"History of Madagascar: The building of a nation" is the title of the work written by a collective of six historians, researchers and teachers well known from the Big Island such as, between…

"History of Madagascar, the building of a nation": a rare and eagerly awaited work

“History of Madagascar, the building of a nation” is the result of two years of collaboration between six historians, researchers and teachers.

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"History of Madagascar: The building of a nation" is the title of the work written by a collective of six historians, researchers and teachers well known from the Big Island such as, among others, Manassé Esoavelomandroso, Helihanta Rajaonarison or again Father Sylvain Urfer, author of many books on Madagascar.

Publicity

With our correspondent in Antananarivo,

Laetitia Bezain

These are 283 pages which retrace the history of a people, from the arrival of the first occupants of the island who populate the coasts to independence and the quest for democracy.

The authors of the book presented it on Saturday, December 19, for its official release during a history café at the Photo Museum of Antananarivo.

This is a rare and expected work because the publications on the history of the Big Island are often old and not very accessible to Malagasy people.

Its authors wanted to retrace the path of Madagascar by integrating the results of the most recent research.

This project, carried out for two years, started from an observation: many Malagasy people know little or little about their history.

“The school system is involved in this issue.

There is, I think, the role of public authorities in setting up programs.

There are programs concerning Madagascar, at school, but the history of Madagascar is always the youngest because it passes to the last chapter and it often happens that we do not manage to finish this last chapter of the program.

So there is a misunderstanding.

Our historiographical and bibliographical references are also quite old and therefore we have remained with the publications and information of the time, which leads to a lack of knowledge of the history because, from the 1970s until now, there have been many many theses, new research results that have been published.

We said to ourselves that it was time to do this story of Madagascar, written by the Malagasy for the Malagasy, and in a register accessible to everyone.

The idea and our objective is that all Malagasy people can grasp the history of their country, ”

explains Helihanta Rajaonarison, historian, teacher-researcher at the University of Antananarivo and president of the Photo Museum.

A misunderstanding that also comes

isolation between the regions, continues, for his part, Manassé Esoavelomandroso, historian and academician.

“Our country is so vast and the lines of communication are so scarce that northerners do not necessarily know southerners and southerners do not necessarily know people from the east, west or center. .
We need those lines of communication.
That is better knowledge.
But we are also isolated by the means of communication.
The newspapers are newspapers published in Antananarivo.
It is not in the newspapers that you will know the realities, 100 km from the capital.
So the written or audiovisual press does not disseminate knowledge of Madagascar and the government authorities do not promote this knowledge of Madagascar by the Malagasy either.
".

Deconstructing stereotypes anchored in people's minds is also the intention of this work which describes the march of a people towards unity.

“In the mind of the Malagasy in general, history is not national history.

This is the story of his group.

We must therefore get out of this fragmented history to arrive at a common history where everyone, wherever they come from, can recognize each other and then afterwards, have a common heritage.

The clichés that prevent this are for example the division of the Malagasy into two groups, saying "the Merina and the others".

Above all, there is mistrust between populations, fueled by the lack of communication, by the isolation of the regions.

It will therefore be necessary to decompartmentalize these regions, to decompartmentalize minds.

We have a common history to know.

We were different.

We have arrived inside this island which should have been a crucible but this crucible did not succeed and so it still continues until now and we hope that by reading this the reader will ask the question and find out that we must continue or complete the construction of this nation, ”

explains Manasseh Esoavelomandroso.

Written in French, a Malagasy version of the book is planned for next year, with the main objective of being used in colleges and high schools on the Big Island.

"History of Madagascar, the building of a nation": a rare and eagerly awaited work

"History of Madagascar, the building of a nation": a rare and eagerly awaited work

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