Malagasy women of yesterday and today, from the cradle to the grave

” Andriambavilanitra ” is a respectful and appreciative equivalent for “woman”, produced by the combination of the words ” andriambavy ” ( queen) and ” Lanitra ” ( sky – heaven). Unlike scores of other ones, the Malagasy society traditionally was matriarchal, and topped by several queens like Rangita , Rafohy , Ranavalona , Rasoherina , Rasalimo …
Did they really exercise power? They did certainly, at least until the introduction of modern politics in the kingdom. Queen Ranavalona Ist was the living symbol a strong central power, feared, independent and sovereign . Since Andrianampoinimerina’s rule, royal succession terms took a strange and unexpected course. The future ruler was chosen by the descendants of the King’s sisters. If though men are told to be fathers to the nation, the nation itself, as in Russia, is being revered as motherland, “firenena .”
Malagasy woman and the tradition of marriage
All along the royal era, queens used to be chosen to forge political alliances with another ethnic group’s kingdom. Polygamy made it possible to rulers to establish many treaties of friendship with many neighbors. Marriage did not serve much different purpose in the low people’ society. It was arranged between the two families for the same sake. Some unions were even consumed between relatives in order to preserve family legacy from external grip.
The contract was not written anywhere and was basically considered as provisional in spite of moral values like union until death. A simple repudiation could put an end to a story. The matrimonial law of those days of the past was the ” kitay telo an dalana “: the principle attributes two-thirds of the couple’s property to the man and the left third husband to his former wife . The common property related laws have been reformed ever since.
The woman follows the husband. Such a rule was applied during lifetime as well as into the afterlife. The married woman’ social rank was higher than ever before, still she had to pay respect to different traditions and convert to her husband’s religion in order to earn integration into her husband’s group. After passing away, she will be buried into her husband’s family graveyard.
As for women’s rights , the fight goes on
Women’s education level has made these practices history in urban centers. But they are still followed in rural areas. Submissive woman serving her husband are not yet things of the past. She cooks and see to the housekeeping. She keeps away from her husband’s dinner table and patiently waits to finish the leftovers off. Such devotion is not regarded as humiliating in anything where it is still in practice.
Nowadays, she has access to education and healthcare, she has the right to vote … what other rights could women still be claiming? Equality. Girls still have to leave school earlier than boys whose parents give priority to when resources to send everyone to school get scarce. The system of inheritance, especially for real estate, excludes married women although they are supposed to belong to their husband’s families. Men perpetuate the lineage through the patriarch’s name or Anarandray. Land ownership for women is actually the next long fight to come.
In 2014, the Malagasy feminist are campaigning for political involvement of women and their access to major positions. A harsh reality deserves however a far greater mobilization: the trafficking of human beings. The dirty business lurks behind the sending of female employees to the Middle East. Many of them enter a nightmare there; some of those make the trip back home in a coffin. Young women are tricked with workplaces, then sold out and end up married to Chinese farmers with disabilities. The nation is struggling to save its daughters in distress, left to bear their fate on their own abroad, as just any anonymous one making the numbers of victims of modern slavery.