Madagascar uprising

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National monument for the Madagascar uprising in Moramanga .

The Madagascar uprising ( French Insurrection malgache ) was an uprising against French colonial rule in Madagascar , which lasted from March 1947 to December 1948.

From the end of 1945 Madagascar's first MPs in the French National Assembly , Joseph Raseta , Joseph Ravoahangy and Jacques Rabemananjara , tried to achieve Madagascar's independence through legal channels . As a result of the failure of these efforts and because of the harsh reactions of the Paul Ramadier government , sections of the Malagasy population became radicalized. On the evening of March 29, 1947, Malagasy nationalists launched coordinated attacks on French military bases and plantations in the east of the island. The fighting spread rapidly south and into the central highlands and reached the capital Antananarivo the following month . The number of Malagasy fighters is estimated at over a million.

In May 1947, the French began to repel attacks by the nationalists. The number of French troops on the island tripled to 18,000 within a short time and increased to 30,000 by 1948. The French armed forces committed mass executions, torture , rape and village burns, among other things . Estimates of the number of victims in Malagasy vary between 11,000 and over 100,000. The nationalists killed around 550 French people and around 1,900 supporters of the pro-French PADESM party . By August 1948, the majority of nationalist leaders had been killed or imprisoned. The uprising was finally ended in December 1948.

The violent suppression of the uprising left deep scars on Malagasy society. The three MPs from Madagascar in France were arrested and tortured and remained in custody until their amnesty in 1958. France kept most of the documents related to the uprising under lock and key. The French government remained silent on the subject until President Jacques Chirac condemned the suppression of the uprising on a state visit in 2005. The time of the rebellion was filmed by several Malagasy directors. In 1967 the government of Madagascar declared March 29 a public holiday. In 2012, a museum dedicated to the uprising was opened in Moramanga.

background

Madagascar (red) in today's Africa

At the end of the 19th century, Madagascar was largely under the control of the Merina Kingdom with the royal palace in the capital Antananarivo . The kingdom, which has existed since the early 16th century, expanded its influence beyond the traditional rulership in the 1820s under Radama I , whom the British government officially recognized as sovereign over the entire island. After several unsuccessful attempts to gain control of the island, France took the royal palace by military force in September 1894, banished Prime Minister Rainilaiarivony and officially colonized the island in February 1895. Queen Ranavalona III. remained in office as a representative figure until the outbreak of the Menalamba uprising . The uprising, for which France blamed the queen, was violently suppressed and Ranavalona was exiled in 1897.

The Menalamba uprising was just the first manifestation of the ongoing resistance to French rule, which occasionally led to violent conflicts between Malagasy and colonialists. In the 1910s, nationalist secret societies were formed in Madagascar. The call-up of Malagasy soldiers to fight for France in World War I increased displeasure with foreign rule and in the interwar period the nationalist organizations spread. The western campaign of the German Wehrmacht in World War II and the occupation of France in 1940, the imposition of the Vichy regime and the subsequent occupation of Madagascar by Great Britain in 1942 further clouded the image of the colonial government. Anger was particularly aroused by the forced labor and involuntary, unpaid conscription to the army. Malagasy hopes for greater sovereignty were in turmoil when Charles de Gaulle announced reforms for the French-controlled part of Africa at the 1944 Brazzaville Conference , including that the colonies should become French overseas territories and that their residents should receive civil rights. However, the reforms were only partially implemented and forced labor and other rights violations continued unabated in Madagascar. In 1941 the nationalist secret society Panama ( Patriotes nationalistes malgaches ) was founded, in 1943 the Jiny, named after a local bird species . The two organizations that wanted to achieve Madagascar's independence by force if necessary, received a strong membership increase in the following years.

After the end of the Second World War, several nationalist organizations tried to achieve independence through legal means. At the Constituent Assembly in Paris in November 1945 , at which the Constitution of the Fourth French Republic was drawn up, Madagascar was represented by two doctors, Joseph Raseta and Joseph Ravoahangy . Together with Jacques Rabemananjara , they founded the Mouvement démocratique de la rénovation malgache (MDRM) party in early 1946 , whose main goal was the sovereignty of Madagascar. All three belonged to the Hova and were descendants of politically influential figures of the Merina Kingdom. The movement was pacifist and welcomed the French vision of the island as part of the global Francophone economic and cultural community. The party received strong support across geographical and ethnic boundaries. In November 1946, the three founders were elected to represent Madagascar in the French National Assembly. There they submitted a bill to liberate Madagascar from French rule, which was rejected by the French MPs.

