The West - Madagascar - page 620

foreigners over the young king, and disgust at the often rash changes he instigated,
boiled over in 1863, and only eight months after his coronation he was assassinated
- strangled with a silken sash so that the fady against shedding royal blood was not
infringed.
The French-British rivalry was fuelled by the violent death of the king, even to
the extent that Ellis was accused of being party to the assassination. But was Radama
really dead? Both Ellis and Jean Laborde believed that he had survived the strangling
and had been allowed to escape by the courtiers bearing him to the countryside for
burial. Uprisings, supposedly organised by the 'dead' king, supported this rumour. In
a biography of King Radama II, the French historian Raymond Delval makes a strong
case that the ex-monarch eventually retreated to the area of Lake Kinkony and lived
out the rest of his life in this Sakalava region.
MAHAJANGA (MAJUNGA)
HISTORY IdeallylocatedfortradewithEastAfrica,ArabiaandwesternAsia,Mahajanga
hasbeenamajorcommercialportsince1745,whentheBoinacapitalwasmovedherefrom
Marovoay. One ruler of the Boina was Queen Ravahiny, a very able monarch who main-
tained the unity of the Boina which was threatened by rebellions in both the north and the
south. It was Mahajanga which provided her with her imported riches and caught the ad-
miration of visiting foreigners. Madagascar was at that time a major supplier of slaves to
Arab traders and in return received jewels and rich fabrics. Indian merchants were active
then, as today, with a variety of exotic goods. Some of these traders from the east stayed
on, the Indians remaining a separate community and running small businesses. More Indi-
ans arrived during colonial times.
During the 1883-85 war, Mahajanga served as the base for the military expedition to
AntananarivowhichconsolidatedtheFrenchProtectorate. ShortlythereaftertheFrenchset
about enlarging Mahajanga and reclaiming swampland from the Bombetoka River delta.
Much of today's extensive town is on reclaimed land.
In World War II Mahajanga was seized from the Vichy French by British forces (see
boxes on Click Here and below).
MAHAJANGA TODAY Mahajanga is a hot but breezy town with a large Indian popula-
tion.Theprovinceisslowlyopeninguptoecotourism,witheasilyaccessiblehotspotssuch
as Ankarafantsika National Park and the fly-in resorts contrasting with the barely access-
ible region to the southwest.