Article contents
The State and Pre-Colonial Demographic History: The Case of Nineteenth-Century Madagascar1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2009
Extract
This paper analyses the demography of nineteenth-century Madagascar in the light of the debate generated by the demographic transition theory. Both supporters and critics of the theory hold to an intrinsic opposition between human and ‘natural’ factors, such as climate, famine and disease, influencing demography. They also suppose a sharp chronological divide between the pre-colonial and colonial eras, arguing that whereas ‘natural’ demographic influences were of greater importance in the former period, human factors predominated thereafter. This paper argues that in the case of nineteenth-century Madagascar the human factor, in the form of the Merina state, was the predominant demographic influence. However, the impact of the state was felt through natural forces, and it varied over time. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Merina state policies stimulated agricultural production, which helped to create a larger and healthier population and laid the foundation for Merina military and economic expansion within Madagascar. From the 1820, the cost of such expansionism led the state to increase its exploitation of forced labour at the expense of agricultural production and thus transformed it into a negative demographic force. Infertility and infant mortality, which were probably more significant influences on overall population levels than the adult mortality rate, increased from 1820 due to disease, malnutrition and stress, all of which stemmed from state forced labour policies. Available estimates indicate little if any population growth for Madagascar between 1820 and 1895. The demographic ‘crisis’ in Africa, ascribed by critics of the demographic transition theory to the colonial era, stemmed in Madagascar from the policies of the imperial Merina regime which in this sense formed a link to the French regime of the colonial era. In sum, this paper questions the underlying assumptions governing the debate about historical demography in Africa and suggests that the demographic impact of political forces be re-evaluated in terms of their changing interaction with ‘natural’ demographic influences.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991
References
2 Caldwell, J. C., ‘Major questions in African demographic history’, in AHD, i, 7–8Google Scholar; see also Iliffe, John, ‘The origins of African population growth’, J. Afr. Hist., XXX (1989), 165–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Miller, Joseph C., ‘Demographic history revisited’, J. Afr. Hist., XXV (1984), 94.Google Scholar
3 See Caldwell, , ‘Major questions’, 10Google Scholar; Inikori, J. E., ‘Under-population in nineteenth century West Africa: the role of the export slave trade’, in AHD, ii, 297–9.Google Scholar
4 Gavin, Kitching, ‘Proto-industrialisation and demographic change: a thesis and some possible African implications’, J. Afr. Hist., XXIV (1983), 230.Google Scholar
5 Fage, J. D., ‘Slavery and the slave trade in the context of West African history’, J. Afr. Hist., X (1969), 393–404CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Helge Kjekshus, ‘The population trends of East African history: a critical review’, and Willis, R. G., ‘Comment on Dr Kjekshus' paper’, in AHD, i, 358–60, 363–4Google Scholar; Patrick, Manning, ‘Contours of slavery and social change in Africa’, Amer. Hist. Rev., LXXXVIII (1983), 835–57Google Scholar; Inikori, , ‘Under-population’, 283–314Google Scholar, and Manning, Patrick, ‘A demographic model of African slavery’, AHD, ii, 371–84Google Scholar; for East Africa, see Chrétien, J. P., ‘Démographie et écologie en Afrique orientale à la fin du XIXe siècle: une crise exceptionnelle?’, Cah. Ét. Afr., XXVII (1987), 46–7Google Scholar; Kjekshus, ‘Population trends’; and Beachey, R. W., ‘Some observations on the volume of the slave trade of eastern Africa in the nineteenth century’, in AHD, i, 352–62 and 365–73.Google Scholar
6 Kitching, , ‘Proto-industrialisation’, 221–3Google Scholar; Caldwell, , ‘Major questions’, 11–12, 16Google Scholar; Cordell, Dennis D., Gregory, Joel W. and Piché, Victor, ‘African historical demography: the search for a theoretical framework’, in Cordell, Dennis D. and Gregory, Joel W. (eds.), African Population and Capitalism (Boulder, 1987), 14–15.Google Scholar
7 Christopher, Wrigley, ‘Population and history: some innumerate reflexions’, AHD, ii, 17–18Google Scholar; Chrétien, , ‘Démographie et écologie’, 47–50Google Scholar; Kjekshus, , ‘Population trends’, 352–62Google Scholar; Cordell, et al. , ‘African historical demography’, 14–32Google Scholar; Joel Gregory and Victor Piché, ‘Démographie, impérialisme et sous-développement: le cas africain’, in Gauvreau, D. et al. (eds.), Démographie et sous-developpement dans le Tiers-Monde (Toronto, 1986), 11–46Google Scholar; Cordell, Dennis D. and Gregory, Joel W., ‘Historical demography and demographic history in Africa: theoretical and methodological considerations’, Can. J. Afr. Studies, XIV (1980), 389–416Google Scholar; Inikori, ‘Under-population’, 293.