The Malagasy MPs drew the disapproval of Socialist Prime Minister Paul Ramadier and Colonial Minister Marius Moutet . The French, who had handed Madagascar over from the United Kingdom after the end of World War II , feared that Britain or South Africa might try to wrest the island from French control. The MDRM's quest for independence was therefore perceived as a blow to the reputation and authority of France and fueled fears of a violent conflict such as the recently started Indochina War in French Indochina . Moutet reacted sharply and announced a "war against the Malagasy autonomy movement". The French government's refusal to support a democratic process of Madagascar's independence drew criticism from the United States , which condemned the French response and criticized its leadership. The French reaction also led to numerous militant nationalist groups in Madagascar becoming radicalized. As the mood deteriorated, MPs Raseta, Ravoahangy and Rabemananjara issued a joint statement on March 27, 1947 calling on the public to remain calm in the face of the tactics and provocations intended to resolve problems within the to stir up the Malagasy population and sabotage the peaceful policy of the MDRM.

independence movement

Nationalist uprising

The Madagascar uprising began on the evening of March 29, 1947, the eve of Palm Sunday . The timing had additional significance than the date of the traditional New Year festival, Fandroana , which was celebrated in the Merina kingdom with a period of anarchy followed by the restoration of the Merina's power. Malagasy nationalists, including the members of the secret societies Vy Vato Sakelika (VVS) and Jiny led coordinated surprise attacks in the east of the island on a police base near the railway line at Moramanga , in the coastal town of Manakara and several places along the lower Faraony by where important French plantations were located. Most historians share the view that the militant nationalists escalated the conflict on the basis of false information that had been disseminated to reduce the nationalists' influence. Members of VVS and Jiny who were involved in the initial attacks said their organizations were forced to attack after the signal to take action was transmitted by a group that was later discovered to have secret links with national police. Researchers have documented reports from nationalists whose organizations joined the conflict on orders from the police, British nationals and French settlers. Despite the role of the militant organizations in leading the uprising, the colonial rulers blamed the MDRM for it and reacted specifically against party members and their supporters.

The attacks in the east were followed immediately by similar actions in southern Madagascar, before rapidly spreading across the country. In early April, when the violence first reached Antananarivo , an estimated 2,000 nationalist fighters were involved. Attacks on French military bases multiplied throughout the month throughout the central highlands, south to Fianarantsoa and north to Lac Alaotra . The movement received particularly strong support in the south, where the revolt drew no fewer than a million peasants to fight for nationalist ends.

Two guerrilla zones were set up in the eastern rainforest, from which the fighters expanded their control. The nationalists grouped themselves under various established or new structures, including several militias with their own leadership structures, including generals and war ministers. Militias were partly led by traditional leaders ( mpanjaka ) of local communities. Many rebels were demobilized soldiers ( tirailleurs malgaches ) who had returned from World War II and were frustrated with the lack of recognition and support from the French colonial government. Numerous other fighters were railroad workers who hid in the dense eastern rainforest and used guerrilla tactics to attack French interests along the railway line between Antananarivo and the eastern city of Toamasina . At the height of the movement, the insurgents gained control of a third of the island.

The outbreak of the conflict provided the pretext for violence between the Merina in the highlands and members of other ethnic groups on the Madagascar coast linked to pre-colonial history and politics. The Merina elites (Hova) founded the MDRM not only to end the rule of France, but also to regain their political dominance after independence. In response to the establishment of the MDRM, the Parti des déshérités de Madagascar (PADESM) was founded in 1946 . It attracted members of coastal communities subjugated by the Merina Kingdom as well as descendants of former Merina slaves. The PADESM, which was initially a non-nationalist party, eventually advocated a gradual process of independence that would maintain close ties with France and prevent the restoration of Merina hegemony. The French authorities tacitly supported the PADESM, which the MDRM accused of starting the uprising to restore Merina rule. By standing behind PADESM, the socialist-dominated French politicians tried to portray themselves as advocates of the masses oppressed by the Merina.

