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Myth and History: The Malagasy Andriambahoaka and the Indonesian Legacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Paul Ottino
Paul Ottino*
Affiliation:
Ecole des Hautes Etudes, en Sciences Sociales, Paris
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Extract

The early cultural history of Madagascar, inseparable from that of the Indian Ocean, remains very poorly known. I agree with other authors that the peopling of the island is recent; so far we do not have any archeological evidence dating prior to the ninth century. While it is beyond doubt that the islands received people, techniques, and ideas from all the areas around the Indian Ocean, recent work confirms the dominance of a double--or rather a triple--component: an Indonesian one, much Indianized before being tinged with a particular brand of Shicite Islam around the thirteenth century; an Arabo-Persian influence; and an African, particularly Bantu, influence. The Bantu influence, is in most cases, inseparable from the preceding. Deschamps believes that the more recent, “Islamized,” arrivals brought with them new political concepts that led, according to Kent, to the emergence of the first Malagasy kingdoms at the beginning of the sixteenth century. I also agree with this point and believe that the concepts of a kingship based on the mystic pre-eminence of a sovereign of which the prototype were the Andriambahoaka were introduced into Madagascar by the first Malagasy dynasty, the ZafiRaminia (lit. “the descendants of Raminia”). These ZafiRaminia, who dominated for a time the entire coast and penetrated at an early date into the interior, largely constitute the origins of other dynasties in the central, southern, and western parts of the island. This does not preclude that these various dynasties were later strongly marked by other influences, especially that of the Antemoro.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 9 , 1982 , pp. 221 - 250
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1982

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References

NOTES

1. The subject under discussion is an extremely vast one. Referring to my own articles, which themselves refer to extensive bibliographies, helps to limit the number of citations.

2. I do not discuss here the question of possible indirect or direct influences from Dravidian India. For these see Ottino, Paul, “L'origine dravidienne du vocabulaire du riz et de la riziculture à Madagascar,” Annuaires des Pays de l'Océan Indien, 2 (1975), 103–21.Google Scholar

3. Ottino, , “L'Océan Indien comme domaine de recherche,” L'Homme, 14 (1974), 143–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, Madagascar, les Comores et le Sud-Ouest de l'Océan Indien (Tananarive, 1974); idem, Les traditions d'établissement Shirazi dans l'Ouest de l'Océan Indien, unpublished.

4. Deschamps, Hubert, Histoire de Madagascar (Paris, 1960)Google Scholar; Kent, Raymond K., Early Kingdoms in Madagascar, 1500-1700 (New York, 1970), 59.Google Scholar

5. Leitão, Humberto, Os dois descobrimentos da Ilha de São LourenÇo mandados fazer pelo vicerei D. Jerónimo de Azevedo nos anos de 1613 a 1616 (Lisbon, 1970), 240.Google Scholar

6. Ibid.

7. Collection des ouvrages anciens Concernant Madagascar, ed. Alfred, and Grandidier, Guillaume (9 vols.: Paris, 1903–1920), 2:193–94.Google Scholar Henceforth this work will be abbreviated COACM.

8. Ibid., 2: 169.

9. COACM 8: 40.

10. Ibid.

11. Martin, B.G., “Arab Migrations to East Africa in Medieval Times,” IJAHS, 7 (1974), 375–76.Google Scholar

12. Mambo, the dynastic title of the ancient Shona rulers, can perhaps be translated as “king,” while kazi means “woman, female.” Kazimambo would be “queen” and the ZafiKazimambo all simply “descendants of the queen.” Randles, W.G.L., L'empire du Monomotapa du XVe au XIX siécle (Paris, 1975), 24n62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13. Leitão, , Dóis descobrimentos, 240.Google Scholar

14. Raminia--and not her father Ramini--appears to me to be the female ancestor of the ZafiRaminia. We have seen that Flacourt noted repeatedly that filiation was uterine (COACM 8:13). See also the ZafiKazimambo, the descendants of Kazimambo, as noted in fn. 11.

