The Fitampoha ceremony in Ampasy (Belo-Tsiribihina) is scheduled to take place from August 20-28, 2026. However, it is difficult to discuss Fitampoha without mentioning the Ampagnito (King-Maker) who played a crucial role in its organization. "The Merina people helped me greatly," said Harea Tinahy Tsialia Georges Kamamy.
Historians believe Fitampoha originated during the hundred-year period following the separation of the kingdom of Ndremandazoala and the kingdom of Ndrianihaninarivo (Andriandahifotsy, 1670).
Fitampoha means the bathing of Dady. Dady is among the ancestors of Sakalava royalty. When designated as a deity to be venerated and honored, after the body has dried and the flesh and bones have been preserved through embalming, this cannot occur until the reign of his descendants. A grand celebration must be held periodically according to his will or designated time to serve and honor him and show respect to him. The people are called upon when Dady is to be bathed.
Dady refers to: 1) the grandfather of the heir who will assume power; when the old father dies, he is called Dady; 2) when a Sakalava king of Menabe dies, his teeth, bones, and hair are taken, placed within the embalmed body which has aged, already prepared, to become "mohara" (sacred relics). These precious items are called "firongon'ny mohara" (the container of relics). The mohara is unwrapped, honey and oil are removed, and gold is added. While the king's son who inherited his dady remains alive and ruling, the father's relics are carefully preserved in a clean and well-maintained house. When this son dies and passes to his son's generation, a grand celebration is held to honor the father's relics. This honoring is called "fampandroana" (bathing). It is then that the significance of being dady is revealed through grand ceremonies. He is no longer a king of Menabe but becomes an "ancestor" with power and honor: becoming a "small divinity" who is invoked, honored, protected from harm, and sheltered from curses.
When Dady is brought out for bathing, it is a celebration unlike any other. The four cardinal directions and the sacred space are reversed.
Éléonore Nerine Botokeky states: "Fitampoha is a dynastic ceremony of the Sakalava Menabe country consisting of bathing in the Tsiribihina river the royal relics or dady of the former Menabe kingdom (...) To mark the return to the origins of the kingdom's creation, the main orientations of symbolic space are inverted: north becomes south and vice versa, east becomes west and vice versa. This inversion of cardinal directions signifies that the 'Fitampoha ceremony' corresponds to a symmetric inversion of the world of the living and the world of spirits expressed in terms of world creation and ideological time (...) Fitampoha is the reactualization of History through the presence of sazoke or royal possessed individuals who recall to memory the succession conflicts of former kings. In this reactualization, the ampanito's power must assert itself as it is traditionally he who decides everything (...) Fitampoha is an act of purification, blessing, and official legitimation of group status. When a king dies and the body has dried, one year after his death, a crocodile is caught and a tooth from its lower jaw is extracted. This tooth is mixed with parts taken from the king's body: the fingernail of the little finger, the occipital bone, the canines of the upper jaw."
The relics include the fingernail of the little finger, the first vertebra of the neck, and bones from the river. The writings of Alfred and Guillaume Grandidier differ slightly, listing teeth, first vertebra from the spine or skull, bones, hair or beard: "In the Maroseragna dynasty, at the death of each king, a tooth was taken from his corpse and often the first cervical vertebra, a fingernail or a lock or some beard hairs, or sometimes, in place of the vertebra, a piece of skin from the nape."
Notably, the family name "Kamamy" was established at the beginning of the 20th century, making it now over one hundred and sixty years old.
By Nasolo-Valiavo Andriamihaja