8 Caldwell, , ‘Major questions’, 12–13.Google Scholar
9 However, by the close of the nineteenth century, at least, there existed sharp regional variations within Imerina, with two people per square kilometre in the extreme north, 11 in Vakinankaratra, 18 in the west, twenty in the east, and ninety in and around the capital city of Antananarivo; Alfred, and Grandidier, Guillaume, Histoire physique, naturelle et politique de Madagascar (Paris, 1908), vol. 4, t.i, 322Google Scholar; see also Vansina, J., ‘Long-term population history in the African rain forest’, in AHD, ii, 757.Google Scholar
10 Louis, Molet, ‘Le boeuf dans l'Ankaizinana: son importance sociale et économique’, Mémoire de l'Institut Scientifique de Madagascar, série C, t.ii (1953), 61–2Google Scholar; Richardson, J., ‘Tanala customs, superstitions and beliefs’, AAMM, 11 (1876), 99–100Google Scholar; Grandidier, , Histoire vol. 4, t.i, 97Google Scholar; Avine, Grégoire, ‘Notes de voyage à Fort Dauphin’ (1804), in Raymond Decary, ‘Le voyage d'un chirurgien philosophe à Madagascar’, BAM, XXXVI (1958), 324.Google Scholar
11 See Hubert, Deschamps, Histoire de Madagascar (Paris, 1972), 213–15.Google Scholar
12 Colin, McEvedy and Richard, Jones, Atlas of World Population History (London, 1978), 265.Google Scholar
13 Rebellions continued until 1913; see Robequain, Charles, Madagascar et les bases dispersées de l'union française (Paris, 1958), 110Google Scholar; Paillard, Yvan-Georges, ‘Les recherches démographiques sur Madagascar au début de l'époque coloniale et les documents de “l'AMI”’, Cah. Et. Afr., XXVII (1987), 20–1.Google Scholar
14 Paillard, , ‘Recherches démographiques’, 19–20.Google Scholar
15 Wrigley, , ‘Population and history’, 17–18Google Scholar; for Madagascar, see, e.g., Ralinoro, , ‘Le problème démographique dans la circonscription médicale de Fianarantsoa’, Bulletin de Madagascar, 99 (1954), 732–40.Google Scholar
16 See note I concerning sources; see also Pool, D. Ian, ‘A framework for the analysis of West African historical demography’, in AHD, i, 50–1Google Scholar; Miller, , ‘Demographic history revisited’, 93–6Google Scholar; Cordell, and Gregory, , ‘Historical demography’, 396–404.Google Scholar
17 See Figures 4 and 5 on disease and famine.
18 The estimates comprise both speculations by outsiders and informed sources such as Merina court officials. The estimates with the soundest statistical basis are those which arise from attempts to calculate the number of inhabitants per house. These generally fall within the range of 3·5–5·2 people per African rural household, revealed by a 1967 UN survey (quoted in Jack Goody, ‘The evolution of the family’, in Laslett, Peter and Wall, Richard (eds.), Household and Family in Past Time [Cambridge, 1974], 115).Google Scholar In 1816, Le Sage estimated households on the north-east coast of Madagascar to average ten members, although in the 1820s, it was claimed that Andevoranto had only 4·8 inhabitants per house, close to the 1838 estimate of 4·5 for Toamasina. Estimates for Antananarivo also varied considerably: Duhaut-Cilly in 1825 and L.M.S. missionaries in the early 1830s assumed three inhabitants per house, in comparison to Davidson's 1860s estimate of four per house, Richardson's of 8·25 in the 1870s, and the Merina government's estimate of seven. It is possible that the variations reflected whether the nuclear family alone or all residents in the household were counted, as most houses in Antananarivo possessed at least one slave and frequently accommodated non-nuclear relatives as well: Sage, Le, ‘Mission to Madagascar’ (1816), 60, CO 167/34Google Scholar; William, Ellis, History of Madagascar (2 vols.) (London, 1838), i, 18, 67, 96–7Google Scholar; Duhaut-Cilly, , ‘Notice sur le royaume d'Emirne, sur la capitale Tananarivou et sur le gouvernement de Rhadama’ (1825)Google Scholar, in Valette, Jean (ed.), ‘Deux documents français sur Madagascar en 1825: les rapports Duhaut-Cilly et Frère’, BAM, XLVI (1968), 237;Google ScholarRichardson, J., ‘Dr Mullens and the population of Antananarivo’, AAMM, 11 (1876), 72–4.Google Scholar
19 Cordell, et al. , ‘African historical demography’, 27–8.Google Scholar
20 Gwyn, Campbell, ‘Slavery and fanompoana: the structure of forced labour in Imerina (Madagascar), 1790–1861’, J. Afr. Hist., XXIX, (1988), 465–7.Google Scholar
21 Gwyn, Campbell, ‘Madagascar and the slave trade, 1810–1895’, J. Afr. Hist., XXII (1981), 203–27Google Scholar; Campbell, , ‘The adoption of autarky in imperial Madagascar, 1820–1835’, J. Afr. Hist., XXVIII (1987), 395–409CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Campbell, , ‘Slavery and fanompoana’, 463–86.Google Scholar
22 Campbell, , ‘Slavery and fanompoana’, 478–85Google Scholar; Campbell, , ‘Missionaries, fanompoana and the Menalamba Revolt in late nineteenth century Madagascar’, J. Southern Afr. Studies, XV (1988), 54–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Campbell, , ‘Gold mining and the French takeover of Madagascar, 1883–1914’, African Economic History, XVII (1988), 113–16.Google Scholar
23 Wrigley, , ‘Population and history’, 23–4Google Scholar; Kitching, , ‘Proto-industrialisation’, 230–1Google Scholar; see also Cordell, et al. , ‘African historical demography’, 22–4.Google Scholar
24 Voas, David, ‘Subfertility and disruption in the Congo Basin’, in AHD, ii, 785–6;Google ScholarPool, , ‘A framework’, 49.Google Scholar
25 Wolf, , ‘Analysis of “Narrative of voyages to explore the shores of Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar ”’, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, III (1833), 203Google Scholar; Callet, R. F. François, Histoire des rois (5 vols.) (Tananarive, 1974), i, 333Google Scholar; Mondain, G., ‘Notes sur la condition sociale de la femme hova’, BAM, IV (1905–1906), 85, 91.Google Scholar It is uncertain what effect polygamy, which was practised in Imerina during the first half of the nineteenth century, had upon the birth rate. British missionaries to Imerina commented in 1833: ‘Polygamy is common in this part of Madagascar, if not indeed throughout the island, to all who can afford the expense…To be able to maintain several wives, to have a numerous offspring,—to hoard wealth,—and to build a commodious and handsome tomb,—these are the objects of desire and ambition in the breast of a Malagasy’; Johns and Freeman to Ellis, Antananarivo, 29 May 1833, SOAS/LMS MIL B4 F4 JB.
