialized.
So gold mining in Madagascar is a very old tradition.
Over 500 years old.
And remains particularly relevant until today.
»
And for good reason, as juicy as illegal metal trafficking has never been as important as it is today.
The authorities speak of nearly 7 tons of gold leaving the country under the cloak each year, despite the suspension of exports since 2020.
►
To read also: Madagascar: the two Malagasy gold traffickers soon extradited from the Comoros
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