15. COACM 8: 80–89; de Lacombe, B.P. Léguevel, Voyage à Madagascar et aux iles Comores (1823 a 1830) (2 vols.: Paris, 1840), 2: 179–91Google Scholar; Ferrand, G., “Les voyages des Javanais à Madagascar,” Journal Asiatique, 10th ser., 15 (1910), 219–21.Google Scholar

16. Ottino, , “La hiérarchie sociale et l'alliance dans le royaume de Matacassi des XVIe et XVIIe siécles,” in Asie du Sud-Est et Monde Insulindien, 4 (1973), 54Google Scholar; idem, “Le mythe d'Andrianoro: la conception de la parenté et de l'alliance des anciens Andriana du centre de Madagascar,” Taloha, 7 (1976), 207-09. I employ the adjective “Indonesian” in the broad sense of the term to refer to the characteristics of the entire Insulindian archipelago from Malaysia to the Philippines, This is on the basis of numerous data that emerge from an ongoing study of the ZafiRaminia of the kingdom of Matacassi, that these latter were Malays who came from the ‘matrilineal’ regions of the Malay peninsula and/or Sumatra.

17. Ottino, Mythe d'Andrianoro,” 216.

18. H.G. Quaritch Wales, after describing the navigational difficulties along the east coast of the Kra isthmus in Malaysia, which (precisely in eastern Madagascar) is exposed without any shelter to prevailing easterlies) described the pangkalan or pangkalen as follows: “…the Malays were adept at making use of sheltered inland waterways, and it so happened that nature had provided them with one, requiring only small improvements, which gave all-weather safe navigation to the Inland Sea--and Satingphra. A canal some fifteen miles long running east from Nak'on connects with the mouth of the Phanang river, not far from where it empties into the Nak'on Bight. This river flows along the east coast from a point near the northern end of the Inland Sea, to which a short canal and the Ranot river give access.” Wales, Quaritch, The Malay Peninsula in Hindu Times (London, 1976), 154–55Google Scholar; see also 134ff. Wales notes that the Frenchman Lajonquiére had indicated on a map the course of this inland waterway. Ibid., 155n43.

19. Fagereng, E., Une famille de dynasties Malgaches: Zafindravola, Maroserana, Zafimbolamena, Andrevola, Zafimanely (Oslo, 1971), 1.Google Scholar

20. Ottino, , “La mythologie malgache des Hautes Terres. Le cycle politique des Andriambahoaka” in Dictionnaire des Mythologies (Paris, 1981), 2: 30–45.Google Scholar

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23. Webber, Joseph, Dictionnaire malgache-français redigé selon l'ordre des racines (Bourbon, 1853), 739.Google Scholar

24. J.C. Hebert should be credited with being the first to draw attention to this structure of the center and the cardinal points in Malagasy civilization. See his “L'énumération des points cardinaux et l'importance du Nord-Est,” Taloha, 1 (1965), 150–95.Google Scholar See also Ottino, , “Mythe d'Andrianoro,” 59–63Google Scholar, and Condominas, G., “Pour une définition anthropologique du concept d'Espace sociale,” Asie du Sud-Est et Monde Insulindien, 8 (1977), 13–17.Google Scholar I will not mention references of marvelous tales and myths or of history since they are too numerous.

25. Ottino, “Mythologie malgache.”

26. Renel, Charles, Contes de Madagascar (3 vols.: Paris, 1910–30)Google Scholar; idem. “Les ancêtres et les dieux,” Bulletin de l'Academie Malgache, n.s. 5 (1922/1923), 39-68.

27. Callet, Francois, Tantara ny Andriana eto Madagascar, vol. 1 (Tananarive, 1893)Google Scholar; Callet, , Chapus, G.S., and Ratsimba, E., Histoire des rois (Tananarive, 1953).Google Scholar

28. Zieseniss, A., The Rama Saga in Malaysia: its Origin and Development (Singapore, 1963).Google Scholar

29. Ottino, “Itoerambolafotsy, ou ‘La Princesse d'argent',” forthcoming.

30. For some examples see Ottino, “Le mythe d'Andrianoro;” idem, “Mythologie Malgache;” idem, “Itoerambolafotsy.”

31. Hossein Nasr, Tabātābʿī, 85n7, gives the following: “The term ta 'wil, which plays a cardinal role in Shiʿism as well as Sufism, means literally to return to the origin of a thing. It means to penetrate the external aspect of any reality, whether it be sacred scripture of phenomena of nature, to its inner essence.”

32. Ottino, , “Mythe d'Andrianoro,” 61.Google Scholar

33. Mabuchi, T., Ethnology of the Southwestern Pacific: the Ryukyus, Taiwan, Insular Southeast Asia (Taipei, 1974), 161–73.Google Scholar

34. COACM, 8: 81–89.

35. de Lacombe, Léguevel, Voyage à Madagascar, 2: 179–92Google Scholar, with emphasis added.

