The Most Famous
POLITICIANS from Madagascar
This page contains a list of the greatest Malagasy Politicians. The pantheon dataset contains 19,576 Politicians, 27 of which were born in Madagascar. This makes Madagascar the birth place of the 88th most number of Politicians behind Ethiopia, and Armenia.
Top 10
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Malagasy Politicians of all time. This list of famous Malagasy Politicians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Malagasy Politicians.
1. Ranavalona III (1861 - 1917)
With an HPI of 62.78, Ranavalona III is the most famous Malagasy Politician. Her biography has been translated into 40 different languages on wikipedia.
Ranavalona III (Malagasy pronunciation: [ranaˈvalːə̥]; 22 November 1861 – 23 May 1917) was the last sovereign of the Kingdom of Madagascar. She ruled from 30 July 1883 to 28 February 1897 in a reign marked by ultimately futile efforts to resist the colonial designs of the government of France. As a young woman, she was selected from among several Andriana qualified to succeed Queen Ranavalona II upon her death. Like both preceding queens, Ranavalona entered a political marriage with a member of the Hova elite named Rainilaiarivony, who largely oversaw the day-to-day governance of the kingdom and managed its foreign affairs in his role as prime minister. Ranavalona tried to stave off colonization by strengthening trade and diplomatic relations with foreign powers throughout her reign, but French attacks on coastal port towns and an assault on the capital city of Antananarivo led to the capture of the royal palace in 1895, ending the sovereignty and political autonomy of the centuries-old kingdom. Ranavalona and her court were initially permitted to remain as symbolic figureheads, but the outbreak of a popular resistance movement called the menalamba rebellion, and the discovery of anti-French political intrigues at court led the French to exile her to the island of Réunion in 1897. Rainilaiarivony died that same year, and Ranavalona was relocated to a villa in Algiers, along with several members of her family. The queen, her family, and the servants accompanying her were provided an allowance and enjoyed a comfortable standard of living, including occasional trips to Paris for shopping and sightseeing. Ranavalona was never permitted to return home to Madagascar, however, despite her repeated requests. She died of an embolism at her villa in Algiers in 1917 at age 55. Her remains were buried in Algiers but were disinterred 21 years later and shipped to Madagascar, where they were placed within the tomb of Queen Rasoherina on the grounds of the Rova of Antananarivo. Ranavalona III, daughter of Andriantsimianatra and his wife and cousin, Princess Raketaka was born Princess Razafindrahety on 22 November 1861, at Amparibe, a rural village in the district of Manjakazafy outside Antananarivo. Razafindrahety's lineage, as niece to Queen Ranavalona II and great-granddaughter of King Andrianampoinimerina, qualified her to potentially inherit the throne of the Kingdom of Madagascar. Her parents assigned the care of the infant Razafindrahety to a slave who served the family. When she was old enough to attend school, Razafindrahety was taken into the custody of her aunt, Queen Ranavalona II, who ensured she began receiving a private education from a London Missionary Society (LMS) teacher. She was described as an industrious and inquisitive child with a strong love of studying the Bible, learning and reading, and she developed affectionate relationships with her teachers. She continued her education throughout her adolescence at the Congregational School of Ambatonakanga, the Friends High School for Girls, and the LMS Girls' Central School. She was baptized as a Protestant at Ambohimanga on 5 April 1874. Her teachers consistently described her as ranking among their strongest students. As a young woman, Razafindrahety married an Andriana (nobleman) named Ratrimo (Ratrimoarivony). Her husband died several years later on 8 May 1883, aged 22, leaving Razafindrahety a premature widow. According to rumor, Prime Minister Rainilaiarivony may have arranged to have Ratrimo poisoned for political reasons. The Aristocratic Revolution of 1863, which had been orchestrated by Rainilaiarivony's older brother, Prime Minister Rainivoninahitriniony, had replaced the absolute rule of the Andriana with a constitutional monarchy in which power was shared between an Andriana monarch and a Hova (freeman) prime minister. This arrangement was to be cemented by a political marriage between the prime minister and a ruling queen effectively selected by him. As Queen Ranavalona II neared death and the search for her successor began, Rainilaiarivony may have had Ratrimo deliberately poisoned so that Razafindrahety, the most eligible successor, would be free to marry the prime minister and succeed to the throne. Ranavalona III was proclaimed queen upon the death of her predecessor, Queen Ranavalona II, on 13 July 1883, and moved into Tsarahafatra, a wooden house on the grounds of the royal Rova complex in Antananarivo. Her coronation took place in the Mahamasina neighborhood of Antananarivo on 22 November 1883, her 22nd birthday, where she was given the title "Her Majesty Ranavalona III by the grace of God and the will of the people, Queen of Madagascar, and Protectoress of the laws of the Nation". She chose to break with tradition by supplementing the customary retinue of soldiers at her ceremony with a group of 500 male and 400 female pupils from the capital's best schools. The girls were dressed in white while the boys wore soldiers' uniforms and performed traditional military drills with spears. Ranavalona was crowned wearing a white silk gown with a red train featuring embroidery and gold embellishments. The queen was described in the American press in the following terms: "She is a little above the ordinary height and has delicate features, her complexion is a little darker than that of most of her subjects. She appears quite timid and she presides well at the solemn functions of her court." The British Museum holds a Ranavalona III ten centime coin struck in 1883. Like her two predecessors, Ranavalona concluded a political marriage with Prime Minister Rainilaiarivony. The young queen's role was largely ceremonial as nearly all important political decisions continued to be made by the much older and more experienced prime minister. Ranavalona was frequently called upon to deliver formal speeches (kabary) to the public on behalf of Rainilaiarivony and would make appearances to inaugurate new public buildings, such as a hospital at Isoavinandriana and a girls' school at Ambodin'Andohalo. Throughout her reign, Ranavalona's aunt, Ramisindrazana, acted as an adviser and exercised considerable influence at court. Ranavalona's older sister, Rasendranoro, whose son Rakatomena and daughter Razafinandriamanitra lived with their mother at the Rova, was also a close companion. An American journalist who visited her palace reported that Ranavalona spent much of her leisure time flying kites or playing lotto, a parlor game, with her relatives and other ladies at court. She also enjoyed knitting, needlework and crocheting and would frequently bring her latest craft project to work on at cabinet meetings. She had a great love of fine garments and was the only Malagasy sovereign to import the majority of her clothing from Paris rather than London. She invited to Madagascar French stage magician Marius Cazeneuve to perform at her court. Reportedly, the queen and Cazeneuve developed a romantic relationship, and the magician was also working for the French intelligence, promoting French influence at court. As sovereign of Madagascar, Ranavalona III became involved in the endgame of the maneuvering that had been taking place between the British and French since the beginning of the 19th century. The tension between France and Madagascar had grown especially acute in the three years prior to Ranavalona's succession, with an intensification of attacks in the months prior to her coronation. In February 1883 the northwestern coast was bombarded, followed by the occupation of Mahajanga by the French in May, and bombardment and capture of Toamasina in June. Attacks along the northern coast were ongoing at the time Ranavalona III was crowned in the summer of 1883. Shortly after the French initiated this latest round of hostilities, Prime Minister Rainilaiarivony decided to engage Digby Willoughby, a Briton who had gained combat experience in the Anglo-Zulu War as a member of the Natal Mounted Police, to oversee the nation's military affairs and train the queen's army to defend the island against the seemingly inevitable French invasion. Throughout this period Madagascar continued to engage the French in negotiations, but these were to prove unsuccessful with both sides unwilling to capitulate on key points of contention. After two years of stalemate, a column brought an ultimatum to Antananarivo in December 1885, asking for the acceptance of French claims in northeastern Madagascar, a French protectorate over the Sakalava, recognition of French property principles and an indemnity of 1,500,000 francs. This peace treaty was ratified by Ranavalona and Rainilaiarivony in January 1886 and French government representatives two months later. Prior to ratification, the queen and her prime minister sought clarification about several articles in the main treaty that stated "foreign relations" would be controlled by a French resident and referenced "establishments" at Diego-Suarez Bay. Two key French negotiators, Minister Patrimonio and Admiral Miot, provided an explanation affixed to the treaty as an annex, which led the rulers of Madagascar to deem the treaty an adequate enough safeguard of their nation's sovereignty to warrant their approval and signature. However, the official treaty was published in Paris without the annex or any reference to it. When the annex was later published in London, the French denied it had any legal validity. France declared a protectorate over the island despite the opposition of the Malagasy government and the omission of this term