People and Culture - Madagascar - page 75

for their tombs, which are graves dug into the ground surrounded by wooden palisades, the
main posts of which are crowned by erotic wooden carved figures.
ZAFIMANIRY A clan of some 15,000 people distributed in about 100 villages in the
forests between the Betsileo and Tanala areas southeast of Ambositra. They are known for
their woodcarvings and sculpture, and are descended from people from the hauts plateaux
who established themselves there early in the 19th century. The Zafimaniry are thus inter-
esting to historians as they continue the forms of housing and decoration of past centur-
ies. Their houses, which are made from vegetable fibres and wood with bamboo walls and
roofs, have no nails and can be taken down and moved from one village to another.
LANGUAGE
The Indonesian origin of the Malagasy people shows strongly in their language which
is spoken, with regional variations of dialect, throughout the island. (Words for domestic
animals, however, are derived from Kiswahili, indicating that the early settlers, sensibly
enough, did not bring animals with them in their outrigger canoes.) Malagasy is a remark-
ably rich language, full of images, metaphors and proverbs. Literal translations of Mala-
gasy words and phrases are often very poetic. 'Dusk' is maizim-bava vilany , 'darken the
mouth of the cooking pot'; the very early hours of the morning are referred to as misafo
helika ny kary , 'when the wild cat washes itself'. The richness of the language means that
there are few English words that can be translated into a single word in Malagasy, and vice
versa. An example given by Leonard Fox in his book on the poetry of Madagascar, Hain-
teny , is miala mandry . Miala means 'go out/go away' and mandry means 'lie down/go to
sleep'. Together,however,theymean 'tospendthenightaway fromhome,andyetbeback
in the early morning as if never having been away'!
Learning, or even using, the Malagasy language may seem a challenging prospect to the
first-time visitor. Place names may be very long (because they usually have a literal mean-
ing,suchasRanomafana:'hotwater'),withseeminglyerraticsyllablestress.However,asa
courtesy to the Malagasy people you should learn a few Malagasy words. There is a Mala-
gasy vocabulary on Click Here and a recommended phrase book in Appendix 3 .