French reaction

The French security forces were initially surprised and unable to carry out effective responses to contain the uprising. In May 1947, the French military began to counter the nationalist attacks. Five battalions from North Africa arrived in Madagascar in late July 1947, allowing the French to take the initiative. Yet the strength of the French army remained modest. The number of soldiers rose from 18,000 in April 1947 to around 30,000 in 1948. The French troops now comprised paratroopers, soldiers from the Foreign Legion and Tirailleurs (colonial infantry ) brought to Madagascar from the French territories of the Comoros and Senegal .

The French strategy followed the oil spill method of Joseph Gallieni , the first governor of Madagascar, to uproot and demoralize the guerrillas . In addition, the French security forces employed a strategy of terror and psychological warfare that included torture , collective punishment, village burning , mass arrests, executions and rape . Many of these practices were later used by the French military, including during the Algerian War. The ferocity and cruelty of the French reaction was unprecedented in French colonial history. On May 6, 1947, soldiers armed with submachine guns killed between 124 and 160 mostly unarmed MDRM activists who had been held in a wagon. Hundreds of Malagasy people were killed in Mananjary , including 18 women and a group of prisoners who were thrown alive from an airplane ( death flight ). Further massacres of 35 to 50 people occurred in Farafangana , Manakara, and Mahanoro .

The Malagasy nationalists were mainly armed with spears and had little protection from the firearms of the French military. They had assumed that the United States would intervene in their favor, but no such action was launched by Washington. In addition, the majority of the population did not join the uprising. Between July and September 1948, most of the leaders of the uprising had been captured or killed. The last rebel stronghold, called Tsiazombazaha ( the one inaccessible to Europeans ), fell in November 1948. Most of the remaining defeated nationalist fighters disappeared into the eastern rainforest in December 1948.

Casualty numbers

The French government's first official estimate of the number of Malagasy people killed in the conflict was 89,000. In 1949, the High Commissioner of Madagascar added to that number the estimated number of those who were believed to have fled the rainforest to be dead, bringing the total to over 100,000. Many Malagasy people believe that this underestimates the number of people actually killed. The population of Madagascar at the time of the uprising was about four million and these estimated losses represent about two percent of the population. In 1950 the colonial government changed the number of victims to 11,342 "known deaths". According to French official data, 4,928 of these were killed in the riot, while the others starved to death or died of exhaustion after fleeing the fighting.

Historians continue to disagree on the number of victims during the Madagascar uprising. The original figure of 89,000 victims is often quoted. Historian Jean Fremigacci disputed this estimate, noting that losses of this magnitude should normally be reflected in the demographic curve. However, population growth in Madagascar had started again and even accelerated from 1946 to 1949. Fremigacci estimated the number of Malagasy victims at 30,000 to 40,000, of which 30,000 were violently killed and the rest died of disease and hunger in the conflict area. Fremigacci's interpretation has been contested by demographer Alfred Sauvy , who suggested that the decline in population growth normally seen in these casualties was masked by the improvement in malaria survival rates , which was offset by colonial anti-malaria carried out over the same period Campaign revealed. According to Fremigacci, there were war crimes in Madagascar in 1947 , but with no intention of extermination.

An estimated 550 French nationals died during the conflict, including 350 soldiers. In addition, an estimated 1900 Malagasy PADESM supporters were killed by their compatriots.

aftermath

Although the MDRM leadership repeatedly protested its innocence, the party was banned by the French colonial rulers. The French government locked up the documents of the military, the foreign ministry and the colonial ministry concerning the uprising.

The French media reported little about the uprising at the time. The left-wing Les Temps Modernes , which was later to be regarded as the leading anti-colonial medium after the French offensive in Indochina, also reported relatively little. Other private publications served as a forum for Francophone intellectuals to condemn the French government's response to the uprising. Most of the comments appeared in the Catholic monthly L'Esprit , but also in other left-wing magazines such as L'Humanité , Combat , Franc-tireur and Témoignage Chrétien . Albert Camus wrote a contribution published in Combat on May 10, 1947 , in which he strongly condemned the French colonial government. Outside France, very little was reported about the uprising and its suppression.

