“Soatanàna: cultural destination”

It is well the first time ever that Soatanàna, located some 400 km away to the south of the capital city, is starring as an object of researches. 

The whole point was about putting tourist assets in an area rather famed since more than one century for the movement of the Protestant faith´s awakening in Madagascar. Every year, a pilgrimage is being organized in September towards Soatanàna. According Razaka Oliva´s survey, the pilgrimage is actually the opportunity to discover the area. 

The author believes however that “the discovery of Soatanana must not remain a privilege for pilgrims and believers of the “Protestant awakening movement”. Razaka Oliva is straining “to open” Soatanana  and propel it ” into modernity”, while preserving its religious and cultural authenticity from commercial pollution. The large scale hotels are simply unthinkable, for example. 

The project is planning the integration of Soatanàna into various circuits, in that of the national Road 7 in the south, that of the highlands, or simply a special circuit starting in Antananarivo. The area actually has quite an appeal: rich landscape, peculiar population and royal tombs and so on.