ORAPELENG MATSHEDISO | Return of the three skulls: Madagascar’s peacebuilding needs to be more Malagasy, less Western

In September this year, Madagascar, one of Africa’s countries with a rich history of culture, tradition, heritage and anti-colonial struggles, experienced a mass youth-led protest called the ‘Gen Z Madagascar protest’.

The protest was later joined by students, trade unions, soldiers, some traditional leaders and the police. The protest stemmed from water and electricity outages, but the demands grew to include corruption, academic exclusion at the institutions of higher learning, abject poverty, the high cost of living and ultimately a call for the resignation of Andrey Rajoelina, who had been president since 2018.

Protesters in the capital city Antananarivo carried placards which read “Rajoelina and Emmanuel Macron [president of France] out” and “France out”.

These calls reveal how France, as a former coloniser, continues to influence Madagascar through its leaders, including Rajoelina.

Col Michael Randrianirina has now become president of Madagascar, and he claims his ascension to power “wasn’t a coup; it was a case of taking responsibility because the country was on the brink of collapse”.

I argue that the situational social upheaval in Madagascar necessitates a metaphysical analysis and a blend of modern and indigenous approaches to peacebuilding within the context of decolonisation. This is because some African spiritual and indigenous leaders, though accepting the tangible problems that bedevil the country, mainly and intangibly attribute the Malagasy social upheaval to the invocation of the spirits of their ancestors who were killed during the struggle for independence and against colonisation of the island nation.

However, some researchers squarely attribute challenges to the existential realities of the French government’s colonial influence over the country’s internal affairs and the perennial colonial economic structure that continues to reproduce social inequalities, abject poverty, an exclusive system of governance and poor service delivery for more than 30-million of the country’s people.

African spiritual and indigenous leaders base their analysis and conclusions on the recent sequence of events in Madagascar. About six months ago, Macron visited Madagascar for the first time in 20 years, seemingly to strengthen diplomatic and economic ties between the two nations.

It is alleged that Macron realised that for more than a decade, the Malagasy government, the African diaspora movement and the Sakalava ethnic group in Madagascar had been requesting the French government return the skulls of King Toera of the Sakalava people and two traditional leaders, who were killed in August 1897 for fighting for independence and against colonisation.

Macron decided to diplomatically leverage that request to negotiate a better economic deal for France at the expense of the impoverished country.

It is said that the skulls of the Sakalava people, known as the people of the Long Valley, have been kept in a museum in Paris as trophies and symbols of victory against Africans who resisted colonialism. However, on September 3, the three skulls arrived in Madagascar, where the Sakalava kingdom of Menabe performed a spiritual ritual to reconnect them with their ancestors.

According to American anthropologist Gillian Feeley-Harnik, “to the Sakalava of western Madagascar, history is a powerful embodiment of the royal ancestors who constitute the foundation of their system of government”.

It is therefore believed that Rajoelina and his government faced trouble because of both poor service delivery and bartering deals with the spirits of the fallen heroes and heroines of the indigenous people.

The Sakalava kingdom in Madagascar’s Menabe region on the west coast was among the earliest to govern the country. It was founded in the 16th century and remained in power until the 18th century. It is a product of migration and immigration from Madagascar’s central highlands, Southeast Asia, East Africa, India and other parts of the world.

The kingdom gained strength and influence through its strategic geographic location and trade with foreign nations, including Portugal, Britain and France. Before the arrival of Europeans, various tribes and kingdoms used indigenous methods of conflict resolution and peacebuilding to embrace co-existence, such as forming alliances and engaging in inter- and intra-tribal strategic marriages to promote unity.

Dr David Mohale is correct to argue that “there was a time in history when human beings [Africans] coexisted peacefully because they all had equal access to basic needs. There was a time when they would work together to devise instruments of production to achieve collective access to food and drink produced by nature.”

In his 1958 novel, Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe succinctly elucidates how the British government destroyed the African kingdoms, cultures and values of solidarity of the Umufia and Abame villages of the Igbo tribe, to the extent that Africans began to fight each other, undermine and reject their own culture and heritage.

The unity of the Malagasy tribes was broken when European traders traded with Africans and sponsored certain kingdoms with weapons to fight others. This eroded the values of Ubuntu and solidarity that defined the governance of African kingdoms.

At some point, the Sakalava kingdom fought against the Merina kingdom for resources and trade with Europeans. During this time, the British government supported the Merina, which ultimately defeated the Sakalava in the 18th century and took control of the country.

This infighting weakened Africans’ ability to fight and resist colonialism, and France took advantage of divisions within the traditional leadership and the population. It fought and defeated the kingdom of Merina in 1883. In 1896, it officially colonised Madagascar and killed King Toera of the Sakalava and his right-hand men for resisting colonialism.

It is important to note that the Sakalava kingdom strongly believes that elders are superior to young people, but that the ancestors are superior to everyone, including the kings. Every five years in September, the Sakalava people perform a ritual called famadihana (turning of the bones of the dead), reconnecting the spirits of the living and those of the dead.

For 128 years they have been waiting for the skulls of their leaders and in September this year, the ritual was performed. Three weeks later, nationwide protests broke out that the traditional leaders believe were caused by tangible and intangible challenges.

Reports indicate that modern technology failed to verify whether the repatriated skulls indeed belong to King Toera and the other two individuals. However, confirmation was achieved through customary rites performed by the Sakalava tribe, led by elders and Prince Harea Kamamy, the great-grandson of Toera.

Due to a general lack of confidence in African tradition and culture, the media in Africa and abroad often refer to the three skulls as ‘presumed’ or ‘believed’ to be those of King Toera and others. But had the genetics been verified by modern science and technology, certainly the media would be reporting with certainty.

After years in diaspora, American sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois returned to Ghana in October 1961 and said: “I have returned that my dust [bones] shall mingle with the dust [bones] of my forefathers [ancestors], there is not much time left for me.”

I contend that the Malagasy indigenous voice is needed in the peacebuilding process because African indigenous methods of mediation are commended for restoring broken relationships and for embracing reconciliation, forgiveness and social dialogue to promote social harmony and co-existence.

The reality is that violent conflict and coups have been perennial in Madagascar because Western approaches to peacebuilding, which embrace retributive rather than restorative justice, have not restored lasting peace.

I therefore call on mediators, especially the AU and Sadc, to integrate indigenous and modern or contemporary methods into African-led, people-centred peacebuilding in Madagascar. Africans can be united by their common history of slavery, colonialism, cultural identity and shared heritage.

Orapeleng Matshediso is a master’s graduate of Pan African Development Studies and a research fellow at the University of Johannesburg (Institute for Pan African Thought and Conversation). The author is also an alumnus of the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute.

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