from the treaty. The international reaction to this latest turn of events was varied and greatly colored by national interests. The British were unwilling to defend Madagascar's sovereignty for fear that the French might retaliate and fail to recognize Britain's claim to certain protectorates of its own. All official British engagement with Madagascar was henceforth transacted through the French resident, but these communiques were not officially recognized by Ranavalona and her court. The United States and Germany, on the other hand, continued to deal directly with the queen's government as the rightful authority in Madagascar. This discrepancy forced a reinterpretation of one aspect of the treaty, resulting in the queen's authority over internal affairs being maintained. In 1886, the queen attempted to solicit the support of the United States in preserving Madagascar's sovereignty by sending gifts to then-President Grover Cleveland, including silk akotofahana cloths, an ivory pin and a woven basket. However, the United States was neither able nor willing to assert itself militarily or diplomatically in favor of preserving Madagascar's independence. Ranavalona signed a treaty granting further concessions to the French on 12 December 1887. France's claim to Madagascar as its protectorate was officially recognized by Britain in the Anglo-French agreement of 1890. Between 1890 and 1894, the French sought to aggressively claim what they believed to be the territorial rights established by the treaty. However, these French land claims and settlements were perceived by Ranavalona and Rainilaiarivony as an unjustifiable encroachment upon Malagasy sovereignty. Ultimately Charles Le Myre de Vilers was sent to persuade the queen and her prime minister to submit to the French interpretation of the treaty with the intent to launch a war and take the island by force if an agreement was not reached. The French offer was flatly refused and diplomatic relations between France and Madagascar were broken off in November 1894. Upon terminating diplomatic relations, the French bombarded and occupied the harbor of Toamasina on the east coast in December 1894, then captured Mahajanga on the west coast the following month and immediately began their gradual advance, constructing roads through the malarial swamps that hindered passage to the island's interior. The main expeditionary troops arrived in May. Over 6,000 of the original 15,000 French soldiers lost their lives to disease as they gradually moved inland, necessitating several thousand reinforcements drawn from French colonies in Algeria and Sub-Saharan Africa. The column reached the capital in September 1895. For three days the Malagasy army managed to hold the French troops at the periphery of the city, but upon French bombardment of the Rova palace compound with heavy artillery, Ranavalona agreed to surrender control of her kingdom to the French. France officially annexed Madagascar on 1 January 1896. That August, the French officially declared Madagascar to be their colony and exiled Prime Minister Rainilaiarivony to Algiers (in French Algeria) where he died the following year. The queen and much of her administration remained but were afforded no real political power. Shortly after Rainilaiarivony's exile, Ranavalona was approached by a French official who informed her that a new prime minister would need to be selected. The queen hastily concluded that General Jacques Duchesne, the French general who had successfully led the military campaign against the Merina monarchy, would be a probable choice. Assuming that Malagasy political tradition would be preserved, Ranavalona believed she would be forced to marry whichever man was chosen for the job and worriedly asked if Duchesne was to be her next husband. Surprised, the French official reassured her that France had no intention of imposing a husband on the queen and would never again require her to marry a prime minister. The queen's minister of foreign affairs, Rainitsimbazafy, was nominated to the post of prime minister by mutual consent. In December 1895, two months after the French capture of Antananarivo, popular resistance to French rule emerged in the form of the menalamba ("red shawl") rebellion. This guerrilla war against foreigners, Christianity and political corruption quickly spread throughout the island and was principally conducted by peasants who wore shawls smeared with the red laterite soil of the highlands. The resistance movement gained ground until it was effectively put down by the French military at the end of 1897. Members of Ranavalona's court were accused of encouraging the rebels and many leading figures were executed, including the queen's uncle Ratsimamanga (brother of her favored adviser, Ramisindrazana) and her minister of war, Rainandriamampandry. Ramisindrazana, the queen's aunt, was exiled to Réunion, as the French were reluctant to execute a woman. The resistance led the government of France to replace the island's civil governor, Hippolyte Laroche, with a military governor, Joseph Gallieni. The day before Gallieni arrived in Antananarivo, he had a message sent to the queen requiring her to present herself and her entourage at the military headquarters, preceded by a standard bearer carrying a French flag. The queen was obliged to sign documents handing over all royal property to France before being placed under arrest and imprisoned in her own palace. She was only allowed to receive visitors who had obtained prior authorization from Gallieni himself. While imprisoned, Ranavalona offered to convert to Roman Catholicism in an attempt to curry French favor but was informed that such a gesture was no longer necessary. Gallieni exiled Ranavalona from Madagascar on 27 February 1897, and officially abolished the monarchy the next day. French officials ordered the queen to leave her palace at 1:30 in the morning. She was carried from Antananarivo by palanquin as the city slept, accompanied by 700–800 escorts and porters. Throughout the days spent traveling to the eastern port of Toamasina where she would board a ship to Réunion, Ranavalona reportedly drank heavily. At Toamasina on 6 March, Ranavalona was notified that her sister Rasendranoro and aunt Ramasindrazana would be arriving shortly, as would the queen's fourteen-year-old niece, Razafinandriamanitra, who was nine months pregnant with the illegitimate child of a French soldier. Together, the family sailed on La Peyrouse to the port of Pointe des Galets, a site twenty kilometers (12.5 miles) from the capital of St. Denis, to secure a discreet arrival. Despite this effort, a crowd of French onlookers jeered and shouted as the boat docked, angry at the queen for the loss of French lives incurred during France's campaign to occupy Madagascar. After waiting for the crowd to disperse, the captain escorted the queen and her party into a horse-drawn buggy, the first Ranavalona had ever seen, and drove to the Hotel de l'Europe in St. Denis. Young Razafinandriamanitra, suffering from the emotional and physical strains of the journey into exile, went into labor shortly after reaching the hotel. She gave birth to a girl on her second day in Réunion, but could not recover her strength and died five days later. The infant was named Marie-Louise and was baptised a Catholic to avoid antagonizing the French. Marie-Louise, who could have become heir-apparent according to the traditional rules of succession, was adopted by Ranavalona as her own daughter. Within a month the party had been moved to a house owned by a Madame de Villentroy, located at the corner of rue de l'Arsenal and rue du Rempart near the French government offices in St. Denis. Ranavalona was reportedly pleased with the two-story house, which had a large walled garden and featured a peaked roof and wrap-around veranda reminiscent of the traditional highland homes of Madagascar. In addition to the queen and her aunt, sister, and grand-niece, the royal household included two secretaries, a cook, a maid, three servants for Ranavalona, and several more servants for her aunt and sister. The queen's private pastor was authorized to make visits freely to the royal household. The queen's party occupied the house in Réunion for just under two years. As tensions between the United Kingdom and France began to mount once again, this time over the conflict in Sudan, the French authorities became concerned that elements of the population in Madagascar might seize the opportunity to launch a new rebellion against French rule. The queen's proximity to Madagascar was seen as a possible source of encouragement for would-be Malagasy rebels. French authorities made an abrupt decision to remove Ranavalona and her party to Algeria, a more distant location. On 1 February 1899, with very little forewarning, Ranavalona and her family were ordered aboard the Yang-Tse accompanied by a secretary-interpreter and several maids. During the 28-day journey to the French port of Marseilles, the passengers stopped over at such ports as Mayotte, Zanzibar, Aden and Djibouti. Throughout the trip, the various captains responsible for the journey were under orders to prevent Ranavalona from speaking with anyone who was not French. The party was held for several months at Marseilles before being transferred to a villa in the Mustapha Superieur area in Algiers. Ranavalona had hoped to continue on to Paris and was greatly disappointed to learn she was instead being sent to Algeria, reportedly bursting into tears and remarking, "Who is certain of tomorrow? Only yesterday I was a queen; today I am simply an unhappy, broken-hearted woman." At the queen's villa in Algiers, Ranavalona was provided with servants and a French female attendant who kept her under observation and remained present whenever the queen entertained guests in her home. In addition, the government of France initially provided Ranavalona with an annual allowance of 25,000 francs paid from the budget for the colony of Madagascar and authorized by the colony's Governor General. Nearly all the queen's property had been seized by the colonial authorities, although she had been permitted to keep certain personal belongings, including