In the decades following independence, the French government and media remained largely silent on the subject. In 1997, a Malagasy official criticized the fact that a French diplomat was never present at the annual commemorations. The first official condemnation of the suppression of the uprising was expressed on July 21, 2005 when President Jacques Chirac met Madagascar President Marc Ravalomanana and described the suppression of the Madagascar uprising as "unacceptable". On the 65th anniversary of the 2012 uprising, Malagasy Prime Minister Omer Beriziky asked the French government to release the archival documents relating to the uprising, but the request was denied.

Trials and Executions

From July to October 1948, the French carried out a large public trial in Antananarivo to which 77 MDRM officials were invited. The French authorities accused the MDRM that the call to stay calm, published just before the violence erupted, was a diversion designed to cover up its involvement in organizing the rebellion. The French claimed that the uprising was started by an encrypted telegram from the MDRM. Deputies Ravoahangy and Rabemananjara were imprisoned on April 12, 1947, in violation of their right to diplomatic immunity, and Raseta (who was in Paris at the time of the uprising) two months later. On August 1, 1947, after a debate on the uprising, the French National Assembly decided to lift the immunity of the three MPs who were tortured in prison.

The trial, which was held from July 22nd to October 4th, 1948, was characterized by numerous irregularities. The main witness for the prosecution was shot dead three days before the trial began, and much of the testimony against the accused was obtained through torture. All three were found guilty of plotting against the state and endangering national security. Ravoahangy, Raseta and four other nationalists were sentenced to death , while Rabemananjara was sentenced to life imprisonment . In July 1949 the death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment. The three former MPs remained in prison until their amnesty in 1958. Few people, with the notable exception of Monja Jaona , the founder of Jiny, claimed responsibility for leading the uprising.

In addition to the parliamentarian trial , 5,756 Madagascans were convicted (865 by military courts and 4891 by civil courts). The military courts imposed 44 death sentences, eight of which were carried out, while 16 of the 129 death sentences passed by civil courts were carried out. Most of those detained were released in 1957 through amnesties and pardons.

National trauma

The uprising and its suppression caused trauma to the Malagasy people. Many Malagasy had fought against each other and then had difficulties to reconcile. This was further complicated by the fact that the politicians who declared Madagascar's independence in 1960 were previously key players in the PADESM party, which had been favored by the colonial authorities after the uprising was put down.

According to the historian Philippe Leymarie , the suppression of the uprising led to the almost complete annihilation of the leading class in Madagascar, with consequences well into the decades after independence. Many of the leaders of the uprising shaped the political and social landscape of Madagascar after independence. Monja Jaona , who had been imprisoned for nine years, founded the Mouvement national pour l'indépendance de Madagascar (MONIMA) party shortly after his release in 1958 . The party played a key role in the Rotaka protests against President Philibert Tsiranana , which led to the overthrow of his neo-colonial government. After initially supporting Tsirana's successor Didier Ratsiraka , Jaona led demonstrations against Ratsiraka and in favor of federalism in 1992. His son Monja Roindefo is also a member of MONIMA and was Prime Minister under Andry Rajoelina .

Commemoration

The Malagasy government has organized an annual official commemoration for the uprising since 1967. That year, President Tsiranana declared March 29 a day of mourning for the first time. Today it is known as Martyrs Day. The annual commemorations under the Tsiranana administration brought together perpetrators of war crimes, their surviving victims, former nationalist guerrillas and family members of those killed, and labeled the uprising a tragic mistake. In the late 1970s, commemorations under the Ratsiraka government increased pride and gratitude for the nationalist fighters who sacrificed themselves for their ideals and paved the way for future nationalist leaders. In 2012, President Andry Rajoelina opened a museum dedicated to the uprising in Moramanga. The city 100 kilometers east of Antananarivo has long been the site of the national monument to the conflict as well as a mausoleum at the entrance to the town, which contains the bones of an estimated 2500 local nationalists killed in the conflict.

