In early August 1828, Princess Mavo was proclaimed Queen and took the name Ranavalona. Thirty-three years later, on August 16, 1861, the Sovereign "turned away," niamboho, as royal protocol dictated. August 1861 - August 2026: 165 years have passed since Ranavalomanjaka disappeared, caricatured by Western literature and demonized by Christian tradition. Two-thirds of her long reign, from July 1836, when the last British missionaries departed, until her death in August 1861, were labeled "Tany Maizina," the dark period, a time of mourning.
Why did Ramanetaka, Governor of Majunga and first cousin of Radama I, immediately set sail for Anjouan upon Ranavalona's accession? Why did Ratefinanahary, brother-in-law of Radama I, urgently request passage on a ship bound for Mauritius before responding to the summons to Antananarivo? Radama's close associates sought to flee at Ranavalona's rise to the throne, remembering that the future queen's relatives had been assassinated by Radama I upon his accession in 1810.
One cannot judge ancient times by modern standards. Certainly, Ranavalona began her reign by eliminating her husband's close relatives and predecessor, but nothing revolutionary or even shocking when considering that he, whose mother Rambolamasoandro was of Marovatana, had killed several Avaradrano from the close family of the princess Imavo of Ambatomanoina.
Oral tradition records no older exterminations during previous throne successions in Imerina. The 1828 episode passed to posterity only because there were Vazaha eyewitnesses. These Europeans would testify against her throughout a reign that deprived them of the political and evangelical advantages previously tolerated by Radama (1810-1828).
Yet her 33-year reign was not merely hecatombs of cattle and Christian persecution. Ranavalona's decisions must be situated within the Malagasy context of that era and understood through the frontal clash between traditional society and revolutionary ideas brought by British missionaries of the London Missionary Society and European visitors.
On July 18, 1857, to Laborde, Lambert, Finaz, Webber, and Pfeiffer, the Queen reproached them: "You wanted to establish a republic, free the slaves, establish equality without distinction of nobles," "You have no kings, but you are republicans, you lead people to think like you, you seek to change the government and suppress slavery" (Adrien Boudou, Le complot de 1857, Imprimerie moderne de l'Emyrne, 1943, p. 48 and 68).
In her doctoral thesis, Bakoly Domenichini-Ramiaramanana emphasized that "the collection of hainteny under this queen, and undoubtedly at her initiative, appears to have been part of a vast political program to safeguard and promote authentic Malagasy society and culture" (Du Ohabolana au Hainteny, Karthaka 1983, p.233). The consistency of this general policy of preserving the authentically national heritage obliged her to hostility toward foreign and Christian doctrines whose egalitarian discourse was genuinely revolutionary and threatened the very foundations of society at that time.
Ranavalona had authorized the arrival and stay of Baker (October 1828) and Freeman (June 1830), inaugurating intellectual collaboration with Malagasy scholars Raharolahy, Ramarotafika, and Rasatranabo, lasting from December 1829 to June 1835. Beyond collecting "hainteny," jewels of oral literature, several fundamental works appeared during this period: David Johns' Malagasy-English and English-Malagasy dictionaries with Raharolahy's collaboration (1835), Joseph John Freeman's dictionary with Ramarotafika and Rasatranabo's collaboration (1835), Edward Baker's grammar (1845). Not to mention the printing of the New Testament (1830) and the completion of the Bible (June 21, 1835).
(To be continued)
Nasolo-Valiavo Andriamihaja