some of her jewelry. Her initial pension allowed such a humble lifestyle that the colonial government of Algeria lobbied unsuccessfully several times on her behalf to obtain an increase for her. Ranavalona also tasked a servant with selling some of her jewelry for cash, but the plan was discovered by the French colonial authorities and the servant was discharged and sent back to Madagascar. During the first years of her exile in Algeria, Ranavalona soon discovered the excitement of the socialite lifestyle among the elite of Algiers. She was regularly invited to parties, outings and cultural events and often hosted events of her own. However, homesickness was ever-present and the impossibility of visiting Madagascar contributed to melancholy and boredom. She would frequently take long walks alone in the countryside, along the beach, or through the town to clear her mind and lift her spirits. The queen was eager to see mainland France and especially Paris and repeatedly submitted formal requests for permission to travel. These were routinely denied until May 1901 when Ranavalona received the first of many authorizations to visit France. That very month, the queen moved into a small apartment in the 16th arrondissement of Paris near the Avenue Champs-Élysées and what is now the Place Charles de Gaulle, from which she visited the major sights of the city and was invited to numerous receptions, balls, shows and other events. She was widely received by high society with courtesy and admiration and was offered many gifts including a costly gown. During this first trip, Ranavalona visited the Palace of Versailles, was formally received at the Paris City Hall, and spent three weeks on vacation in Bordeaux. Finally, Ranavalona visited the beaches of Arcachon before exhausting her budget and boarding an Algeria-bound ship at Marseilles in early August. The details of her visit attracted much attention from the Parisian press, which expressed sympathy for the queen's fate and recrimination toward the French government for failing to provide a larger pension or accord her the consideration she deserved as a recipient of the Legion of Honor. Ranavalona would return to France six more times over the course of the next twelve years. Her frequent visits and excellent reputation made her the cause célèbre of many French citizens who pitied the queen's fate and admired her gracious acceptance of her new life. Ranavalona's visits were generally accompanied by much media fanfare and the queen's popularity among the French public grew to the extent that she was featured on the box of Petit Beurre biscuits in 1916. The queen's second visit to France occurred in September 1903, when she visited Vic-sur-Cère and Aurillac. Pressure by citizens during this visit succeeded in raising her pension to 37,000 francs. Two years later she would visit Marseilles and Saint-Germain and inhabit a large five-bedroom Parisian apartment in the sixteenth arrondissement from which she would attend the Paris Opera, observe a session of the French House of Representatives and be formally received at the Ministry of the Colonies. Again due to pressure from sympathetic French citizens, Ranavalona's pension was further raised to 50,000 francs per annum. On her next visit in 1907, the queen would use Dives-sur-Mer as a home base to visit the Calvados region, where she was photographed for the French press. From August to September 1910, Ranavalona would visit Paris, Nantes, La Baule and Saint-Nazaire and was repeatedly the target of undesired attention from press photographers. Her 1912 trip to the tiny, remote village of Quiberville would coincide with the increase of her annual pension to 75,000 francs. The queen's final voyage in 1913 would take her to Marseilles, Aix-les-Bains and Allevard. The outbreak of World War I in 1914 put an end to Ranavalona's visits to France. Throughout her time in Algeria, she and her family regularly attended the weekly Protestant service at the Reformed Church building in central Algiers. After the war began she sought to contribute by vigorously participating in the activities of the Algerian Red Cross. Ranavalona died without ever having returned to Madagascar, after two formal requests in 1910 and 1912 were refused on the pretext of insufficient funds in the colonial coffers. The exiled queen died suddenly at her villa in Algeria on 23 May 1917, the victim of a severe embolism. Ranavalona was buried at the Saint-Eugene cemetery in Algiers at 10:00 a.m. on 25 May. Her funeral was attended by dozens of personal friends, admirers, Red Cross colleagues, members of her church congregation and prominent figures of the political and cultural elite of Algiers. By nine in the morning, a long line of cars had already formed at the entrance to the memorial site. This effusive display of respect and remembrance on the part of Ranavalona's friends was not mirrored by subsequent actions of the French colonial administration in Madagascar. In June 1925, eight years after the queen's death, the Governor-General of Algeria informed the Governor-General of Madagascar by letter that payments for the maintenance of Ranavalona's tomb were in default. He urged the colonial government in Madagascar to provide funds for the upkeep of the dilapidated tomb, emphasizing that such neglect was unworthy of the queen's memory and the government of France alike. The request was twice refused and the tomb was never refurbished. In November 1938, Ranavalona's remains were exhumed and re-interred in the tomb of Queen Rasoherina at the Rova of Antananarivo in Madagascar. A fire on the night of 6 November 1995 severely damaged the royal tombs and destroyed most of the other buildings at the site. The lamba-wrapped remains of Ranavalona III were the only ones that could be saved from the flames. These have since been re-interred in the royal tombs at Ambohimanga. Following Ranavalona's death, her aunt Ramasindrazana left Algeria and moved to Alpes-Maritimes where she lived out the few remaining years of her life. The heir-apparent, Marie-Louise, had left Ranavalona's villa several years earlier to study at a French high school and would go on to marry a French agricultural engineer named Andre Bosshard on 24 June 1921. Although she continued to receive a small pension from the French government throughout her lifetime, Marie-Louise chose to pursue a career as a nurse and was awarded the Legion of Honor for her medical services during World War II. After Bosshard and the childless Marie-Louise divorced, the young woman reportedly made the most of her new-found freedom as a flamboyant and vivacious socialite. Marie-Louise died in Bazoches-sur-le-Betz on 18 January 1948, without leaving any descendants, and was buried in Montreuil, France. An archive of fashion, photographs and letters telling the story of Ranavalona was bought at auction by the island’s government in 2020, having been discovered in an attic in Guildford, Surrey. The collection had been owned by Clara Herbert, who worked for the Malagasy royal family from the 1890s to 1920s, and had been passed down through her family. The objects will go on display alongside Ranavalona's recently repatriated royal dias in the restored Queen’s palace in Madagascar. L'Aube rouge is historical novel about the Franco-Hova wars by the Malagasy writer Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo, largely focusing on Ranavalona III. Crown of Ranavalona III History of Madagascar Merina Kingdom Andy Razaf (grand-nephew) Andrianjafitrimo, Lantosoa (2007). La femme malgache en Imerina au début du XXIe siècle. Paris: Karthala Editions. ISBN 9782845864764. Barrier, Marie-France (1996). Ranavalona, dernière reine de Madagascar. Paris: Balland. ISBN 978-2-7158-1094-5. Basset, Charles (1903). Madagascar et l'oeuvre du Général Galliéni. Paris: A. Rousseau. Bergougniou, Jean-Michel; Clignet, Rémi; David, Philippe (2001). "Villages noirs" et autres visiteurs africains et malgaches en France et en Europe: 1870–1940. Paris: Karthala Editions. ISBN 978-2-84586-200-5. "Crownless Monarchs". The Bookman. No. 26. London: Dodd Mead & Co. 1908. p. 118. Campbell, Gwyn (1991). "The Menalamba revolt and brigandry in imperial Madagascar, 1820–1897". International Journal of African Historical Studies. 24 (2): 259–291. doi:10.2307/219791. JSTOR 219791. Cousins, William Edward (1895). Madagascar of to-day. The Religious Tract Society. p. 73. Curtin, Philip D. (1998). Disease and empire: the health of European troops in the conquest of Africa. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-59835-4. Massachusetts Reformatory (1 October 1904). "Kings in Exile". Our Paper. 20 (40): 639. Ministère de la marine et des colonies (1884). Revue maritime et coloniale, Volume 81. Paris: Gouvernement de la France. Retrieved 27 January 2011. Nativel, Didier (2005). Maisons royales, demeures des grands à Madagascar. Antananarivo, Madagascar: Karthala Éditions. ISBN 978-2-84586-539-6. Priestley, Herbert Ingram (1967) [1938]. France overseas: a study of modern imperialism. Octagon Books. p. 305. ISBN 978-0-7146-1024-5. Randrianja, Solofo (2001). Société et luttes anticoloniales à Madagascar: de 1896 à 1946. Paris: Karthala Editions. ISBN 978-2-84586-136-7. Roland, Oliver; Fage, John; Sanderson, G.N. (1985). The Cambridge history of Africa. Vol. 6. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-22803-9. Saillens, Pasteur R. (1906). "Impressions of Algeria". The Missionary Review of the World. Vol. 29. London: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 449. Stratton, Arthur (1964). The Great Red Island. Berlin: Scribner. Stuart Robson, Isabel (1896). "The Childhood of a Queen IV: The Queen of Madagascar". Children's Friend. Vol. 36. London: S.W. Partridge & Co. Titcomb, Mary (November 1896). "Madagascar and the Malagasy". Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly. Trotter Matthews, Thomas (1904). Thirty years in Madagascar. London: A. C. Armstrong. Retrieved 10 April 2011. Smithsonian exhibit of Ranavalona gifts
2. Ranavalona I (1788 - 1861)
With an HPI of 61.19, Ranavalona I is the 2nd most famous Malagasy Politician. Her biography has been translated into 34 different languages.