36. Sorenatno, S. Chamamah, “Khidlir est proche, Dieu est loin,” Archipel, no. 15 (1978), 85–94.Google Scholar

37. Ras, J.J., Hikajat Bandjar. A Study in Malay Historiography Hague, 1968), 129Google Scholar, with emphasis added.

38. Stöhr, Waldemar and Zoetmulder, Piet, Les religions d'Indonésie (Paris, 1968), 178–79.Google Scholar

39. Ottino, “Mythologie malgache.”

40. Ras, , Hikajat Bandjar, 93–99.Google Scholar

41. Renel, , Contes, 1: 161–74, 175–77, 196–200.Google Scholar

42. Callet, , Histoire des rois, 1: 16–17n15; Ottino, “Mythologie malgache;” idem, “Le thème indo-malgache des enfants abandonnés au fil de l'eau,” forthcoming.Google Scholar

43. Ibid.

44. In my “Thème indo-malgache” I purposely did not treat the Persian versions of this same legend, nor the story of the two jealous sisters in The Thousand and One Nights.

45. Eliade, Mircea, Traité d'histoire des religions (Paris, 1975), 216–17.Google Scholar

46. Van Ossenbruggen, F.D.E., “Java's monca-pat: Origins of a Primitive Classification System” in Structural Anthropology in the Netherlands, ed. de Jong, P.E. de Josselin (Hague, 1977), 56–57.Google Scholar

47. Ottino, “Mythologie malgache,” n14.

48. Becker, R., Conte d'Ibonia. Essai de traduction et d'interprétation d'après l' édition de Dahle de 1877 (Tananarive, 1939), 27–29.Google Scholar

49. Ibid., 29.

50. Ibid., 43-44, 51-52.

51. Ibid., 39.

52. Ottino, , “Mythe d'Andrianoro,” 56–57, 72.Google Scholar

53. Becker, , Conte d'Ibonia, 21.Google Scholar

54. Stöhr, and Zoetmulder, , Religions d'Indonésie, 177.Google Scholar

55. Ottino, , “Le thème du Monstre Dévorant dans les domains malgache et bantou,” Asie du Sud-Est et Monde Unsulindien, 8 (1977), 246.Google Scholar

56. Becker, , Conte d'Ibonia, 111–13.Google Scholar

57. Ottino, “Mythologie malgache.”

58. Ibid.

59. Becker, , Conte d'Ibonia, 109.Google Scholar

60. Ibid., 127.

61. Ibid., 32-35

62. Ibid., 59-60.

63. Ibid., 103-06.

64. Cuisinier, J., Le théâtre d'ombres à Kelantan (Paris, 1957), 118.Google Scholar

65. Ibid., 62-83.

66. Ibid., 101.

67. Ibid., 106.

68. Ibid.

69. Ibid., 128.

70. Ottino, “Hiérarchie sociale.”

71. COACM 8: 25.

73. Firaketana ny Fiteny sy ny Zavatra Malagasy [Encyclopédie de la langue et des choses malgaches] (Tananarive, 1940--), 45–46.Google Scholar

74. COACM 8:9.

75. Ottino, , Madagascar, 215.Google Scholar

76. Wilkinson, R.P., A Malay-English Dictionary, Parts I and II (London, 1959), 90Google Scholar; Winstedt, R., An Unabridged Malay-English Dictionary (Kuala Lumpur, 1972), 34.Google Scholar This mention of the prestigious Javanese kingdom of Majapahit should not induce an error. We know of the cultural domination that the court of Majapahit--and later that of Mataram--exercised on all the Malay states of Insulindia. The need to imitate Javanese images, costumes, and ornamentation is one of the leitmotivs of the Hikajat Banjar, the Malay chronicle of southeast Borneo. They hypothesis of Grandidier that sees in the Merina dynasty a Javanese dynasty is without foundation.

77. Stchoupak, Nadine, Nitti, Luigia, and Louis Renou, Dictionnaire sanskrit-français (Paris, 1932), 524.Google Scholar

78. Ottino, , Madagascar, 216.Google Scholar

79. Ferrand, , “Voyages,” 319–21.Google Scholar

80. Callet, /Chapus, /Ratsimba, , Histoire des rois, 1: 9–19.Google Scholar The chronological indications are those of Délivré, , L'histoire des rois d'Imerina, 233–34.Google Scholar

81. Coulaud, D., Les Zafimaniry. Un groupe ethnique de Madagascar à la poursuite de la forêt (Tananarive, 1973)Google Scholar; Ottino, , “Mythe d'Andrianoro,” 75–77.Google Scholar

82. Dahle, R. and Sims, J., Anganon'ny Ntaolo. Tantara mampiseho ny Fombandrazana sy ny Finoana Sasany nananany (Contes des Anciens, récits montrant leurs coûtumes ancestrales et quelques croyances qu'ils possèdent) (Antananarivo, 1971), 83Google Scholar, with emphasis added.

