Jacques Rabemananjara

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Jacques Félicien Rabemananjara (born June 23, 1913 in Maroantsetra , Toamasina , Madagascar , † April 1, 2005 in Paris ) was a Malagasy politician and writer .

biography

Political career

Jacques Rabemananjara was a thorn in the side of the French colonial rulers from an early age. They banned the Revue des Jeunes de Madagascar , which he directed , but then took him over to the colonial service, presumably to have him under supervision. In 1939 he was sent to the Colonial Ministry in Paris. There he met Léopold Sédar Senghor , who became his friend and sponsor and included his poems - together with several by Rabearivelo and Flavien Ranaivo - in the famous anthology of 1948. Because of the German occupation, the trip to Paris turned into a forced residency of several years, which Rabemananjara used to study literature and political science while he continued to work for the Colonial Ministry. In 1940 his volume of poetry, Sur les marches du soir, was published . When he met Erica de Bary in 1942, he came into the inner circle of French intellectuals who had to endure in occupied Paris. In 1946 he returned to Madagascar: as a party founder and general secretary of the MDRM (Mouvement Démocratique de la Rénovation Malgache); and as an elected member of the National Assembly , which he was not allowed to attend because he was sentenced to death and then to life imprisonment in the context of the 1947 uprisings. His play Les dieux malgaches was published that year . In Malagasy and French prisons he wrote other poems (Rites millénaires, Antsa, Lamba, Antidote) and the tragedy Les boutriers de l'aurore in classical French on topics of negation , in particular the search for one's own cultural roots.

After his return to Madagascar in July 1960, he was appointed Minister for National Economy by President Philibert Tsiranana in October 1960 for the Republic of Madagascar, which only gained independence on June 26, 1960 . From 1963 he also acted as chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Afro-Madagascar Union . In January 1965, he was elected mayor of Tamatave . In August 1965 he returned to the Tsiranana cabinet, where he was now Minister for Agriculture, Water, Forestry, Land and Food.

In July 1967 he became foreign minister as part of a government reshuffle, and from January to May 1970 he was a member of a triumvirate alongside André Resampa and Calvin Tsiebo that carried out official duties for the sick President Tsiranana. In 1971, in addition to the office of Foreign Minister, he also took on the role of Vice President of the Republic. When Tsiranana was overthrown in October 1972 and a military dictatorship under Gabriel Ramanantsoa took power, he voluntarily went into exile in France.

Only twenty years after the revolution did he return to Madagascar in 1992, where he ran for the office of President of the Third Republic , but received only 2.9 percent of the vote.

writer

Rabemananjara was also a recognized playwright and poet . His more famous poems were:

  • "Sur les marches du soir", 1940.
  • "Rites millénaires", 1955.
  • "Antsa", 1956.
  • "Lamba", 1956.
  • "Antidote", 1961.
  • "Les ordalies, sonnets d'outre-temps", 1972.
  • "Oeuvres complètes, poésie", 1978.
  • "Thrènes d'avant l'aurore", 1985.
  • "Rien qu'encens et filigrane", 1987.

His most important plays include:

  • "Les dieux malgaches", 1947
  • "Agape des dieux Tritiva: Une tragédie", 1962.
  • "Les boutriers de l'aurore", 1957.

His book "Island with Flame Syllables" (1962) was translated by Erica de Bary .

See also

literature

  • Rabemananjara, Jaques Félicien , in: Martin Banham (Ed.) The Cambridge Guide to Theater . Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998, ISBN 0-521-43437-8 , p. 893.
  • Dominique Ranaivoson, Jacques Rabemanajara: Poesie et politique à Madagascar , biography, Paris: Éditions Sépia, 2015, p. 297. (French)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Calvin Tsiebo , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 12/1971 of March 15, 1971, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
personal data
SURNAME Rabemananjara, Jacques
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rabemananjara, Jaques Félicien
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Malagasy politician
DATE OF BIRTH June 23, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Maroantsetra , Toamasina , Madagascar
DATE OF DEATH April 1, 2005
Place of death Paris