History of Madagascar: Top 10 Books

Madagascar: A Short History by Solofo Randrianja, Stephen Ellis

Two thousand years ago, the island of Madagascar w more...0 points

Two thousand years ago, the island of Madagascar was likely uninhabited. Its unique flora and fauna had gone totally undisturbed by human contact until the first navigators landed on its shores. No one knows where those first inhabitants hailed from, but over the centuries Madagascar developed its own distinctive language and cultural systems. The only recent history of its kind in English, Madagascar, traces two millennia of human activity in one of the world's most fascinating, yet least-...0 points

Recollecting from the Past: Musical Practice and Spirit Possession on the East Coast of Madagascar (Music Culture) by Ron Emoff

Studies interconnections between sound production, more...0 points

Studies interconnections between sound production, spirit possession, colonialism and ceremonial remembering in Madagascar.0 points

The Natural History of Madagascar

Separated from the mainland of Africa for 160 mill more...0 points

Separated from the mainland of Africa for 160 million years, Madagascar has evolved an incredible wealth of biodiversity, with thousands of species that can be found nowhere else on earth. For instance, of its estimated 12,000 plant species, nearly 10,000 are unique to Madagascar. Malagasy animals are just as spectacular, from its almost forty currently recognized species of lemurs-a primate group found only here-to the numerous species of tiny dwarf chameleons. With astounding frequen...0 points

Historical Dictionary of Madagascar (African Historical Dictionaries/Historical Dictionaries of Africa) by Philip M. Allen

Madagascar, widely known as the _Great Island,_ is more...0 points

Madagascar, widely known as the _Great Island,_ is just off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. This revised and expanded edition fills us in on the changes that have occurred over the past decade while still covering the long and intricate history of the country. It starts with the earliest settlers, continues through the period of French colonial rule, and then describes more intensively the period of independence, with all its aspirations, failures, and renewed hopes. This is done in a b...0 points

A History of Madagascar by Mervyn Brown

Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the wor more...0 points

Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world. It is a unique blend of Asian and African culture and is well known as the home of some of the world's most unusual and most endangered flora and fauna, from lemurs to giant tortoises. Although so close to the east coast of Africa where traces of human existence go back hundreds of thousands of years, Madagascar was uninhabited until about two thousand years ago. How it came to be inhabited by seafaring peoples from present-day Indonesia...0 points

Forget Colonialism?: Sacrifice and the Art of Memory in Madagascar (Ethnographic Studies in Subjectivity) by Jennifer Cole

While doing fieldwork in a village in east Madagas more...0 points

While doing fieldwork in a village in east Madagascar that had suffered both heavy settler colonialism and a bloody anticolonial rebellion, Jennifer Cole found herself confronted by a puzzle. People in the area had lived through almost a century of intrusive French colonial rule, but they appeared to have forgotten the colonial period in their daily lives. Then, during democratic elections in 1992Ð93, the terrifying memories came flooding back. Cole asks, How do once-colonized peoples remember t...0 points

Constructing History, Culture and Inequality: The Betsileo in the Extreme Southern Highlands of Madagascar (African Social Studies Series) by Sandra J. T. M. Evers

During the early 20th century, a group of ex-slave more...0 points

During the early 20th century, a group of ex-slaves established a frontier society in the no-man's-land of the extreme Southern Highlands of Madagascar. First settlers skilfully deployed a fluid set of Malagasy customs to implant a myth of themselves as tompon-tany or "masters of the land". Eventually, they created a land monopoly to reinforce their legitimacy and to exclude later migrants. Some of them were labelled "andevo" ("slave" or "slave descent"). The tompon-tany prohibited the andevo fr...0 points

An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar, 1750-1895: The Rise and Fall of an Island Empire (African Studies) by Gwyn Campbell

This comprehensive economic history of pre-colonia more...0 points

This comprehensive economic history of pre-colonial Madagascar examines the island's role in the burgeoning international economy and the rise of modern European imperialism. It reveals that the Merina of the Central Highlands attempted to found an island empire and, through the exploitation of its human and natural resources, develop the economic and military might to challenge British and French pretensions in the region. Ultimately, their failure (due to imperial forced labor policies and nat...0 points

Madagascar, Past and Present by Resident

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Lost People: Magic and the Legacy of Slavery in Madagascar by David Graeber

Betafo, a rural community in central Madagascar, i more...0 points

Betafo, a rural community in central Madagascar, is divided between the descendants of nobles and descendants of slaves. Anthropologist David Graeber arrived for fieldwork at the height of tensions attributed to a disastrous communal ordeal two years earlier. As Graeber uncovers the layers of historical, social, and cultural knowledge required to understand this event, he elaborates a new view of power, inequality, and the political role of narrative. Combining theoretical subtlety, a compelling...0 points