26 See, e.g. James, Hastie, ‘Diary’ (1820), 482Google Scholar, CO 167/50.
27 Avine, Grégoire, ‘Voyages aux îles de France, d'Anjouan, de Madagascar, de Mosambique, de Zanzibar et à la côte Coromondel’ (1802)Google Scholar, Mauritius Archives Publications (Paris, 1951), V, 55Google Scholar; Capmartin, , ‘Notes sur la Baye St. Augustin (côte occidentale de Madagascar)’ (1815), 13–BL. Add. 18135Google Scholar; Oliver, S. P., Madagascar: An Historical and Descriptive Account of the Island and its Former Dependencies (2 vols.) (London, 1886), i, 454.Google Scholar
28 Grandidier, , Histoire, vol. 4, t.i, 320–1.Google Scholar
29 Smith, C.G., ‘Journal’, Tulear, ‘Madagascar, 5 Sept. 1902’, in ‘Notes taken by C.G.S. on trip to Madagascar in 1902’, MS BRA. For white-Malagasy social relations in Toamasina, see Manassé Esoavelomandroso, La province maritime Orientate du ‘Royaume de Madagascar’ à la fin du XIXe siècle (1882–1895) (Antananarivo, 1979), 145.Google Scholar
30 Jones and Griffiths to Burder, Antananarivo, 4 Aug. 1825, SOAS/LMS MIL B2 F2 JB; ‘School Report’ (1825), SOAS/LMS MIL B2 F3 JG.
31 Iliffe, , ‘Origins’, 168.Google Scholar
32 Hastie, ‘Diary’, 6 March 1823, CO 167/66.
33 Campbell, ‘Adoption of autarky’, and ‘Slavery and fanompoana’.
34 Gwyn, Campbell, ‘Labour and the transport problem in imperial Madagascar, 1810–1895’, J. Afr. Hist., XXI (1980), 341–56;Google ScholarCampbell, , ‘Slavery and fanompoana’, 463–86Google Scholar; Kitching, , ‘Proto-industrialisation’, 221–40.Google Scholar
35 Kitching, , ‘Proto-industrialisation’, 234.Google Scholar
36 Campbell, ‘Slavery and fanompoana’.
37 Nurse, G. T., Weiner, J. S. and Jenkins, T., The Peoples of Southern Africa and their Affinities (Oxford, 1985), 253–4.Google Scholar
38 Hastie, , ‘Diary’ (1817), CO 167/34.Google Scholar
39 Campbell, , ‘Slavery and fanompoana’, 463–86Google Scholar; Campbell, , ‘Gold mining’, 99–126Google Scholar; Campbell, , ‘Missionaries, fanompoana and the Menalamba Revolt’, 54–73.Google Scholar
40 Gwyn, Campbell, ‘The role of the London Missionary Society in the rise of the Merina Empire, 1810–1861’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Wales, 1985), 225–6, 265–6, 337Google Scholar; Campbell, , ‘Missionaries, fanompoana and the Menalamba Revolt’, 54–73.Google Scholar
41 James, Sibree, Fifty Years in Madagascar (London, 1924), 253Google Scholar; Decary, Raymond, ‘La population de Madagascar’, BAM, XXVIII (1947–1948), 30Google Scholar; Decary, , ‘Le voyage d'un chirurgien’, 326.Google Scholar
42 See Shaw, Thurstan, ‘Towards a prehistoric demography of Africa’, in AHD, ii, 586.Google Scholar
43 See Miller, , ‘Demographic history revisited’, 96.Google Scholar A non-venereal disease of the treponemal group appears to have been widespread in pre-nineteenth-century Africa, including Madagascar. Syphilis in mainland Africa was often confused with yaws; other treponematoses include pinta, bejel and irkinja—see Koponen, Juhani, ‘War, famine and pestilence in late precolonial Tanzania: a case for heightened mortality’, Int. J. Afr. Hist. Studies, XXI (1988), 656Google Scholar; Cockburn, T. Aidan, ‘Infectious diseases in ancient populations’, in Landy, David (ed.), Culture, Diseases and Healing (New York, 1977), 84–5.Google Scholar
44 See Eastman, Carol M., ‘Women, slaves and foreigners: African cultural influences and group processes in the formation of northern Swahili coastal society’, Int. J. Afr. Hist. Studies, XXI (1988), 13.Google Scholar
45 RH, 74; Hastie, , ‘Diary’ (1817).Google Scholar
46 Shaw, G. A., ‘The Betsileo: country and people’, AAMM, III (1877), 79Google Scholar; Gran-didier, , Histoire, vol. 4, t.i, 330Google Scholar; Sewell, Joseph, The Sakalava: Being Notes of a Journey Made from Antananarivo to Some Towns on the Border of the Sakalava Territory, in June and July 1875 (Antananarivo, 1875), 12, 17.Google Scholar
47 Paillard, , ‘Recherches démographiques’, 23.Google Scholar
48 Paillard, , ‘Recherches démographiques’, 37.Google Scholar
49 Pool, , ‘A framework’, 53Google Scholar; Dubois, H. M., Monographie des Betsileo (Paris, 1938), 665–6.Google Scholar