Ranavalona I (born Rabodoandrianampoinimerina (also called Ramavo); 1778 – 16 August 1861), also known as Ranavalo-Manjaka I and the "Mad Monarch of Madagascar" was sovereign of the Kingdom of Madagascar from 1828 to 1861. After positioning herself as queen following the death of her young husband, Radama I, Ranavalona pursued a policy of isolationism and self-sufficiency, reducing economic and political ties with European powers, repelling a French attack on the coastal town of Foulpointe, and taking vigorous measures to eradicate the small but growing Malagasy Christian movement initiated under Radama I by members of the London Missionary Society. She made heavy use of the traditional practice of fanompoana (forced labor as tax payment) to complete public works projects and develop a standing army of between 20,000 and 30,000 Merina soldiers, whom she deployed to pacify outlying regions of the island and further expand the realm. The combination of regular warfare, disease, difficult forced labor and harsh tangena trials by ordeal using a poisonous nut from the Cerbera manghas shrub resulted in a high mortality rate among both soldiers and civilians during her 33-year reign, with Madagascar's population reducing from 5 million in 1833 to 2.5 million in 1839. Although greatly obstructed by Ranavalona's policies, foreign political interests in Madagascar remained undiminished. Divisions between traditionalist and pro-European factions at the queen's court created opportunities that European intermediaries leveraged in an attempt to hasten the succession of her son, Radama II. The young prince disagreed with many of his mother's policies and was amenable to French proposals for the exploitation of the island's resources, as expressed in the Lambert Charter he concluded with a French representative in 1855. These plans were never successful, however, and Radama II did not take the throne until Ranavalona's death in 1861 at the age of 83. Ranavalona's European contemporaries generally condemned her policies and characterized her as a tyrant at best and insane at worst. These negative characterizations persisted in Western scholarly literature until the mid-1970s. Later academic research recast Ranavalona's actions as those of a queen attempting to expand her empire while protecting Malagasy sovereignty against the encroachment of European cultural and political influence. Historian Gwyn Campbell has argued against European character assassination attempts, stating that Ranavalona I's economic and military policies were rational approaches to safeguarding Madagascar from European imperial domination. Princess Ramavo was born in 1778 at the royal residence at Ambatomanoina, about 16 kilometers (10 mi) east of Antananarivo, to Prince Andriantsalamanjaka and Princess Rabodonandriantompo. When Ramavo was still a young girl, her father alerted King Andrianampoinimerina (1787–1810) to an assassination plot planned by Andrianjafy, the king's uncle, whom Andrianampoinimerina had forced from the throne at the royal city of Ambohimanga. In return for saving his life, Andrianampoinimerina betrothed Ramavo to his son, Prince Radama, whom the king designated as his heir. He furthermore declared that any child from this union would be first in the line of succession after Radama. Despite her elevated rank among the royal wives, Ramavo was not the preferred wife of Radama and did not bear him any children. Upon Andrianampoinimerina's death in 1810, Radama succeeded his father as king and followed royal custom by executing a number of potential opponents among Ramavo's relatives, an act that may have strained their relationship. Unable to find satisfaction in her loveless marriage, the neglected Ramavo and other court ladies spent most days socializing and drinking rum with David Griffiths and his fellow missionaries in Griffiths' home. These visits established a deep friendship between Ramavo and Griffiths that endured for three decades. When Radama died without leaving any descendants on 27 July 1828, according to local custom, the rightful heir was Rakotobe, the eldest son of Radama's eldest sister. An intelligent and amiable young man, Rakotobe was the first pupil to have studied at the first school established by the London Missionary Society in Antananarivo on the grounds of the royal palace. Radama died in the company of two trusted courtiers who were favorable to the succession of Rakotobe. However, they hesitated to report the news of Radama's death for several days, fearing possible reprisals against them for having been involved in denouncing one of the king's rivals, whose family had a stake in the succession after Radama. During this time, another courtier, a high-ranking military officer named Andriamamba, discovered the truth and collaborated with other powerful officers – Andriamihaja, Rainijohary and Ravalontsalama – to support Ramavo's claim to the throne. These officers hid Ramavo and one of her friends in a safe location, then secured the support of several influential power-brokers, including judges and the keepers of the sampy (royal idols). The officers then rallied the army behind Ramavo, so that on 11 August 1828, when she declared herself the successor to Radama on the pretence that he himself had decreed it, there could be no immediate resistance. Ramavo took the throne name Ranavalona ("folded", "kept aside"), then followed royal custom by systematically capturing and putting to death her political rivals, including Rakotobe, his family, and other members of Radama's family, much as Radama had done to the queen's own family upon his succession to the throne. Her coronation ceremony took place on 12 June 1829. By succeeding her husband, Ranavalona became the first female sovereign of the Kingdom of Imerina since its founding in 1540. Her rise to power occurred in a cultural milieu that favored men over women in the political sphere. In the traditional culture of Imerina, rulers were specially endowed with the power to innovate in circumvention of established norms and customs. Sovereigns often mobilized innovation through the creation of new forms of kinship, the traditional basis of the political order. Women, however, were associated with the household, a rigid kinship unit in opposition to the innovating role and power of the sovereign, and so were not viewed as suited to rule. Although female rulers had once been common among the Vazimba, described in oral histories as the original inhabitants of Madagascar, this tradition ended in the central highlands with the reign of Andriamanelo (1540–1575), founder of the Kingdom of Imerina and successor to his Vazimba mother, Queen Rafohy (1530–1540). Ranavalona's 33-year reign was characterized by her effort to strengthen the domestic authority of the Kingdom of Imerina over subjugated provinces and preserve the political and cultural sovereignty of Madagascar. These policies were enacted in a context of increasing European influence within her kingdom and competing European bids for domination over the island. Early in her reign, the queen took incremental steps to distance Madagascar from the purview of European powers, first putting an end to a friendship treaty with Britain, then placing increasing restrictions on the activities of the missionaries of the London Missionary Society, who operated schools where basic education and trade skills were taught in addition to the Christian religion. In 1835 she forbade the practice of Christianity among the Malagasy population, and within a year nearly all foreigners had left her territory. Putting an end to most foreign trade relationships, the queen pursued a policy of self-reliance, made possible through frequent use of the long-standing tradition of fanompoana—forced labor in lieu of tax payments in money or goods. Ranavalona continued the wars of expansion conducted by her predecessor, Radama I, in an effort to extend her realm over the entire island, and imposed strict punishments on those who were judged as having acted in opposition to her will. Due in large part to loss of life throughout the years of military campaigns, high death rates among fanompoana workers, and harsh traditions of justice under her rule, the population of Madagascar is estimated to have declined from around 5 million to 2.5 million between 1833 and 1839, and the population of Imerina from 750,000 to 130,000 between 1829 and 1842. These statistics have contributed to a strongly unfavorable view of Ranavalona's rule in historical accounts. In the tradition of many of her royal Merina predecessors, the queen ruled from the royal Rova compound in Antananarivo. Between 1839 and 1842, Jean Laborde built the queen a new residence called Manjakamiadana, which became the largest structure on the Rova grounds. The residence was made entirely from wood and bore most of the features of a traditional home of the Merina andriana (aristocratic class), including a central pillar (andry) to support the roof. In other ways it showcased distinctly European innovations, as it contained three floors entirely surrounded by wooden verandas and incorporated dormers in the shingled roof. The palace was eventually encased in stone in 1867 by James Cameron of the London Missionary Society during the reign of Ranavalona II. The original wooden palace of Ranavalona and virtually all other structures of the historic Rova compound were destroyed in a 1995 fire, leaving only the stone shell to mark where her palace had once stood. In many respects, Ranavalona's rule was a continuation of precedent established under Radama I. Both monarchs encouraged the introduction of new technologies and forms of knowledge from abroad, supported the establishment of an industrialized economy, and adopted measures to professionalize the army. Both viewed foreigners with ambivalence, establishing close personal relationships and drawing upon their expertise while enforcing restrictions on their activities to avert destabilizing changes to existing cultural and political systems. In addition, both contributed to the further development of a complex political bureaucracy that enabled the Merina court to govern remote provinces across an island larger than metropolitan France. Ranavalona maintained the tradition of ruling with the support of advisers