Missions in Madagascar


   Christianity was not the first religion to get to the island of Madagascar. Around the Middle Ages, Islam was brought to the island by Arab and Somali Muslim traders but failed to take hold in several southeastern coastal communities. However, a few Islamic schools were established along the eastern coast. Today Muslims make up about 7% of Madagascar’s population.

   The Malagasy people, especially in Imerina, were oddly receptive of European ideas and influences which was unique in an African country in the nineteenth century. Christianity was introduced to the island of Madagascar by British missionaries between 1818 and 1895. These dates are from when the first British missionaries arrived on the island to the year when Madagascar was conquered by the French and lost their independence.

   Formal education began in 1820 at the Palace School in Antananarivo but Christianity itself was not taught until 1829 when it was integrated into and taught hand in hand with the technical education of the Malagasy people. The teaching of Christianity only lasted about six years before it was banned in 1835 by Queen Ranavalona I. This meant that Christianity was not taught for twenty-six years until Queen Ranavalona I died and a new ruler, Radama II, allowed British missionaries back into Madagascar.

   From then on, the teaching of Christianity moved at a fast pace and by 1869 even the rulers of Madagascar, Queen Ranavalona II and her Prime Minister Rainilaiarivony, had become Protestant converts. After the Queen was baptized, the impact of the British missionaries reached its highest point.

   The British missions that were involved were the London Missionary Society (the Congregationalists), the Friends’ Foreign Missions Association (the Quakers), and the Established Church of England.

   The way these missions tried to change Malagasy ways of life rubbed the Malagasy people the wrong way, so they decided to establish their own brand of Christianity. They were very determined to establish their own church and guide it in a way that suited to their homeland.

   Today many Malagasy Christians integrate religious beliefs with their traditional ones that relate to honoring ancestors. About half of Madagascar’s population are Christian which is divided almost evenly between Catholics and Protestants. The four oldest and most prominent Christian denominations are Roman Catholic, Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar, Lutheran, and Anglican.

   Hinduism is also present on the island of Madagascar through the Gujarati people from India who started immigrating there in the late nineteenth century.






Bibliography

Mutibwa, Phares M. African Affairs 80, no. 319 (1981): 297-99. http://www.jstor.org/stable/721333.

Popular posts from this blog

Akotifahana Weavers of Madagascar

Image
   The island of Madagascar is one of the East African regions that is home to some of the oldest and most important historic centers of cloth production. A special focus is on the Merina weavers (Fig. 1) of the central highlands in Madagascar. They were among the island’s most prolific and innovative cloth makers.    One of the most renown cloths is the akotifahana. Akotifahanas are woven from lustrous “Chinese” silk with intricate patterns and riotous color. These large mantles were made in the Merina kingdom of the central highlands in Madagascar. They were made to dress the elites and to wrap their revered for burial. Many times, Merina King and Queens would gift these prestigious cloths to high-ranking subjects and foreign allies. These cloths have been analyzed for religious or socio-political reasons, but none have been found. According to the chapter Things for Making Cloth in the “Ombaisy’s Manuscript,” the designs for akotifahanas were random an...
Read more

Madagascar First Contacts

Image
   Madagascar has a population that is predominantly of mixed Asian and African origin. The island of Madagascar was uninhabited until Indonesian seafarers arrived around the first century A.D. and married African wives and slaves. Migrations continued from both the Pacific and Africa which furthered the mixture of Asians and Africans.    The seventh century A.D. brought about the written history of Madagascar. Arabs established trading posts along the northwest coast. It wasn’t until the 1500's that Madagascar experienced European contact. A Portuguese sea captain, Diego Dias, sighted the island when his ship became separated from a fleet that was bound for India. Since then there have been numerous contacts between Europeans and the Malagasy people and each time they were able to resist the attempts made by the Europeans to establish footholds on the island.  [1] Map of the community at Tranovato Ilha de Santa Cruz 1656 Madagascar. - Author Flacourt....
Read more