50 Voas, , ‘Subfertility and disruption’, 786–96Google Scholar; see also Hunt, Nancy Rose, ‘“La bébé en brousse”: European women, African birth spacing and colonial intervention in breast feeding in the Belgian Congo’, Int. J. Afr. Hist. Studies, XXI (1988), 403–4Google Scholar; see also Martin, Phyllis M., ‘The violence of empire’, in Birmingham, David and Martin, Phyllis M. (eds.), History of Central Africa (2 vols.) (London, 1986), ii, 20.Google Scholar
51 Shaw, , ‘The Betsileo’, 4Google Scholar; Sibree, , Fifty Years, 41.Google Scholar
52 For instance, pregnant Antanosy women and their husbands were forbidden extramarital sexual intercourse until the birth of the child; see Jorgen, Ruud, Taboo: A Study of Malagasy Customs and Beliefs (Oslo, 1960), 244–5.Google Scholar
53 Jean, Valette, ‘Notes sur la géographie médicale de l'Imerina à la fin de la monarchie (1889–1893)’, Bulletin de Madagascar, 246 (1966), 1143–5Google Scholar; Paillard, , ‘Recherches démographiques’, 25.Google Scholar
54 Grandidier, , Histoire, vol. 4, t.i, 343Google Scholar; Paillard, , ‘Recherches démographiques’, 34Google Scholar; Caldwell, , ‘Major questions’, 10.Google Scholar
55 Grandidier, , Histoire, vol. 4, t.i, 337.Google Scholar
56 Paillard, , ‘Recherches démographiques’, 33Google Scholar; for estimates of African averages, see Manning, ‘Demographic model’, 374, and for a mainland African example of a skewed age structure see John, Thornton, ‘The slave trade in eighteenth century Angola: effects on demographic structure’, Can. J. Afr. Studies, XIV (1980), 421–2.Google Scholar
57 Caldwell, , ‘Major questions’, 9Google Scholar; Pool, , ‘A framework’, 52.Google Scholar
58 Locke, Lewis, ‘An account of the Ovahs, a race of people residing in the interior of Madagascar: with a sketch of their country, appearance, dress, language, &c’, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, V (1835), 236.Google Scholar
59 Baudin to Dubois, 25 août 1918, quoted in Dubois, H.M., ‘Les origines des Malgaches’, Anthropos, XXII (1927), 96.Google Scholar
60 Caldwell, ‘Major questions’, II; Wrigley, ‘Population and history’.
61 Rinderpest, for example, devastated cattle stocks and game over much of southern and eastern Africa from 1892, thereby significantly reducing food supplies and lowering resistance to disease. See Swanzie, Agnew, ‘Factors affecting the demographic situation in Malawi in precolonial and colonial times’, in AHD, i, 378Google Scholar; Dawson, Marc H., ‘Disease and population decline of the Kikuyu of Kenya, 1890–1925’, in AHD, ii, 126.Google Scholar
62 As amongst the pastoral Maasai; see Dawson, , ‘Disease and population decline’, 126.Google Scholar
63 McNeill, William H., Plagues and People (New York, 1976), 3–12Google Scholar; Bruce-Chwatt, Leonard Jan, Essential Malariology (London, 1980), 58–67Google Scholar; Delmont, Jean, ‘Paludisme et variations climatiques saisonnières en savane soudanienne d'Afrique de l'Ouest’, Cah. Et. Afr., xxii (1982), 117–34.Google Scholar
64 Nurse, et al. , Peoples of Southern Africa, 19, 278–9Google Scholar; Ellis, , History of Madagascar, i, 215, 217–19Google Scholar. Outbreaks of measles in Imerina in 1822–3 and 1884 resulted in some infant deaths, although whooping cough did not appear to have affected Madagascar as seriously as it did mainland Africa. See e.g. Agnew, , ‘Factors’, 378.Google Scholar
65 Delmont, , ‘Paludisme’, 117–34Google Scholar; Paillard, , ‘Recherches démographiques’, 39.Google Scholar
66 Dawson, , ‘Disease and population decline’, 127–8Google Scholar; Robert, Ross, ‘Smallpox at the Cape of Good Hope in the eighteenth century’, in AHD, i, 416–28Google Scholar; see also Beachey, , ‘Some observations’, 369Google Scholar; Chrétien, , ‘Démographie et écologie’, 51, 55Google Scholar; Koponen, , ‘War, famine and pestilence’, 663–5Google Scholar; Nurse, et al. , Peoples of Southern Africa, 18.Google Scholar
67 Although isolation was still considered harsh because the Malagasy, like mainland Africans, normally incorporated their ill within a tight familial or community network. For a comparison of isolating the ill, see Lyons, Maryinez, ‘From “death camps” to cordon sanitaire: the development of sleeping sickness policy in the Uele District of the Belgian Congo, 1903–1914’, J. Afr. Hist., XXVI (1985), 69–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
