Madagascar

MADAGASCAR. - It is the only large island of the African continent (with its 585,000 sq km of surface area it is the fourth on Earth), from which it is separated by the Mozambique Channel (400 km). It consists of an elevated (from 800 to 2000 m) central plateau of ancient lands, surmounted by volcanic peaks (Ankaratra: 2607 m), which, while descending steeply on the eastern coast, slopes down in terraces on the opposite side, where broad alluvial plains fringe it. The climate is hot, very humid on the Indian side beaten by the SE trade winds, arid on the African side; the extremes are tempered instead by altitude in the interior regions. The luxuriant tropical forests that cloak the former are replaced, in the latter, by steppes and savannas. The territories best suited to whites correspond to the plateau, which moreover occupies 3/4 of the island.

The inhabitants (4.3 million), in great majority of Malay origin (25,000 French, 15,000 foreigners) are devoted to agriculture and livestock raising. Rice and cassava are the prevailing crops; vanilla, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, bananas, cotton, etc. are also produced. Cattle (6 million head) feed the canned meat industry. The forest patrimony is substantial; and mineral resources are present, without doubt, anything but negligible (besides coal, iron, copper, lead, nickel, asbestos, phosphates; also mica and gold, which are mined); but only graphite gives rise to an appreciable extractive activity. The island could produce much more, if it were better cared for (barely 885 km of railways and, in substance, a single port, Tamatave). The capital Tananarive (163,000 inhabitants, of whom 20,000 Europeans) rises on the plateau at 1300 m. Since 1946 M. has been an overseas Territory of the French Republic, with an elective assembly.

Giuseppe Caraci

EVANGELIZATION

In the 16th century, and precisely in 1540 and 1585, the Dominicans attempted a mission in Madagascar, which soon ended with the killing of the missionaries. Even the attempts made by the Jesuits from 1613 to 1630 were not successful, although Andrea Ramaka, son of an indigenous chief, had been baptized in Goa. Only with the founding of the French colony and fortress of Fort-Dauphin in the south of the island, in 1642, could a regular missionary activity be begun. After the arrival of a secular priest in 1643, the Lazarists reached there in 1648. Despite great sacrifices (20 priests and 10 brothers fell victim to the deadly climate and the savage natives) the fruits were very scanty. In 1674, with the end of the French colony, the mission came to an end. Even the other two attempts of the Lazarists in the 18th century, namely in 1724 and 1784, came to nothing.

From 1820 the Protestants worked fruitfully in Madagascar, while the island remained closed to Catholics. In 1829 the secular priest Enrico Solages was appointed apostolic prefect of the Islands of the South Sea, or Great Ocean, including the islands of Réunion and Madagascar; he died in 1832 while traveling toward Tananarive. The successor Delmond, of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, succeeded in erecting the mission on the islets of St. Mary to the east of Madagascar and on the islands of Nossibé and Mayotta to the west, which were erected into an apostolic prefecture in 1848. In that same year Madagascar was erected into an apostolic vicariate and in 1850 assigned to the Jesuits, who, after a brief attempt in 1856, finally succeeded in 1861 in founding a stable mission at Tananarive among the Hovas. The mission soon made great progress, despite the positions already conquered by the Protestants, to whom Queen Ranavolana II herself had adhered. In 1871 the Jesuits succeeded in extending the missionary work among the Betsileos at Fianarantsoa. During the wars between the Hovas and the French in 1885 and 1895 the missionaries had for a short time to leave the island. The occupation by the French (protectorate in 1885, colony formed in 1896) had at first favorable results for the missions. In 1896 and 1898 Madagascar was divided into 3 apostolic vicariates: central Madagascar, with the principal missions of the provinces of Imerina and Betsileo, which remained with the Jesuits; northern Madagascar, with the Comoro Islands, which was assigned to the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit; southern Madagascar, which was entrusted to the Lazarists. The Jesuits organized in their vicariate especially the schools and instruction on a broad basis, but the sectarianism of the colonial government with the legislation of 1905 largely destroyed their work. Nevertheless the mission, principally in the central provinces, achieved great progress among the Hovas and the Betsileos; the other tribes, on the other hand, offered a greater resistance to evangelization. Later new missionary institutes arrived: in 1899 the Fathers of La Salette, in 1920 the Premonstratensians, in 1926 the Trinitarians, in 1932 the Capuchins, in 1933 the Montfortians. In 1939 Madagascar had its first indigenous bishop in the person of His Excellency Msgr. Ignazio Ramarosandratana, apostolic vicar of Mianarivo.

At present the island is divided into 9 apostolic vicariates and 3 apostolic prefectures: Tananarive (1643 apostolic prefecture of Madagascar, 1848 apostolic vicariate of Madagascar, 1896 apostolic vicariate of northern Madagascar, 1898 apostolic vicariate of central Madagascar, 1913 apostolic vicariate of Tananarive) entrusted to the Jesuits; Fianarantsoa (1913 apostolic vicariate), entrusted to the Jesuits; Diego Suárez (1898 apostolic vicariate of Northern M., 1913 under the name of Diego Suárez) and Majunga (erected in 1923), entrusted to the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit; Fort Dauphin (1896 apostolic vicariate of Southern M., 1913 under the name of Fort Dauphin), entrusted to the Lazarists; Antsirabé (erected in 1913 as apostolic prefecture of Betafo, 1918 apostolic vicariate, 1923 under the name of Antsirabé) and Morondova (1938 apostolic prefecture), entrusted to the Missionaries of La Salette; Ambanja (1848 apostolic prefecture of the Islands of St. Mary, Nossi-Bé and Mayotte; in 1858 the Comoro Islands were annexed, the Island of St. Mary passed to the apostolic vicariate of Diego Suárez; in 1932 a territory on the Island of M. was annexed; in 1938 under the name of Ambanja, in 1951 apostolic vicariate, from 1932 entrusted to the Capuchins; Tamatave (1935 apostolic prefecture of Vatomandri, 1939 apostolic vicariate of Tamatave), entrusted to the Montfortians; Miarinarivo (erected in 1933 as missio sui iuris and entrusted to the Trinitarians, in 1939 apostolic vicariate entrusted to a bishop and indigenous clergy); Tsiroanomandidy (1949 apostolic prefecture), entrusted to the Trinitarians.

Giovanni Rommerskirchen