drawn largely from the aristocratic class. The queen's most powerful ministers were also her consorts. Her first chief adviser was a young army officer from Namehana named Andriamihaja, who served as first minister from 1829 to 1830. Major-General Andriamihaja most likely fathered the queen's only son, Prince Rakoto (later King Radama II), who was born eleven months after the death of his official father, King Radama I. In the early years of Ranavalona's reign, Andriamihaja was the leader of her court's progressive faction, who favored maintaining the relations with Europe initiated under Radama. The conservative faction was led by the brothers Rainimaharo and Rainiharo, the latter being the official guardian of one of the most powerful royal sampy. These talismans were believed to embody and channel the supernatural powers of the kingship and had played a major role in the spiritual life of the Merina people since at least the 16th century reign of Ralambo. The conservative faction conspired to reduce Andriamahaja's progressive influence over the queen, and in September 1830 they managed to persuade her while highly intoxicated to sign his death warrant for charges of witchcraft and treason. He was immediately captured in his home and killed. Following Andriamihaja's death, the influence of Radama's old guard of progressives was eclipsed by that of conservative advisers at court, who grew ever closer to the queen, eventually resulting in Ranavalona's marriage to sampy guardian and conservative figurehead Field Marshal Rainiharo (also called Ravoninahitriniarivo) of Ilafy in 1833. Rainiharo gained initial access to the court through his father, Andriantsilavonandriana, a hova (commoner) who had exceptionally been accorded the privilege of joining King Andrianampoinimerina's inner circle of noble advisers. Field Marshal Rainiharo served as the queen's First Minister from 1830 to 1832, then Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief from 1832 to 1852. Upon Rainiharo's death, the queen wed another conservative, Field Marshal Andrianisa (also called Rainijohary), who remained Ranavalona's husband until her death in 1861. He served as Prime Minister from 1852 to 1862 before being exiled to the royal city of Ambohimanga for his part in a plot against the queen's son, Radama II. Traditionally, Merina sovereigns relied on the pronouncement of kabary (oratory) in public gatherings to communicate policy and reaffirm the relationship between sovereign and public. Due in part to her lack of experience in public speaking and politics, Ranavalona preferred to direct and inform her subordinates through letters that she dictated to missionary-educated court scribes. She strengthened her relationship with the public through occasional kabary and fulfilled the traditional role of the Merina sovereign as bestower of hasina (ancestral blessings) by enacting traditional rituals, including the fandroana (new year ritual of renewal), tributes to the royal idols, and offerings of vodiondry and jaka beef at customary occasions. Ranavalona innovated on these traditional rituals by increasing their complexity and symbolism to imbue them with added significance. Queen Ranavalona continued the military incursions initiated under Radama I to pacify neighboring kingdoms and maintain their submission to Merina rule. These policies had a strongly negative effect on economic and population growth during her reign. Fanompoana labor among the population of Imerina could include conscription into the military, enabling the queen to raise a standing army that was estimated at 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers. This army, which was sent on repeated expeditions into neighboring provinces, exacted harsh penalties against communities resistant to Merina domination. Mass executions were common, and those who were spared were commonly brought back to Imerina as slaves (andevo), and their valuables seized as booty to increase the wealth of the Crown. Approximately one million slaves entered Imerina from coastal areas between 1820 and 1853, constituting one-third of the total population in the central highlands and two-thirds of all residents in Antananarivo. According to Madagascar historian Gwyn Campbell, the number of non-Merina who died in violent conflict during the military campaigns of Ranavalona and her predecessor Radama from 1816 to 1853 was estimated at 60,000. Additionally, a considerable proportion of the population not killed in battle in the subjugated provinces eventually died from famine as a consequence of scorched earth policies. Deaths among the Merina soldiers engaged in military actions were also high, estimated at 160,000 for the period 1820–1853. A further 25–50% of the queen's soldiers stationed in lowland areas were estimated to have died each year due to diseases such as malaria. Although prevalent in the coastal parts of the island, malaria was uncommon in the high-altitude zone around Antananarivo, and Merina soldiers possessed little natural resistance against it. An average of 4,500 soldiers died each year for the greater part of Ranavalona's reign, contributing to severe depopulation in Imerina. One of the chief measures by which Ranavalona maintained order within her realm was through the traditional practice of trial by the ordeal of tangena. A poison was extracted from the nut of the native tangena (Cerbera manghas) shrub and ingested, with the outcome determining innocence or guilt. If nobles or freemen were compelled to undergo the ordeal, the poison was typically administered to the accused only after dog and rooster stand-ins had already died from the poison's effects, while among members of the slave class (andevo), the ordeal required them to immediately ingest the poison themselves. The accused would be fed the poison along with three pieces of chicken skin: if all three pieces of skin were vomited up then innocence was declared, but death or a failure to regurgitate all three pieces of skin indicated guilt. According to 19th-century Malagasy historian Raombana, in the eyes of the greater populace, the tangena ordeal was believed to represent a sort of celestial justice in which the public placed their unquestioning faith, even to the point of accepting a verdict of guilt in a case of innocence as a just but unknowable divine mystery. Residents of Madagascar could accuse one another of various crimes, including theft, Christianity and especially witchcraft, for which the ordeal of tangena was routinely obligatory. On average, an estimated 20 to 50 percent of those who underwent the ordeal died. In the 1820s, the tangena ordeal caused about 1,000 deaths annually. This average rose to around 3,000 annual deaths between 1828 and 1861. In 1838, it was estimated that as many as 100,000 people—about 20 percent of the population—in Imerina had died as a result of the tangena ordeal. Although outlawed in 1863, the ordeal continued to be practised secretly in Imerina and openly in other parts of the island. Following a visit by Radama I to Madagascar's first formal school, established in Toamasina in 1818 by members of the London Missionary Society (LMS), the king invited the first Christian artisan missionaries to the capital city to share their knowledge. Beginning in December 1820, LMS missionaries established workshops in Antananarivo to teach brick-making, European carpentry and other practical skills, and developed a network of public schools where numeracy and English were taught alongside literacy using portions of the Malagasy language Bible. Despite high attendance at the schools, the LMS were initially unsuccessful in converting pupils to Christianity. Near the end of Radama's reign, the king came to regard the few Malagasy who had been converted as irreverent toward royal authority. He forbade Malagasy people from being baptized or attending Christian services. Ranavalona's succession initially resulted in a relaxation of state control over Christianity. A printing press, which was imported by LMS missionaries at the end of Radama's reign, was only effectively put into operation in 1828. The press was in heaviest use during the first several years of Ranavalona's reign, when thousands of hymnals and other materials were transcribed and printed. Translation of the New Testament was completed in the second year of her reign, and 3,000 copies were printed and distributed between 1829 and 1830. From the beginning of her reign, Ranavalona forbade the distribution of books within the military to prevent subversion and preserve discipline. She allowed missionaries free rein in operating the printing press, however, and exempted from military service all Malagasy personnel trained to operate the press. In 1835, translation of the Old Testament was completed and the first copies were printed. The freedom allowed to LMS and Malagasy Christians to print religious materials and teach religion in the state schools during the first six years of Ranavalona's reign allowed the religion to become firmly established among a small but growing group of converts in and around the capital. In 1831 Ranavalona authorized Malagasy attendance at church services, administration of the sacrament, and baptism of her subjects. Within a year, hundreds of Malagasies were baptized; these converts were drawn from all social classes, including slaves, commoners, respected elders, court officials and even sampy guardians, who were considered the bulwarks of traditional culture. The conversion of major religious, political and social leaders sparked a backlash that led Ranavalona to become increasingly wary of the political and cultural effects of Christianity, which she saw as leading the Malagasy to forsake the ancestors and their traditions. In October and November 1831 the queen enacted a ban on Christian marriages, baptisms, and church services for soldiers and members of government studying in the Missionary schools, and in December extended the ban on church service attendance to all Malagasy. From 1832 to 1834, baptisms and church services continued, increasingly in secret. During this time, several Christians each year were charged with witchcraft and exiled or made to undergo the tangena ordeal, and Ranavalona requested the departure of three missionaries, retaining