The culture of Madagascar

Malagasy society is a combination of various cultures of its multi-ethnic population. The culture reflects the origins of its populations so practices are similar to those of Southeast Asians and East Africans, but is also influenced by settlors from Arabia, India, France, England and China. The society is made up of a small elite class and a large lower class. Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world (154th out of 188 on the Human Development Index). Of the 23 million inhabitants, 88% live below the poverty line and the subsistence needs of local farmers is one of the reasons why natural areas are being transferred into agricultural land. The education system deteriorated following a drive to remove influences of colonialism, which involved attempts to abolish the French language and introduce the Malagasy language. According to a report in 2017 , 58% of 15-24 year olds had not completed their primary education, only 2% were enrolled in post-secondary education and only 19% of primary school teachers were trained to teach. This report also concluded that locals valued subsistence and agricultural output over conservation. One of the reasons, other than poverty, is that most Malagasy are not aware of the biodiversity and conservation values of their country. In addition, most Malagasy do not have the opportunity to experience pristine nature and form positive bonds to it during their childhood. In daily life, rice is the staple food, accompanied by some form of Kabaka (protein: beans, chicken, beef or fish). Some areas have a green leafy broth (Romazava) as a side dish. They have a spicy condiment (Lasary) made from chilli, green mangos or lemons. The largest religious group is Christian (approx. 50%). Islam is followed by about 7%. Some groups also practise Hinduism. A common cultural practice is consulting and reflecting upon dead ancestors (Razana) to make moral choices. Fadys are very prevalent in Malagasy culture. The word fady is the Malagasy word for taboo; however it can also be used to describe something sacred. They can concern people, situations, locations and animals, and they are all mainly reinforced by people passing them down through generations via stories and legends. Each tribe or village can have their own fadys and it is typical for the village elder to be the one that decrees them. There are some very interesting fadys, for example: - The Indris Lemurs are fady for many Malagasy (in the sacred term). Old legends say that the spirits of ancestors live on with these lemurs. - It is considered a fady to point a finger at graves; people are asked instead to point with a clenched fist or with a widely open spread hand so use all fingers. There are some fadys that people try to work around. For instance, some tribes have a fady about hunting lemurs, but not one for eating the meat. Whereas neighbouring tribes have fadys about the lemurs, but the other way round, so they can hunt lemurs, but not eat them. They will then sell the meat to the tribes with the fady on hunting lemurs, but who are able to eat the meat. Some fadys lead to grave outcomes. In southeast Madagascar, in some Antambahoaka tribe villages, they have a fady about twins. If twins are born, they will be abandoned in the forest and if the mother refuses to leave them then all three are excluded from the community. Aye Aye lemurs are the animals that have the most myths and stories about them. Throughout Madagascar they are considered a fady and many Malagasy believe that an encounter with an Aye Aye brings misfortune or even death. It varies on where you are in Madagascar on which encounters with the lemur will result in misfortune. For example, in the northernmost part of Madagascar, an Aye Aye entering a village brings misfortune to the entire village, but in the area northwest of Amber Mountain the appearance of an Aye Aye means the death of an individual villager. Overall, it is considered that the only way to stop the bad luck of seeing an Aye Aye is to kill it. Once dead, they tend to be strung up upside down on sticks. By educating people more about these animas, it is hoped that the killings of these animals will be reduced and at some point these animals can instead be protected. Good article to read: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9000/79e0b3c5f5ff48b3f01f61923bc39aaea372.pdf -By Poppy Philipps, Media officer and fundraising References: Article Malagasy Conservationists and Environmental Educators: Life Paths into Conservation Lena M. Reibelt 1,2,*, Torsten Richter 1 , Antje Rendigs 2 and Jasmin Mantilla-Contreras 1 1 Department of Biology, Research Group Ecology and Environmental Education, University of Hildesheim, Universitätsplatz 1, 31141 Hildesheim, Germany; richtert@uni-hildesheim.de (T.R.); mantilla@uni-hildesheim.de (J.M.-C.) 2 Madagascar Wildlife Conservation, Lot 17420 bis Avaradrova Sud, 503 Ambatondrazaka, Madagascar; antjerendigs@posteo.de * Correspondence: reibelt.lena@gmail.com; Tel.: +49-5121-88340440 Academic Editor: Ralf Hansmann Received: 20 December 2016; Accepted: 1 February 2017; Published: 8 February 2017