68 Freeman to Ellis, Tamatave, 3 Oct. 1833, and Vohitsara, 11 Oct. 1833, SOAS/LMS MIL B4 F4 JC.
69 Bruce-Chwatt, , Essential Malariology, 58–61.Google Scholar
70 Although a staggering 72 per cent of the French expeditionary troops died of malaria in the Malagasy campaign of 1895; Cohen, William B., ‘Malaria and French imperialism’, J. Afr. Hist., XXIV (1983), 24–5Google Scholar; see also Campbell, , ‘Slavery and fanompoana’, 468–9.Google Scholar
71 Campbell, ‘Slavery and fanompoana’.
72 Paillard, , ‘Recherches demographiques’, 38, 40.Google Scholar
73 Campbell, , ‘Gold mining’, 99–126Google Scholar; Marriot, , ‘Report’ (1905), 6Google Scholar; also see Table 1 in text.
74 Campbell, ‘Gold mining’; Campbell, ‘Missionaries, fanompoana and the Menalamba Revolt’.
75 Dubois, , Monographic des Betsileo, 623.Google Scholar
76 Francis, Maude, Five Years in Madagascar (London, 1895), 103Google Scholar; Campbell, ‘Missionaries, fanompoana and the Menalamba Revolt’.
77 See Paillard, , ‘Recherches démographiques’, 39.Google Scholar
78 Like safo-tany, which afflicted chiefly Betsileo in the late nineteenth century, although its victims apparently failed to respond to quinine; see Anon., ‘Dr Forsyth Major's expedition in Madagascar’, AAMM, XX (1896), 493Google Scholar; Rees, D. M., ‘Y “Safotany” na “Raporapo”’, Y Cronicl (1898), 178–80.Google Scholar
79 Ryder to Ropes, Emmerton & Co., and Arnold Hines & Co., Nossi Bé, 28 Feb. 1885, B44 F4, 18 Oct. 1887, B45 F6; Laborde to Whitney, Antananarivo, 22 Jan. 1887, B44 F2; Whitney to Ropes, Emmerton & Co., Tamatave, 26 Jan. and 26 Feb. 1889, B45 F2; Trumball to Ropes, Emmerton & Co., Tamatave, 26 March 1890, B46 F5; Duder to Dawson, [Antananarivo], 28 June 1890, B46 F5; Whitney to Ropes, Emmerton & Co, Tamatave, 27 March 1891, B46 F4; Ryder to Ropes Emmerton & Co., Tamatave, 28 July and 27 Aug. 1893, B45 F7; Ryder to Ropes, Emmerton & Co., Tamatave, 6 April 1894, B45 F7—REC/CR MZL; Paillard, , ‘Recherches démographiques’, 38, 40.Google Scholar
80 McNeill, , Plagues and People, 16Google Scholar; see also Campbell, , ‘Adoption of autarky’, 405Google Scholar; Grandidier, , Histoire, vol. 4, t.i, 339Google Scholar; Paillard, , ‘Recherches démographiques’, 38.Google Scholar
81 By 1880 Mascarene rum was retailing for $0.25 per quart on the east coast and $0.50 in the interior; Johnson to FM, Faravohitra, 19 Okt. 1889, HH4—ANM; LMS, Ten Years' Review of Mission Work in Madagascar, 1880–1890 (Antananarivo, 1890), 114Google Scholar; see also Clarence-Smith, W. G., ‘Capital accumulation and class formation in Angola’, in Birmingham, and Martin, (eds.), History of Central Africa, ii, 167, 174Google Scholar; ‘Ny Toaka avy tany Morosy’, in Ny Gazety Malagasy, 1 (no. 4) (2 Aug. 1876), 13Google Scholar; LMS, Ten Years' Review of Mission Work in Madagascar, 1870–1880 (Antananarivo, 1880), 31–4.Google Scholar
82 See e.g. RA, 263, 322 and RH, 136–7.
83 Maude, , Five Years in Madagascar, 103.Google Scholar
84 Campbell, ‘Missionaries, fanompoana and the Menalamba Revolt’; Campbell, ‘Gold mining’; Dubois, Monographic des Betsileo; see also Koponen, , ‘War, famine and pestilence’, 644–7Google Scholar; Miller, Joseph C., ‘The significance of drought, disease and famine in the agriculturally marginal zones of West-Central Africa’, J. Afr. Hist., XXIII (1982), 17–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
85 Paillard, , ‘Recherches démographiques’, 36.Google Scholar In the Fianarantsoa region of Betsileo from 1932 to 1946 respiratory diseases accounted for 33·28 per cent of all hospitalized patients (behind malaria at 43·80 per cent), once the plague, which became a serious affliction only during the colonial era, is discounted (bronchial pneumonia and pneumonia accounted for 53 per cent of all respiratory cases); Ralinoro, , ‘Le problème démographique’, 733–4Google Scholar; Dubois, , Monographie des Betsileo, 1041–2Google Scholar; see also Shaw, , ‘Towards a prehistoric demography of Africa’. 584–5.Google Scholar
86 Oliver, , Madagascar, i, 459Google Scholar; Toy, R., ‘Remarks on the meteorology of Antananarivo and the neighbourhood’, AAMM (1878), 73ii, 74ii.Google Scholar
87 Ellis, , History of Madagascar, i, 215, 217–19, 227Google Scholar; Griffiths, David, Hanes Madagascar (Machynlleth, 1843), 64–5Google Scholar; The Madagascar Times, 11 (no. 41) (15 10. 1884), 379.Google Scholar
88 Koponen, , ‘War, famine and pestilence’, 661–2, 671.Google Scholar
89 Fenn to PM, Isoavinandriana, Antanarivo, 23 Feb. 1894, HH8, 552–3, ANM; see also Maude, , Five Years in Madagascar, 28Google Scholar; The Madagascar Times (16 April 1884).