only those whose particular technical skills she viewed as valuable to the state. In 1835, the queen attempted to shut down the press without directly targeting the LMS by banning Malagasy personnel from working at the printing house. The LMS missionaries, capitalizing on the absence of legal decrees against their own work at the press, managed to continue independently printing and distributing materials. In a kabary speech on 26 February 1835, Queen Ranavalona formally forbade the practice of Christianity among her subjects. In her discourse, she was careful to differentiate between her own people, for whom the new religion was forbidden and its practice a capital offense, and foreigners, to whom she permitted freedom of religion and conscience. She furthermore acknowledged the valuable intellectual and technological contributions that European missionaries had made to the advancement of her country, and invited them to continue working to that end on the condition that their proselytizing would cease: "To the English or French strangers: I thank you for the good that you have done in my land and my kingdom, where you have made known European wisdom and knowledge. Do not worry yourselves—I will not change the customs and rites of our ancestors. Nevertheless, whoever breaks the laws of my kingdom will be put to death—whoever he may be. I welcome all wisdom and all knowledge which are good for this country. It would be a waste of time and effort to grab the customs and rites of my ancestors. Concerning religious practice—baptism or assemblies—it is forbidden for my people who inhabit this land to take part whether on Sunday or during the week. Concerning you, foreigners, you can practice according to your own manners and customs. Nevertheless, if skilled handiwork and other practical skills exist, which can profit our people, exercise these skills that good will come. These are my instructions which I make known to you." James Cameron and other key missionaries preferred to leave rather than remain on the island without authorization to proselytize; most of the London Missionary Society missionaries, whose primary activity was teaching Christian theology and literacy at their newly established schools using the Bible as the principal Malagasy-language text, departed the island. The last two remaining missionaries chose to continue teaching practical skills in the hope that the restrictions might loosen, but one year later, after receiving indirect information that the government desired their departure, they closed the LMS mission and left Madagascar. Pursuant to the 26 February decree, those who possessed a Bible, worshiped in congregation or continued to profess adherence to Christianity were fined, jailed, manacled, subjected to trial by ordeal, or executed. Lurid accounts of the execution and torture of Christians were reported by missionaries with informants on the island who placed emphasis on what they perceived as the savagery of the Queen's actions. For instance, they reported the public execution of 15 Christian leaders near the Queen's palace who were dangled on ropes 150 feet above a rock-filled ravine before the ropes were cut upon their refusal to renounce Christianity. The Andohalo cathedral was later constructed on this outcropping to commemorate early Malagasy Christians martyred at the site. The precise number of Malagasy citizens put to death for religious reasons during Ranavalona's reign is difficult to state with certainty. British missionary to Madagascar W.E. Cummins (1878) places the number executed at between 60 and 80. Far more were required to undergo the tangena ordeal, condemned to hard labor, or stripped of their land and property, and many of these died. Persecution of Christians intensified in 1840, 1849 and 1857; in 1849, deemed the worst of these years by Cummins, 1,900 people were fined, jailed or otherwise punished for their Christian faith, and 18 were executed. Ranavalona's reign was marked by a struggle between France and Britain to increase their influence in Madagascar. The French, who held several small islands off Madagascar, were interested in gaining control over the main island but this move was opposed by the British who had an interest in maintaining a secure passage to India. Ranavalona pursued a policy of self-reliance to limit the influence of foreign powers. Shortly after taking the throne, Ranavalona annulled the Anglo-Merina treaty that had been concluded between Radama and British envoys, and refused to continue receiving annual payments from Britain in exchange for adherence to the stipulations of the treaty. The most significant of these conditions was the kingdom's non-participation in the international slave trade, which had historically been a major source of revenue for the kingdoms of Imerina, Betsimisaraka, Sakalava and others across the island. One consequence of the termination of the Anglo-Merina friendship treaty was an end to the delivery of modern weaponry, which rendered the queen vulnerable to designs against her from foreign powers and pockets of local resistance. This vulnerability was underscored in 1829 when a fleet of six French ships launched an unprovoked attack against the fort of Foulpointe and the nearby town of Ivondro on the eastern coast of Madagascar. The queen's army successfully repelled the French at the next port, forcing the ships to Île Sainte-Marie, where they engaged a diplomatic envoy sent from Antananarivo by Ranavalona. The protracted negotiations ensured the French suffered from the malaria prevalent in coastal areas, until the increasing casualties forced the ships' withdrawal from Ranavalona's territory. It came to the Queen's attention that Frenchman Jean Laborde, who had been shipwrecked off Madagascar in 1832, was knowledgeable in the production of cannons, muskets and gunpowder. Ranavalona provided him with the labor and materials to establish factories that met the material needs of her army, thereby ending the kingdom's dependence on Europe for modern weaponry. The French were eager to hasten Radama II's succession in the interest of capitalizing on the Lambert Charter, an 1855 agreement between French representative Joseph-François Lambert and Radama that could only come into effect upon the prince's succession. The charter guaranteed Lambert and his business associates first rights to the exploitation of many of the island's commodities and natural resources. According to a British account, Lambert conspired with Jean Laborde and local leaders to persuade Radama II to sign a document written in French—a language in which the prince was not fluent—which Lambert orally translated as containing only an account of the excessive pressures the Queen's policies were placing on her subjects. Radama, who was sympathetic toward the commoners and interested in easing their burden but suspicious about the letter's true purpose, reluctantly signed the document under intense pressure from the French. He was not told the letter included a request for French military intervention that could have potentially brought Madagascar under French rule. France did not however intend to take such an action without the accord of Britain, whose influence had been well-established on the island, and refused to intercede on behalf of the prince. In the meantime, Radama, who had been made to swear on the Bible not to speak of the letter to anyone, had grown concerned enough to contact a British diplomat, thereby revealing the true circumstances under which the letter had been signed. The British refused to cooperate in the French plot, and an attack was averted. According to Lambert, however, the prince had indeed been an enthusiastic partner in the bid to end Ranavalona's reign, and his own true feelings about the endeavor had been misrepresented by the British diplomats. Having failed to gain the backing of a European state power to place Radama on the throne and bring the treaty into effect, Lambert decided to instigate a coup d'état independently. He traveled to Ranavalona's court in May 1857 in the company of the celebrated 19th-century Austrian globetrotter Ida Pfeiffer, who became an unwitting participant in the plot. She documented her perspective on these events in one of her late works. According to Pfeiffer, Radama and Lambert had planned to dethrone the queen on 20 June, when ministers and soldiers loyal to Radama would infiltrate the Rova grounds and declare loyalty to the prince and support for a political transition. Pfeiffer blamed the failure of the plot on Rainilaiarivony, then Commander-in-Chief of the army who reportedly had been unable to ensure the presence of soldiers in the courtyard who were loyal to Radama. According to a British account, however, Radama himself was credited with warning the queen of the plot, in which his cooperation was merely a ploy to entrap the conspirators. The account claimed that Ranavalona deliberately allowed the plot to unfold almost to its conclusion in order to ascertain the loyalties of her members of government. After the plot's discovery, the Europeans were largely confined to their houses on the palace grounds and prohibited from receiving visitors, until an order was issued to immediately and permanently quit the queen's territory in late July. While the queen had designated her son, Radama II, as her successor, Rainimaharo and the conservative faction knew of his progressive leanings and tried instead to ensure the queen's nephew, Ramboasalama, would come to power and maintain loyalties to them and their political agenda. The progressive brothers Rainivoninahitriniony and Rainilaiarivony, who were the queen's co-prime minister and head of the army respectively at the time of her death, supported the succession of Radama and were able to exercise greater influence than Ramboasalama, particularly in ensuring the support of the army for the prince's claim to the throne. As Ranavalona lay on her death bed, Radama took precautions to ensure his succession would be uncontested, surrounding his residence at the Rova of Antananarivo with several hundred soldiers and sending a member of Ramboasalama's family to bring him to the Rova to swear a public oath of allegiance to the new king, to whom he submitted. On 16 August 1861, Ranavalona died in