Hira Gasy: The traditional spectacle mentalities

The death of the “Kings” would have failed to shake too much of it. Some big guns of the Hira Gasy, like Ramilison, have recently passed away, but the Malagasy traditional show keeps on captivating crowds, especially in rural areas. The passion is as vivid as long ago. 

Hery and Francis, both aged merely 14, are dancing like genuine professionals. The crowd is applausing. The young boys are swinging and jumping as on a dance floor. Then, they bring up the coins and the leaves of money granted by the audience. In this area located in the valley of Ambohimandroso, some 60 miles south from the capital city,  merrymaking is generally a matter of Hira Gasy. 

As April is drawing to an end, the Hira Gasy season is just starting, as a matter of fact. Spectacles are increasingly blossoming until the next rainy season in October.    

In Ambohimandroso, the village is enjoying merriments The crowd is progressively surrounding the artists on a free area, close to the rice fields. This day is a tournament day between a couple of groups, as it has always been the case, but it is only a figure of speech. Competition is symbolic, merely intending to delight the crowd. In the end, there are neither winners nor losers, and the contestants have had the opportunity to produce their best performance. 

 The start up is the artists’ dean’s traditional speech, often funny but more indeed moralizing. The very first sentences are unveiling one side of the Malagasy soul, the contact is sealed between the audience and the performers. The Hira Gasy is definitely a real shape of social communication. 

The performers are actors in the show as well as in the rural social life. “The mpihira gasy do not make a living exclusively from spectacles; most of the time, we have our own fields”, explained Rahetilahy, during a short pause. 

Their clothing code is rather amazing: women are having long dresses while men are wearing some sort of a red coat, sometimes with stripes. “The mpihira gasy have not always been dressed this way. Such a dressing set stemmed from an English prince’s visit to the Queen’s palace, and the tradition has been surviving” told Hariniaina, an academic who conducted studies on this specific operetta. 

“Had their messages found their way to hearts and minds, Madagascar and Madagascans would not have fallen so deep. The Hira Gasy is spreading a message of peace and unity, a couple of values dropped in the cities’ cellars nowadays” concluded the academic.       

In the rural environment, the Hira Gasy keeps on educating mentalities. It has long been different in the cities. The Hira Gasy is yet stemming from these areas, the Malagasy highlands. The spectacle has been removed from royal palaces and relegated to the open air show division.