From early 19th C most of Madagascar was united and ruled as the Kingdom of Madagascar. Radama I was king of Madagascar from 1810 – 28. He allied himself with the British Governor on the “nearby” island of Mauritius and agreed to work towards ending the slave trade.
But Radama died prematurely and was succeeded by his widow, Queen Ranavalona I. She reversed several of Radama’s policies. She limited and then totally cut off all contact with European countries and culture, she expelled Christian missionaries and persecuted Malagasy converts.
Ranavalona was brutal and – at least from today’s perspective – quite mad. During her rule the population was reduced to half. She outlawed Christianity in 1835 and Christians were fined, jailed or executed. A church was built on the spot where the queen had her victims burned (at Ambatonakanga) or thrown alive from cliffs (at Tsimihatsaka).
Queen Ranavalona I (The Cruel Queen) had a palace built in the present capital, Antananarivo. Before that the King’s palace and the centre of power was based around 20 km outside Tana. Tore and I visited the palace and heard about the cruel Queen.
Queen Ranavalona I was succeeded by her son, Radama II. He again reversed the policies of his mother and readmitted Christian missionaries and established cooperation with the Colonial Powers of the time. He was overthrown in 1863, and the head of the army, Rainilaiarivony (Malagasy names are not easy to write and difficult to pronounce!) became prime minister. Rainilaiarivony succeeded to stay in power during a long period, because he married three queens in succession (that is really something, isn’t it?)
Rainilaiarivony made education obligatory, established a code of law that combined ancient customs and Western practices like monogamy, organised European style ministries and regional governors.
We went to see the palace, The “Rova” of Antananarivo, when we first arrived in Madagascar. The palace had been converted to a museum, and to be honest it wasn’t much to see, but the views from the palace were breathtaking, and the story about the Cruel Queen who had half the population murdered is quite something to reflect upon.