her sleep at the Manjakamiadana palace in the Rova of Antananarivo. Twelve thousand zebu were slaughtered and their meat distributed to the populace in her honor, and the official mourning period lasted nine months. Her body was laid in a coffin made of silver piastres in a tomb at the royal city of Ambohimanga. During her funeral, a spark accidentally ignited a nearby barrel of gunpowder destined for use in the ceremony, causing an explosion and fire that killed a number of bystanders and destroyed three historic royal residences in the Nanjakana section of the compound where the event was held. In 1897, French colonial authorities disinterred and moved the queen's body and the remains of other Merina sovereigns to the tombs at the Rova of Antananarivo in an attempt to desanctify Ambohimanga. Her bones were placed within the tomb of Queen Rasoherina. Her son, Prince Rakoto, succeeded her as King Radama II. Ranavalona's traditionalist policies were abruptly reversed under the reign of her son, King Radama II. A widespread epidemic of "spirit possession" throughout Imerina followed Radama's public conversion to Christianity and was popularly attributed to the outraged spirit of Ranavalona I. The queen's foreign contemporaries strongly condemned her policies and viewed them as the actions of a tyrant or even a madwoman, a characterization that persisted in Western historical literature until the 1970s. Although Ranavalona has traditionally been depicted as a cruel and xenophobic tyrant, in more recent historical analyses she is commonly viewed as an astute politician who effectively protected the political and cultural sovereignty of her nation from European encroachment. In Madagascar today, the Malagasy of the central highlands hold complex and diverse views ranging across this spectrum. Most condemn her reign, in line with negative depictions of Ranavalona in current Malagasy history textbooks; this view is most common among Malagasy Christians. Others admire her effort to preserve Malagasy traditions and independence. The majority, regardless of their feelings toward her domestic policies, consider her a remarkable figure in Malagasy history and commend her strength as a ruler in a period of tension with European powers. A fictionalized account of Ranavalona and her court appears in the novel Flashman's Lady by George MacDonald Fraser. The main character, a soldier and secret agent named Harry Paget Flashman, becomes Ranavalona's military adviser and lover. History of Madagascar Académie malgache. Collection de documents concernant Madagascar et les pays voisins, Volume 4, Part 4 (in French). Antananarivo: Imprimerie Moderne de l'Emyrne. Ade Ajayi, Jacob Festus (1989). Africa in the Nineteenth Century until the 1880s. Paris: UNESCO. ISBN 978-0-520-03917-9. Andrew, David; Blond, Becca; Parkinson, Tom; Anderson, Aaron (2008). Lonely Planet Madagascar & Comoros. London: Lonely Planet. ISBN 978-1-74104-608-3. Bloch, Maurice (1986). From blessing to violence: history and ideology in the circumcision ritual of the Merina of Madagascar. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-31404-6. Campbell, Gwyn (2012). David Griffiths and the Missionary "History of Madagascar". Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-20980-0. Cole, Jennifer (2001). Forget Colonialism?: Sacrifice and the Art of Memory in Madagascar. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-92682-0. Ellis, William (1838). Volume 2 of History of Madagascar: Comprising Also the Progress of the Christian Mission Established in 1818. London: Fisher, Son & Co. Ellis, William (1870). The Martyr Church. London: J. Snow. Freeman, Joseph John; Johns, David (1840). A narrative of the persecution of the Christians in Madagascar: with details of the escape of six Christian refugees now in England. Berlin: J. Snow. Retrieved 5 February 2011. Frémigacci, Jean (1999). "Le Rova de Tananarive: Destruction d'un lieu saint ou constitution d'une référence identitaire?". In Chrétien, Jean-Pierre (ed.). Histoire d'Afrique (in French). Paris: Editions Karthala. pp. 421–444. ISBN 978-2-86537-904-0. Koschorko, Klaus; Ludwig, Frieder; Delgado, Mariano (2007). A history of Christianity in Asia, Africa and Latin America, 1450–1990. Cambridge, U.K.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. ISBN 978-0-8028-2889-7. Laidler, Keith (2005). Female Caligula: Ranavalona, the Mad Queen of Madagascar. London: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-02226-9. "L'habitation à Madagascar". Colonie de Madagascar: Notes, reconnaissances et explorations (in French). Vol. 4. Imprimerie Officielle de Tananarive. 1898. MacDonald Fraser, George (1977). Flashman's Lady. London: Collins. ISBN 978-0-00-744949-1. Oliver, Samuel (1886). Madagascar: An Historical and Descriptive Account of the Island and its Former Dependencies. Vol. 1. New York: Macmillan and Co. Pfeiffer, Ida (1861). The last travels of Ida Pfeiffer: inclusive of a visit to Madagascar. London: Harper. Prout, Ebenezer (1863). Madagascar: Its Mission and Its Martyrs. London: London Missionary Society. Raison-Jourde, Françoise (1991). Bible et pouvoir à Madagascar au XIXe siècle. Antananarivo: Karthala Editions. ISBN 978-2-86537-317-8. Ralibera, Daniel; De Taffin, Gabriel (1993). Madagascar et le christianisme (in French). Paris: Karthala Editions. ISBN 978-92-9028-211-2. Sharp, Leslie (2002). The Sacrificed Generation: Youth, History, and the Colonized Mind in Madagascar. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-22951-7. Brown, Mervyn (2016). A History of Madagascar". Markus Wiener Publishers. Jackson, Guida M. (1999). Women Rulers Throughout the Ages. An Illustrated Guide. ABC-CLIO. Wright, Jennifer (2022). I że ci (nie) odpuszczę. Najbardziej mordercze kobiety w historii (in Polish). Wydawnictwo Poznańskie.
3. Andrianampoinimerina (1745 - 1810)
With an HPI of 59.15, Andrianampoinimerina is the 3rd most famous Malagasy Politician. His biography has been translated into 30 different languages.
Andrianampoinimerina (Malagasy pronunciation: [anˈɖʐianˌmpuʲnˈmerʲnə̥]) (c. 1745–1810) ruled the Kingdom of Imerina on Madagascar from 1787 until his death. His reign was marked by the reunification of Imerina following 77 years of civil war, and the subsequent expansion of his kingdom into neighboring territories, thereby initiating the unification of Madagascar under Merina rule. Andrianampoinimerina is a cultural hero and holds near mythic status among the Merina people, and is considered one of the greatest military and political leaders in the history of Madagascar. Andrianampoinimerina took power upon deposing his uncle, King Andrianjafy, who had ruled over Imerina Avaradrano (Northern Imerina). Prior to Andrianampoinimerina's reign, Imerina Avaradrano had been locked in conflict with the three other neighboring provinces of the former kingdom of Imerina that had last been unified under King Andriamasinavalona a century before. Andrianampoinimerina established his capital at the fortified town of Ambohimanga, a site of great spiritual, cultural and political significance that was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001. The king's original royal lodgings can still be visited at Ambohimanga today. From this position, he progressively extended his domain first over all Imerina and then over the greater Highlands, absorbing the Betsileo, Sihanaka, Bezanozano and Bara territories. Having reigned for 23 years at the time of his death, Andrianampoinimerina had successfully reunited Imerina and vastly expanded the Merina kingdom, with the intent to ultimately unify all of Madagascar under Merina rule. His son and heir, Radama I, continued the conquests Andrianampoinimerina had begun, and over the next two decades largely achieved his father's vision.
4. Ranavalona II (1829 - 1883)
With an HPI of 58.91, Ranavalona II is the 4th most famous Malagasy Politician. Her biography has been translated into 29 different languages.
Ranavalona II (1829 – 13 July 1883) was Queen of Madagascar from 1868 to 1883, succeeding Queen Rasoherina, her first cousin. She is best remembered for Christianizing the royal court during her reign.
5. Didier Ratsiraka (1936 - 2021)
With an HPI of 58.22, Didier Ratsiraka is the 5th most famous Malagasy Politician. His biography has been translated into 36 different languages.
Didier Ignace Ratsiraka (Malagasy: [raˈtsirəkə̥]; 4 November 1936 – 28 March 2021) was a Malagasy politician and naval officer who was the third President of Madagascar from 1975 to 1993 and the fifth from 1997 to 2002. At the time of his death, he was the longest-serving President of Madagascar. He was first appointed president in 1975 by the military leadership, he was then reelected twice in 1982 and 1989. While he lost to Albert Zafy in 1992, Ratsiraka returned to office after winning the 1997 election. After the 2001 election, he and his opponent Marc Ravalomanana engaged in a lengthy standoff after the latter refused to participate in a runoff election; Ratsiraka eventually stepped down.
6. Radama I (1793 - 1828)
With an HPI of 58.00, Radama I is the 6th most famous Malagasy Politician. His biography has been translated into 28 different languages.
Radama I "the Great" (c. 1793–1828) was the first Malagasy sovereign to be recognized as King of Madagascar (1810–1828) by a European state, Great Britain. He came to power at the age of 17 following the death of his father, King Andrianampoinimerina. Under Radama's rule and at his invitation, the first Europeans entered his central highland Kingdom of Imerina and its capital at Antananarivo. Radama encouraged these London Missionary Society envoys to establish schools to teach tradecraft and literacy to nobles and potential military and civil service recruits. They also introduced Christianity and taught literacy using the translated Bible. A wide range of political and social reforms were enacted under Radama's rule, including an end to the international slave trade, although this had historically been a key source of wealth and armaments for the Merina monarchy. Through aggressive military campaigns he successfully united two-thirds of the island under his rule. Abuse of alcohol weakened his health and he died prematurely at age 35. He was succeeded by his highest-ranking wife, Ranavalona I.