83. Randria, M., Tantaran'i Madagascar sy ny Malagasy (Tananarive, 1962), 24Google Scholar; Ottino, , Madagascar, 31.Google Scholar

84. Callet, /Chapus, /Ratsimba, , Histoire des rois 1: 123–25.Google Scholar

85. Yellow, the Malay royal color, is very little valued in Islam. Nevertheless, the red evidently attested in Indonesia appears to me to be more connected with Islamized people from the eastern coast of Africa and southern Arabia, particularly Oman.

86. Callet, /Chapus, /Ratsimba, , Histoire des rois 1: 135–36.Google Scholar

87. Ibid., 1: 280-84.

88. Ottino, , “Le Moyen-âge de l'Océan Indien et le peuplement de Madagascar,” Annuaire des Pays de l'Océan Indien, 1 (1974), 216.Google Scholar It would be necessary to study the figure of Ralambo in conjunction with that of Lambu Mangkurat in the Hikayat Bandjar and in the Malay version of the Rāmāyana, called Hikayat Sri Rama. See Zieseniss, A., The Rama Saga in Malaysia. Its Origin and Development (Singapore, 1963).Google Scholar

89. Guillain, M., Documents sur l'histoire, la goegraphie et le commerce de la partie occidentale de Madagascar (Paris, 1845).Google Scholar

90. Ramaroson, L. and Giambrone, N., Teto anivon'ny riaka (Fianarantsoa, 1971), 12, 13, 16Google Scholar; Labatut, F. and Raharinarivonirina, R., Madagascar: étude historique (Tananarive, 1969), 57, 56.Google Scholar

91. See Ramaroson, and Giambrone, , Teto anivon'ny riaka, 40, 43, 45, 49, 61, and 81.Google Scholar

92. Some time ago I noticed the perfect coincidence, both in form and content, of the Malagasy and Indonesian concepts of foko/fukun and toko/tumukun (with infix ‘um’). See van Wouden, F.A.E., Types of Social Structure in Eastern Indonesia (Hague, 1968), 45-, 48, 49, 57, 96, 108, 161CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ottino, , “Quelques bréves remarques sur les études de parenté et d'organisation sociale à Madagascar,” Asie du Sud-Est et Monde Insulindien, 3 (1972), 119–20Google Scholar; idem, Madagascar, 46; idem, “Origine dravidienne,” 113-14. These concepts permitted the development of the modern Merina state. Isnard, H., “Les bases géographiques de la monarchie Hova” in Eventail de l'histoire vivante. Hommage à Lucien Febvre (Paris, 1954), 195–206Google Scholar, and Raison, J.P., “Utilisation du sol et organisation de l'espace en Imerina ancienne” in Etudes de géographie tropicale offertes à. Pierre Gourou (Paris, 1972).Google Scholar

93. Callet, /Chapus, /Ratsimba, , Histoire des rois, 1: 13n7.Google Scholar

94. Ibid., 1: 20n21.

95. COACM, 9: 91–92. Since an early article (Ottino, “Hiérarchie sociale”) my study of Matacassi is continuing and it would be premature to say more about it. Slipping from the status of Indianized God-king (see the episode related by Flacourt, in COACM, 9: 185)Google Scholar to that of simple magician-astrologer and talisman-maker is explained by the cultural context and the domination the Indonesian ZafiRaminia exercised over the populations of other origins. B.G. Martin poses, but does not answer, this same question with regard to the sayyids of the Indian Ocean, descendants of Muhammad through his daughter Fatima and ʿAli. See his “Arab Migrations to East Africa,” 379-80.

96. Baré, J.F., “Hiérarchies politiques et organisation sociale à Madagascar” in Malgache qui es-tu? (Neuchatel, 1973), 45–49.Google Scholar

97. Callet, /Chapus, /Ratsimba, , Histoire des rois, 1: 557–58.Google Scholar

98. Ibid., 1: 555-63.

99. Corbin, H., En Islam iranien: aspects spirituels et philosophiques, LXI, Le shi'isme duodécimain (4 vols.: Paris, 1971–1972), 1: xviii. Emphasis in original.Google Scholar