A Glimpse of Madagascar as it is Today
Theresa Haines winds up her engaging series from Madagascar:
I first went to Madagascar as a Quaker volunteer in 1967 and stayed for four years. As told in a previous article I had ended up agreeing to be headteacher of a country school for just two years then left Madagascar - for good as I then thought. Leaving felt as if I had had a limb amputated as no one had any idea of what life had been like for me in Madagascar. Then in 1986 my friend founded the charity Money for Madagascar and I returned for a month’s monitoring visit in 1987. Since then I have visited the country every two or three years. Much has changed and not all for the best. The population in 1967 was 7 million. Now it is nearly 33 million and poverty has greatly increased so that Madagascar is now the 4th poorest country in the world.
In spite of the poverty, and the resulting destruction of the rainforest in order to grow food, the people are still as courteous as ever and still retain their sense of humour that is very close to the British one. One of my friends told me about the names of towns going west from the capital Antananarivo which means “The Town of a Thousand”. An 18th century king who founded the city felt that he needed a thousand soldiers in his army – hence the name. The next town going west is Imerintsiatosika (where I was headteacher) and which means “Where the Merina were not Pushed” i.e. where they won a battle. Next is Arivonimamo “Where the Thousand got Drunk”. Then Miarinarivo “ Where the Thousand became Sober” and finally Tsiroanomandidy which means “Not Two shall Rule” because the king had successfully captured the towns all the way from the capital -about 130 miles.
Travel now is difficult because most of the roads are in an appalling condition. In 2023 I was in the rainforest visiting projects on the eastern side of the country when we got a message that one of the bridges across a big river had collapsed. The authorities set up an alternative route across the top of a dam. The water was at least 12” deep. Last year the bridge had still not been rebuilt and I was actually in the van in the picture!
Despite all its problems I love the place and am still in touch with many of the children and grand-children of my teaching colleagues. I call Madagascar “My second Motherland”.