90 Anon., ‘Madagascar et côte orientale d'Afrique’ (1860)Google Scholar, c.llg, AHVP, 6; see also Dalmond, ‘Mission apostolique de Madagascar, 1837–1847’, Diaries section 11. 1, AHVP; Robequain, , Madagascar, 110.Google Scholar
91 Wrigley, , ‘Population and history’, 23Google Scholar; the same point applied to the slave export trade to the Americas, in which two to three males were exported to every female: see John, Thornton, ‘The demographic effect of the slave trade on western Africa, 1500–1850’, in AHD, ii, 694–5.Google Scholar
92 See Dubois, , Monographie des Betsileo, 616Google Scholar; Berg, Gerald M., ‘Sacred acquisition: Andrianampoinimerina at Ambohimanga, 1777–1790’, J. Afr. Hist., XXIX (1988), 208–9Google Scholar; see also Koponen, , ‘War, famine and pestilence’, 650–1, 654.Google Scholar
93 Campbell, ‘Adoption of autarky’.
94 Delivré, Alain, L'Histoire des rois d' Imerina (Paris, 1974), 188, 387Google Scholar; Delval, Raymond, Radama II: prince de la renaissance malgache 1861–1863 (Paris, 1972), 43–5, 431, 892–3Google Scholar; Griffiths, , Hanes Madagascar, 24–5.Google Scholar
95 RH, 42.
96 Wrigley, , ‘Population and history’, 24.Google Scholar
97 Manning, , ‘Contours of slavery’, 856.Google Scholar
98 Campbell, , ‘Role of the London Missionary Society’, 344–64.Google Scholar
99 Griffiths, , Hanes Madagascar, 24–5Google Scholar; Ellis, , History of Madagascar, i, 114Google Scholar; Sibree, James, Madagascar and its People (London, 1870), 384.Google Scholar
100 Griffiths, , Hanes Madagascar, 24–5.Google Scholar
101 Daniel, Tyerman and George, Bennet, Journal of Voyages and Travels, 1821–1829, ed. Montgomery, James (2 vols.) (London, 1831), iii, 515Google Scholar; Johns to Jones, Antananarivo, 1 July 1830, 19157E–ALGC; Sibree, , Fifty Years, 35Google Scholar; Decary, , ‘La population de Madagascar’, 30Google Scholar; Grandidier, , Histoire, vol. 4, t.i, 327Google Scholar; Lloyd, J. A., ‘Memoir on Madagascar’ (10 12. 1849), Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, XX (1851), 66.Google Scholar
102 Raombana, , ‘Manuscrit écrit à Tananarive (1853–1854)’, trans Radley, J. F., BAM, XIII (1930), 6, 15.Google Scholar
103 Griffiths, , Hanes Madagascar, 24–5Google Scholar; Ellis, , History of Madagascar, i, 114Google Scholar; Sibree, , Madagascar and its People, 384.Google Scholar
104 Dumaine, ‘Voyage au pays d'ancaye, autrement dit des Bezounzouns, Isle de Madagascar’ (juillet 1790), BL Add. 18128, 275; Chapelier, ‘“Lettres”, adressés au citoyen préfet de l'ile de France de décembre 1803 à mai 1805’ (Jully, M. ed.), BAM, IV (1905–1906), 53Google Scholar; Richardson, , ‘Tanala customs’, 95, 97Google Scholar; Raombana Bk 2, livre 13, 27; LMS, Ten Years' Review (1880), 34–5.Google Scholar
105 Grandidier, , Histoire, vol. 4, t.i, 342–3Google Scholar–Caldwell posits a life expectancy of 22 years for pre-colonial tropical Africa, higher than Pool's figure of twenty years but significantly lower than the 27·5 years incorporated in the ‘South’ model of Coale and Demeny, adopted by Thornton: Caldwell, , ‘Major questions, 10Google Scholar; Pool, ʿA framework’, 53–4; Thornton, , ‘Slave trade’, 420.Google Scholar
106 Manning, , ‘Contours of slavery’, 841–3Google Scholar; Sheriff, Abdul, Slaves, Spices and Ivory in Zanzibar (London, 1987)Google Scholar; Lovejoy, Paul E., Transformations in Slavery (Cambridge, 1983), 150–3.Google Scholar
107 Gwyn, Campbell, ‘Madagascar and Mozambique in the slave trade of the Western Indian Ocean, 1800–1861’, in Clarence-Smith, W. G. (ed.), The Economics of the Indian Ocean Slave Trade in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1989), 166–93Google Scholar; Campbell, , ‘The East African slave trade, 1861–1895: the “southern” complex’, Int. J. Afr. Hist. Studies, XXII (1989), 1–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Campbell, , ‘Madagascar and the slave trade’, 203–27.Google Scholar
108 Campbell, , ‘Madagascar and Mozambique’, 185Google Scholar; Campbell, , ‘East African slave trade’, 25.Google Scholar
109 Manning, , ‘Contours of slavery’, 850Google Scholar; Miller, , ‘Significance of drought’, 30Google Scholar; Campbell, , ‘Missionaries, fanompoana and the Menalamba Revolt’, 54–73.Google Scholar
