Madagascar's culture - week 12 - Julie De Vreese

Hey everyone,

This is our last week traveling and I intend to make it an unforgettable week. We are ending our trip in Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world, off the coast of Southern Africa. Madagascar is a very interesting country culturally speaking, they have a lot of rituals and customs.

When we are walking through the streets, we notice that the clothing styles are a bit like western norms, men wear pants and shirts, women wear dresses or skirts. However, it’s normal for women to cover their clothes with a traditional wrap or ‘lamba’. They often use also an additional shawl to cover their shoulders and head. On special occasions they mostly wear white wraps over their clothes. They also wear straw hats.

As we are searching for a restaurant to eat, we find that they all serve rice, it’s the main ingredient here. It is accompanied by some form of ‘kabaka’, a protein dish like fish, meat or beans. In some places you can also ask for a ‘romazava’ or side dish, made of green leafy vegetables in broth. Generally they add flavour to the rice.

In Madagascar, 52% of the population holds indigenous beliefs, 41% are Christian and 7% are Muslim but they all have some rituals that are rather strange to us. For example, dead ancestors or ‘razana’ are very important here and they guide the living in making choices about everyday aspects. They build and maintain tombs and hold religious ceremonies for their ancestors, this is central to their way of life.

People often live and work far from these ancestral tombs but they all have a strong sentimental attachment and a desire to be buried in their natal tombs. These tombs are considered sacred places and there are a lot of them, most villages have a sacred tree or something like that nearby.

They think ancestral spirits as intermediaries between the living and their 2 most important gods. To them, the dead as very powerful and the most important members of the family, they affect the lives of the living.

As for their daily occupations, the art of making handcrafted objects is a growing market, internally as well as internationally. There is limited support due to the poor economic conditions, but there is a lot of interest for artisan goods. They are mainly made out of wood, leather, horn, metal, stone, clay, feathers, … and so on. Ideal souvenirs from our trip I would think so.

So this was my last blog, I hope you enjoyed it … I certainly did! Maybe until next year.

Julie xXx

Sources:
http://www.everyculture.com/Ja-Ma/Madagascar.html