Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo left this world by his own will on June 22, 1937. To mark this event, a group of reading enthusiasts calling themselves the Reading Club decided to leave their usual meeting place and follow JJR's traces through Antananarivo, rallying other passionate readers along the way.
The hikers gathered at Antaninarenina Garden at 7 a.m., chosen as the meeting point. Arranged in 1910 during colonization, it became Independence Square in 1960. Rohy Ariandro, the group's organizer, distributed badges featuring the hike's theme, water bottles, and leaflets with excerpts from the poet's works to be recited along the way.
At the Independence Monument, poet Niry Solosoa marked the first pause, emphasizing Rabearivelo's profound impact on Malagasy and Francophone literature. The group of about forty enthusiasts then departed toward Isoraka, the European quarter of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, where Rabearivelo was born in a brick house near the current courthouse.
Rohy Ariandro read from an unpublished two-page manuscript titled "Une vie," where Rabearivelo wrote: "I was born one March evening at 7 o'clock, in the heart of Iarive." The group later descended through Amboasarikely's winding streets, where Rabearivelo moved after his daughter Voahangy's death in November 1933, isolating himself in silence and drug use.
Walking in pairs, hikers silently read excerpts from the poet's final hours, dated June 22, 1937, documenting his last moments. The group visited significant locations: Place Colbert, where the Imerina Printing House once stood where Rabearivelo worked as a proofreader; the Cercle de Tananarive, where he was an assistant proofreader; and the governor general's library, which he entered wearing his lamba despite prohibitions.
The four-hour walk concluded at Ambavahadimitafo with a poem recited in duo and a floral tribute at his tomb. Consultant Rondro Holiniaina Ranaivoson, who conceived the idea, noted that reading was Rabearivelo's primary weapon and that he had the art of stringing words like pearls on an invisible necklace. Dr. Manfa Sanogo, an associate professor at Kalamazoo College, praised the initiative as an intense sensory experience and called for greater recognition of Rabearivelo alongside Senghor, Césaire, and Cheikh Anta Diop. Librarian Fy Andrianjatosoa Joro suggested that Rabearivelo's death may represent both a condemnation of colonial rule and an artistic exit, leaving him ultimately an elusive figure.