110 RA, 263; Raombana Bk2 livre 13, 22; Campbell, , ‘Role of the London Missionary Society’, 338–9Google Scholar; Wolf, , ‘Analysis’, 203Google Scholar; Madagascar Times (5 Nov. 1884); Grandidier, , Histoire, vol. 4, t.i, 297Google Scholar; Putnam, Horace P. ‘A cruise to the Indian Ocean and a life on shore’, in ‘La Plata seaman's journal’ (12. 1848 to 01. 1850)Google Scholar, Log. 1847W3 B.15, Ms, 1847 W.3, Essex Institute; Smith, A., ‘From Zanzibar to Nosibe’, AAMM, VII (1883), 41Google Scholar; Dalmond à son frère, Madagascar, 1 fev. 1840, in ‘Lettres de M. Dalmond à ses parents entre 1826 et 1846’, C47, AHVP; Finaz au Jouen, Nossi-bé, 20 juillet 1846, Correspondance C35, AHVP; Nourse to Farquhar, HMS Andromache, 17 Nov. 1822, CO 167/66.
111 Manning, , ‘Demographic model’, 371–84Google Scholar; Manning, , ‘Contours of slavery’, 850.Google Scholar
112 Dalmond, , ‘Mission Apostolique de Madagascar, 1837–1847’, 27, 94–5Google Scholar; Johns to Freeman, Antananarivo, 14 Oct. 1830, SOAS/LMS MIL B3 F5; Hastie, , ‘Diary’ (1817)Google Scholar; Hastie, , ‘Diary’ (1820), 468–71, 500Google Scholar; Hastie, , ‘Diary’ (1822)Google Scholar, CO 167/63; Hastie, , ‘Diary’ (1824–1825), 89–90Google Scholar, CO 167/78 II; Pye, ‘A summary of the proceedings at Madagascar from 6th June to 14th June 1817’, CO 167/34; RH, 68, 79, 130–1; RA, 217–19, 244–6, 279–80, 285–6, 291, 369–71, 373, 377, 390, 392–3, 473–5; Raombana, vol. VIII, B.I, 8; Raombana, Bk2 livre 13, 6, 31, 34–5; Raombana, , ‘Annales’, Livre 12, CI, 488–9, 507–9Google Scholar; Raombana, , ‘Manuscrit écrit à Tananarive’, 15Google Scholar; [Jouen, ], ‘Journal’ (1853), C28f, ANM, 3–4, 6, 11Google Scholar; Wastell, R. E. P., ‘British imperial policy in relation to Madagascar, 1810–1896’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1944), 224–6, 232Google Scholar; Oliver, , Madagascar, i, 64–7Google Scholar; Prud'home, , ‘Observations on the Sakalava’, AAMM, XXIV (1900), 416–20, 422–3Google Scholar; Baker, to Stanley, , ‘Memorial’ (Antananarivo, 1832)Google Scholar, SOAS/LMS MIL B3 F4 JC; Rahaniraka and Rafaralahy to Arundel, Antananarivo, 14 Aug. 1832, SOAS/LMS MIL B4 F3 JA; Johns & Freeman to Ellis, Antananarivo, 29 May 1833, and Freeman to Philip, Antananarivo, 26 Aug. 1832, SOAS/LMS MIL B4 F4 JB; Baker to Ellis, Tamatave, 15 July 1834, SOAS/LMS MIL B5 FI JC; Freeman to Ellis, Antananarivo, 18 May 1835, SOAS/LMS MIL B5 F2 JA; Johns to Ellis, Antananarivo, 26 March 1836, SOAS/LMS MIL B5 F3 JA; Johns to LMS, Tamatave, 30 June 1838 and 6 Aug. 1838, SOAS/LMS MIL B5 F3 JB; Ellis, , History of Madagascar, ii, 252, 287, 316–17, 357–8, 359, 367Google Scholar; Ellis, John E., Life of William Ellis (London, 1873), 280Google Scholar; Ellis, William, Madagascar Revisited (London, 1867), 347–8Google Scholar; Griffiths, , Hanes Madagascar, 55, 61, 64, 87, 130Google Scholar; Valette, Jean, Études sur le règne de Radama ler (Tananarive, 1962), 7–8, 16–17, 47, 54–6, 59–60Google Scholar; Vidal, E., Madagascar: situation actuelle (Bordeaux, 1845), 10Google Scholar; David, Jones, ‘Journal’ (1820)Google Scholar, ‘Madagascar journals: Madagascar and Mauritius (1816–24)’, FIA, SOAS/LMS; Boudou, A., ‘Journal de route d'une expédition de Rainimaharo en 1838’, BAM, XV (1932), 89–90Google Scholar; Tyerman, and Bennet, , Journal of Voyages and Travels, 511, 514Google Scholar; Edmont, Samat, ‘Renseignements sur la côte ouest de Madagascar depuis Nossi Bé jusquʾà Crosker Cap St Marie’ (Nossi-bé, 6 mai 1852)Google Scholar, in Boudou, A., ‘La côte ouest de Madagacar en 1852’, BAM, XV (1932), 64, 74–5Google Scholar; Raymond, Decary, ‘Contribution à l'histoire de la France à Madagascar’, BAM, XXXI (1953), 56–8Google Scholar; Decary, M. and Deschamps, H., ‘Comments’, in Philippe Decreane, ‘Madagascar en avril 1971’, C.R.A.S.O.M., XXXI (1971), 249, 251Google Scholar; Anon., ‘Notice sur les Sacalaves du Boény et de l'Ambongo’ (n.d.), sect. II, C8, ANM; Notices statistiques sur les colonies françaises. IV: Madagascar (Paris, 1840), 9–10Google Scholar; Delval, , Radama II, 95, 793–800, 811.Google Scholar
113 Campbell, , ‘Labour and the transport problem’, 341–56Google Scholar; Campbell, , ‘Slavery and fanompoana’, 468–73.Google Scholar
