Joseph Raseta

Joseph Delphine Raseta (born December 9, 1886 in Marovoay , † October 5, 1979 in Antananarivo , Madagascar ) was a Malagasy intellectual and politician.

Life

Raseta belonged to the Hova tribe . The son of a palace officer and commander of the army of Mahajanga . During this time, the First Madagascar Expedition (Première guerre franco-malgache, 1883–1885) took place. His father was a deca ( adjutant ) to Prime Minister Rainilaiarivony and governor of Iboina Province .

After training in Tananarive at the frères des écoles chrétiennes and at the Collège des Quakers of the Friends Foreign Mission Abroad , he attended the École de médecine in Tananarive, which he graduated with a diploma in 1908. Then he was Médecin fonctionnaire de l'Assistance médicale indigène (1909-1922). In October 1915, while on vacation in Tananarive, he joined the illegal national student association Vy Vato Sakelika (iron, stone, branching). In early 1916, the leaders of the VVS were tried on charges of conspiracy against the state, but Raseta was not prosecuted. This happened again after 1947, but it seems to stem from a rumor that was spread by the police in the Madagascar uprising .

In 1922 he settled as a doctor in Toliara and in 1926 became a correspondent for the anti-colonialist magazine L'Opinion de Diego Suarez . He was subsequently convicted of forest crime (1927) and in 1929 and 1930 for collecting donations for Jean Ralaimongo ; In 1933 he was fined 500 francs and sentenced to three years in exile for disregarding the governor general. He had made himself a  criminal offense on the basis of the "  Décret Scélérat " (of 1926), while defending a village whose land had been distributed to settlers. He was acquitted on appeal. He was suspended as a doctor and charged with manslaughter in 1935 after one of his Indian patients died of diabetic gangrene . Again he was acquitted on appeal.

He joined the Secours rouge international , the representation of the Parti communiste français in Outre-mer and in 1934 the Ligue anti-impérialiste en France , he worked for L'Aurore Malgache , then for Opinion and became one of the main shareholders, with 10% of the capital, on the new magazine La Nation malgache (1935). Meanwhile, he was a correspondent for L'Humanité and the Prolétariat malgache , which was founded in late 1936. The latter magazine is the organ of the Communist Party of the Région Madagascar (PCRM) , to which he belonged from the time it was founded in August 1936 until it was dissolved in 1939. Nevertheless, he was never a communist, but a nationalist. He was sentenced by the Vichy cadres to two years in a prison camp in Camp de Moramanga and was not released again until 1943, after which he resumed his militant lifestyle.

Then he was determined at the Élections législatives françaises 1945 to the Assemblée constituante with 5476 votes from 26047 voters and 11977 voters and then in the Élections législatives françaises on June 2, 1946 with 13529 out of 32317 voters and 23,302 voters. He came to France in December 1945 and founded the Mouvement démocratique de la rénovation malgache in Paris in February 1946 , of which he became President. In the first Constituante he held back and only intervened in three places that concerned the composition, function and competencies of the Assemblées locales d'outre-mer . On March 21, 1946, he submitted a bill providing Madagascar with the status of "État libre dans l'Union française", but the bill was placed in a commission where it was buried. Nonetheless, he received a triumphant welcome on his return. During the second Constituante he renewed his call for a constitution, including calling for a referendum for Madagascar on August 9, 1946. He intervened several times, for example when voting on the Union française on September 19, 1946.

He was re-elected on November 10, 1946 and returned to France on March 9, 1947. He was appointed to the Commission for Family, Population and Public Health of the Assemblée nationale (Quatrième République). He started an inquiry to the government on May 6th about Madagascar politics after the Malagasy uprising was put down on March 29th and had to appear before a commission of inquiry under Maurice Viollette on May 20th . He denied any responsibility for the revolt. After a long debate, his immunite was lifted on June 6th. He was arrested and transferred to Antananarivo, where he was tried in the Procès des parlementaires (July – September 1948). On October 4, 1948, he was sentenced to death. After his pardon was rejected, President Vincent Auriol pardoned him on July 7, 1949, to life imprisonment. He was brought to the Comoros , then to Calvi and on 6 August 1955 released for health reasons and sent to Grasse and then to Cannes .

He always remained influential in the nationalist milieu and supported Stanislas Rakotonirina in 1956, who together with Jacques Rabemananjara had launched a call for nationalist unity in the 1955 elections, and in 1958 the communist Antoko'ny Kongresi'ny Fahaleovantenan'i Madagasikara (Parti du Congrès de l'indépendence de Madagascar, AKFM), which stood in opposition to Philibert Tsiranana and the Communauté selon la Constitution de 1958 . In 1959 he made an attempt to return to Madagascar with the help of the communists, but was intercepted in Djibouti and brought back to France.

On July 19, 1960, he was finally able to return and in August he joined the AKFM, for which he ran against Joseph Ravoahangy in the election in Antananarivo . In May 1961, he entered the National Assembly as senior president and immediately drew attention to himself with a burning speech against the government. When he could not get a majority in the AKFM because the moderate members of the party voted for a compromise with Tsiranana, he left the party and founded FIPIMA (Union nationale malgache) in 1963 . In 1965 he ran as a presidential candidate against Tsiranana, but received only 2% of the vote. In Antananarivo, AKFM voters even voted for Tsiranana. In the Second Republic he was rehabilitated and honored.

He died in Antananarivo on October 5, 1979.

Honors

He received the honor of "Héros de la révolution" and was named "Grand Officier" of the "Ordre des combattants de la révolution malgache" by Didier Ratsiraka . In 1980 the Madagascar Post issued a postage stamp with his portrait .

literature

• Tahiry volamena . 2011.
• Dokotera Joseph Delphin Raseta, Tia Tanindrazana: 1886–1979. Trano Printy Fiangonana Loterana Malagasy, 2011.

Web links

• Entry by Joseph Raseta on the l'Assemblée nationale page.
• View of the postage stamp.
• Homepage about the history of Madagascar (French).