People and Culture - Madagascar - page 56

A recent reprint of a 1957 book (in French) - Le Tsiny et le Tody - is easily found in
Tana's bookshops.
After death Burial, exhumation and second burial are the focus of Malagasy beliefs and
culture. To the Malagasy, death is the most important part of life, when a person abandons
his mortal form to become a much more powerful and significant ancestor. Since a tomb is
for ever whilst a house is only a temporary dwelling, it follows that tombs should be more
solidly constructed than houses.
Burial practices differ among the various tribes but all over Madagascar a ritual known
as sasa ispractisedimmediatelyafteradeath.Thefamilyofthedeceasedgotoafast-flow-
ing river and wash all their clothes to remove the contamination of death.
Funeral practices vary from clan to clan. The Antankarana (in the north) and Antandroy
(south) have 'happy' funerals during which they may run, with the coffin, into the sea.
An unusual ritual, tranondonaky , is practised by the Antaisaka of the southeast. Here the
corpse is first taken to a special house where, after a signal, the women all start crying.
Abruptly,afterasecondsignal,theydance.Whilethisishappeningthemenaregatheredin
the hut of the local chief from where, one by one, they go to the house where the corpse is
lying and attach money to it with a special oil. The children dance through the night, to the
beat of drums, and in the morning the adults wrap the corpse in a shroud and take it to the
kibory . These tombs are concealed in a patch of forest known as ala fady which only men
may enter, and where they deliver their last messages to the deceased. These messages can
besurprisinglyfierce:'Youarenowatyourplacesodon'tdisturbusanymore'or'Youare
now with the children of the dead, but we are the children of the living.'
FAMADIHANA DIARY
Seraphine Tierney Ramanantsoa
I travelled across the seas to be here today. This day was long awaited; I would soon
be in contact with my mother again. She had died seven years previously and I had
not been able to be at her funeral. Tradition had always been so important to her so I
knew she would be happy that I have come for her famadihana .
The meeting point is at 06.00 outside Cinema Soa in Antananarivo. My household
woke up at 04.00 to pack the food that had been prepared during the previous week.
Drinks and cutlery are all piled into the car. A great number of people are expected as
it is also the famadihana of the other members of my mother's family.
Fourteen cars and a big taxi-brousse carrying in all about 50 people, squashed one
on top of the other, turn up. Everybody is excited. It is really great to see faces I
haven't seen since my childhood. Everybody greets each other and exchanges news.