114 Knott to Aitken, Mojanga, 21 March 1888, in Anti-Slavery Reporter (Nov. & Dec. 1888), 217.
115 Manning, , ‘Contours of slavery’, 853–4Google Scholar; Klein, Martin A., ‘The demography of slavery in western Soudan: the late nineteenth century’, in Cordell, and Gregory, (eds.), African Population and Capitalism, 56–7.Google Scholar
116 See e.g. Manning, , ‘Contours of Slavery’, 847–8.Google Scholar
117 (Finaz), ‘Tananarive, capitale de Madagascar: séjour d'un missionnaire catholique en 1855, 56 et 57’, Diaires section II, no. 20, AHVP, 110.
118 Dubois, , Monographie des Betsileo, 585, 718.Google Scholar
119 Campbell, , ‘Slavery and fanompoana’, 463–86;Google Scholar see also Klein, , ‘Demography of slavery’, 56–7.Google Scholar
120 Klein, , ‘Demography of slavery’, 59–60.Google Scholar
121 Dubois, , Monographie des Betsileo, 571.Google Scholar
122 Bloch appears to follow Raison, who states that in the period 1833–62 the number of slaves increased fivefold in Imerina, where by the latter date they formed 66 per cent of the population, dropping to 50 per cent by 1896; Raison, Françoise, ‘Les Ramanenjana: une mise en cause populaire du christianisme en Imerina, 1863’, ASEMI, VII (1976), 284Google Scholar; Bloch, Maurice, Placing the Dead (London, 1971), 71Google Scholar; Bloch, , ‘Modes of production and slavery in Madagascar’, in Watson, James L. (ed.), Asian and African Systems of Slavery (Oxford, 1980), 110.Google Scholar
123 (Finaz), , ‘Tananarive’, 112–13.Google Scholar
124 See previous note; see also Alfred, Grandidier, ‘Souvenirs de voyages’, 1865–1916)Google Scholar, Documents anciens sur Madagascar (Tananarive, n.d.), 32Google Scholar; Hastie, , ‘Diary’ (1817), 250–1Google Scholar; Campbell, , ‘Madagascar and the slave trade’, 209Google Scholar; André, E. C., De l'esclavage à Madagascar (Paris, 1899), 186Google Scholar; Berthier, , ‘La tribu des Hova’, Conférence à l'Ecole Coloniale (Paris, déc. 1908), 3Google Scholar; Grandidier, , Histoire, vol. 4, t.i, 333Google Scholar; Le Journal (8 oct. 1895).
125 Inikori, , ‘Under-population’, 304.Google Scholar
126 Campbell, ‘Madagascar and the slave trade’.
127 Until the late 1860s there existed ‘wife markets’, such as that at Ilafy, 9 km north of Antananarivo, but it is not certain whether these were signs of an overabundance or of a shortage of women; RH, 7. Also, some evidence suggests that polygamy possibly depressed fertility slightly, except in cases where postpartum abstinence was the rule; Hunt, , ‘“La bébé en brousse”’, 407Google Scholar; see also Pool, , ‘A framework’, 53Google Scholar; Kitching, , ‘Proto-industrialisation’, 229–30Google Scholar; Manning, , ‘Demographic model’, 379Google Scholar; Kenneth, Swindell, ‘Domestic production, labour mobility and population change in West Africa, 1900–1980’, in AHD, ii, 682Google Scholar; Ellis, , History of Madagascar, i, 167–8.Google Scholar
128 Campbell, ‘Madagascar and Mozambique’; Campbell, ‘East African slave trade’.
129 Paillard, , ‘Recherches démographiques’, 33.Google Scholar
130 See Inikori, , ‘Under-population’, 286–9.Google Scholar
131 Thornton, , ‘Slave trade’, 420Google Scholar; Thornton, , ‘Demographic effect’, 696, 709Google Scholar; see also Inikori, , ‘Under-population’, 290–1, 295.Google Scholar
132 Campbell, ‘Madagascar and the slave trade’; Campbell, , ‘Slavery and fanompoana’, 475–7.Google Scholar
- 12
- Cited by