The Madagascar uprising has been processed in books and films. The film Tabataba (1988) by director Raymond Rajaonarivelo tells the experience of the uprising from the perspective of a young person and won awards at the Cannes Film Festival and the Carthage Festival. The term tabataba means “noise” or “trouble” in Malagasy and is a common euphemism for insurrection. The film Ilo Tsy Very by director Solo Randrasana also describes the uprising and was remade in 2011 to make references to the political crisis in Madagascar in 2009 . In 1994, the French Danièle Rousselier and Corinne Godeau produced a documentary on the uprising entitled L'Insurrection de l'île rouge, Madagascar 1947 .

literature

  • Anthony Clayton: The Wars of French Decolonization . 1994, p. 79-87 .
  • Antoine Masson, Kevin O'Connor: Representations of Justice . Ed .: Peter Lang. Brussels 2007, ISBN 978-90-5201-349-7 ( google.com ).
  • Roland Oliver, John Donnelly Fage, GN Sanderson: The Cambridge History of Africa . 6th edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom 1985, ISBN 978-0-521-22803-9 ( google.com ).
  • Tramor Quemeneur: 100 fiches d'histoire du XXe siècle . Editions Bréal, Paris 2004, ISBN 978-2-7495-0341-7 ( google.com ).
  • Jacques Tronchon: L'insurrection malgache de 1947: essai d'interprétation historique . Karthala Editions, Paris 1986, ISBN 978-2-86537-156-3 ( google.com ).

Web links

Commons : Madagascar Uprising  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Revolt in Madagascar 1947–1948. In: onwar.com. Retrieved April 29, 2017 (English).
  2. ^ Roland Oliver, John Donnelly Fage, GN Sanderson: The Cambridge History of Africa . 6th edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom 1985, ISBN 978-0-521-22803-9 , pp. 532 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Monique Mas: Pour Chirac, la répression de 1947 était “inacceptable”. In: rfi.fr. Radio France Internationale , July 22, 2015, accessed March 18, 2017 (French).
  4. ^ A b Antoine Masson, Kevin O'Connor: Representations of Justice . Ed .: Peter Lang. Brussels 2007, ISBN 978-90-5201-349-7 , pp. 64 .
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Philippe Leymarie: Deafening silence on a horrifying repression. In: mondediplo.com. Le Monde diplomatique , March 1997, accessed March 18, 2017 .
  6. ↑ a b c d Tramor Quemeneur: 100 fiches d'histoire du XXe siècle . Editions Bréal, Paris 2004, ISBN 978-2-7495-0341-7 , pp. 206 .
  7. ^ A b c d Antoine Masson, Kevin O'Connor: Representations of Justice . Ed .: Peter Lang. Brussels 2007, ISBN 978-90-5201-349-7 , pp. 65 .
  8. ↑ a b c d Philippe Leymarie: Painful memories of the revolt of 1947: Nationalism or survival? In: hartford-hwp.com. Retrieved March 18, 2017 (English).
  9. ↑ a b c d e Tramor Quemeneur: 100 fiches d'histoire du XXe siècle . Editions Bréal, Paris 2004, ISBN 978-2-7495-0341-7 , pp. 207 .
  10. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Jean Fremigacci: La vérité sur la grande révolte de Madagascar . In: L'Histoire . No. 318 , March 2007.
  11. ↑ a b c Madagascar se souvient de l'insurrection de 1947 et des massacres du corps expéditionnaire français. In: lemonde.fr. Le Monde , February 28, 1989, archived from the original on May 1, 2016 ; Retrieved March 18, 2017 (French).
  12. ^ A b John Gunther: Inside Africa . Harper & Brothers, 1955, pp. 588 .
  13. ↑ a b c d Philippe Randrianarimanana: Massacre de 1947: les Malgaches toujours divisés. In: slateafrique.com. Slate , March 30, 2011, accessed March 18, 2017 (French).
  14. ↑ AFP : SADC “rejects, condemns” new Madagascar govt. In: google.com. September 8, 2009, archived from the original on March 2, 2014 ; accessed on March 18, 2017 (English).
  15. ^ Public Holidays. In: madagascar-embassy.ca. Malagasy Embassy in Canada, archived from the original on March 28, 2014 ; accessed on March 18, 2017 (English).