7. Philibert Tsiranana (1912 - 1978)
With an HPI of 57.53, Philibert Tsiranana is the 7th most famous Malagasy Politician. His biography has been translated into 38 different languages.
Philibert Tsiranana (18 October 1912 – 16 April 1978) was a Malagasy politician and leader who served as the seventh Prime Minister of Madagascar from 1958 to 1959, and then later the first President of Madagascar from 1959 to 1972. During the twelve years of his administration, the Republic of Madagascar experienced institutional stability that stood in contrast to the political turmoil many mainland African countries experienced in this period. This stability contributed to Tsiranana's popularity and his reputation as a remarkable statesman. Madagascar experienced moderate economic growth under his social democratic policies and came to be known as "the Happy Island." However, the electoral process was fraught with issues and his term ultimately terminated in a series of farmer and student protests that brought about the end of the First Republic and the establishment of the officially socialist Second Republic. The "benevolent schoolmaster" public image that Tsiranana cultivated went alongside a firmness of convictions and actions that some believe tended toward authoritarianism. Nonetheless, he remains an esteemed Malagasy political figure remembered throughout the country as its "Father of Independence".
8. Marc Ravalomanana (b. 1949)
With an HPI of 57.47, Marc Ravalomanana is the 8th most famous Malagasy Politician. His biography has been translated into 46 different languages.
Marc Ravalomanana (Malagasy: [raˌvaluˈmananə̥]; born 12 December 1949) is a Malagasy politician who served as the sixth President of Madagascar from 2002 to 2009. Born into a farming Merina family in Imerinkasinina, near the capital city of Antananarivo, Ravalomanana first rose to prominence as the founder and CEO of the vast dairy conglomerate TIKO, later launching successful wholesaler MAGRO and several additional companies. He entered politics upon founding the Tiako Iarivo political party in 1999 and successfully ran for the position of mayor of Antananarivo, holding the position from 1999 to 2001. As mayor he improved sanitary and security conditions in the city. In August 2001 he announced his candidacy as an independent candidate in the December 2001 presidential election. He then took office as president in 2002 amidst a dispute over election results in which he successfully pressed his claim to have won a majority in the first round. Under the leadership of Jacques Sylla, Ravalomanana's Prime Minister from 2002 to 2007, the political party Tiako I Madagasikara (TIM) was founded in 2002 to support Ravalomanana's presidency and came to dominate legislative and local elections. He was re-elected in December 2006, again with a majority in the first round. During Ravalomanana's presidency, Madagascar made significant advances toward development targets and experienced an average of seven per cent growth per year. His administration oversaw the construction of thousands of new schools and health clinics. Road rehabilitation aided in improving rural farmers' access to markets. The establishment of the independent anti-corruption agency BIANCO, and the adoption of diverse supporting policies resulted in a decline in governmental corruption. Opposition members criticized Ravalomanana in the later period of his presidency, accusing him of increasing authoritarianism and the mixing of public and private interests. In addition, the benefits of the country's growth were not evenly spread, leading to increased wealth inequality, inflation and a decline in purchasing power for the lower and middle classes. In 2008 a controversial land lease agreement with Korean agricultural firm Daewoo, the purchase of a costly presidential jet and the closure of media channels owned by opposition leader and mayor of Antananarivo, Andry Rajoelina, strengthened popular disapproval of his policies. Rajoelina rallied popular support for the opposition, leading to a popular uprising that began in January 2009 and ended two months later with Ravalomanana's resignation under pressure and Rajoelina taking control with military support in a power transfer viewed by the international community as a coup d'état. From 2009 to 2012 Ravalomanana lived in exile in South Africa, where he was engaged in active negotiations with Rajoelina and former heads of state Albert Zafy and Didier Ratsiraka to organize national elections. In December 2012 he declared he would not present himself as a candidate, then a precondition to the elections being viewed as legitimate by the international community. TGV candidate Hery Rajaonarimampianina was elected president in January 2014, defeating Jean-Louis Robinson, the candidate of Marc Ravalomanana's camp. Upon attempting to return to Madagascar in October 2014 he was arrested, having been sentenced in absentia to lifelong hard labour for abuses of power by the Rajoelina administration. After his sentence was lifted and he was freed from house arrest in May 2015, Ravalomanana announced the re-opening of the Tiko business group and was re-elected the president of TIM. Marc Ravalomanana was born on 12 December 1949 in the village of Imerinkasinina, 40 kilometres (25 mi) east of Antananarivo in Manjakandriana District. Ravalomanana's parents worked as peddlers before opening a small shop in a rural village in Tamatave Province. Ravalomanana's family origins are Merina, the island's largest and most politically prominent ethnic group. From age five he began attending Anjeva Gara public primary school, located 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) from Imerinkasinina. He walked this distance daily, often departing early with baskets of watercress to sell to train passengers at the nearby station. He completed his upper primary private school in Ambohimalaza. After completing his primary studies he attended the Swedish missionary-run technical secondary school in Ambatomanga. Upon completing his studies, Ravalomanana returned to Manjakandriana District, where he and his family began making and selling homemade yogurts, a common artisanal product in the highlands region. On his bicycle, he collected milk from farmers in neighboring towns, gradually increasing his production and clientele. He opened his first yogurt and cheese production center in 1977 in Sambaina on land he named Rova-Tiko ("Tiko Palace"), where he would build the first Tiko factory several years later. Ravalomanana solicited a loan from the Agence Française de Développement to further expand his business, but this request was denied, souring his view of France. His subsequent request to the World Bank for 1.5 million US dollars was approved, and in 1982 he founded the Tiko company. The representative of the World Bank to Madagascar at the time, Jose Bronfman, secured the loan with exceptionally favorable reimbursement conditions that enabled Ravalomanana to sell his products at a lower cost than other small dairy producers, which gradually put his most significant competitors out of business. Bronfman later left his post at the World Bank to become a principal investor in the company, joined by private investors from South Africa, Germany and the United States. As Tiko continued to grow, the entrepreneur began incorporating imported ingredients such as powdered milk from South Africa (constituting 80 per cent of the composition of Tiko dairy products) and surplus butter from Europe, further improving the profitability of his business and enabling additional diversification. Tiko Group first concentrated exclusively on the production of dairy products before expanding into fruit juices, ice cream, cooking oil and carbonated beverages. The Tiko slogan printed on many of the group's products, Vita Malagasy ("Made in Madagascar"). Ravalomanana cultivated political relationships to facilitate the continued growth of Tiko in spite of an economic climate non-conducive to free enterprise under the Socialist administration of Ratsiraka. Early support in the 1980s came from the Supreme Counselor of the Revolution Manandafy Rakotonirina, then-Minister of Finance Rakotovao Razakaboana, and another minister, Justin Rarivoson. By the mid-1980s, the profitability of his Tiko enterprise enabled Ravalomanana to purchase a costly villa formerly owned by French colonial governor Leon Reallon in the central Faravohitra neighborhood of Antananarivo. In 1997, under the pretext of concern about mad cow disease, Ratsiraka obstructed Ravalomanana's plans to build a farm stocked with imported high-yield milk cows. Ravalomanana overcame the objection by breeding high-yield cows locally, thereby further boosting Tiko production. Later that same year, Ratsiraka's daughters began competing with Tiko by importing and reselling vegetable oil under the brand name "Eden". When Norbert Ratsirahonana declared himself a candidate in the 1997 presidential elections against Ratsiraka and Albert Zafy, Ravalomanana provided significant financial contributions to the Ratsirahonana campaign in return for tax exemptions on his edible oil products for a period of five years. The profits he consequently earned were reinvested to create the Magro wholesale company in 1998. By 2001, over a dozen principal warehouses throughout the country enabled widespread distribution of Tiko products to urban and rural areas, with a flagship warehouse in the Akorandrano neighborhood of Antananarivo. The Ratsiraka administration launched an inquiry into Tiko business practices in September 2000 and issued an executive decision in June 2001 that the company should be shut down for failure to adhere to a 1996 agreement requiring Tiko to create jobs and produce low-cost vegetable oil; this ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court on 16 October 2002. A number of lawsuits have been filed over Ravalomanana's business practices, including a court judgment on the eve of the 2001 presidential election requiring the payment of between 200 and 363 billion Malagasy francs in Tiko back taxes, but all were either dismissed or ended in an out-of-court settlement; none resulted in a criminal conviction. At its height during the period of Ravalomanana's presidency, Tiko provided direct salaried employment to between 1,000 and 3,000 staff and indirect employment to over 10,000. The group was the largest dairy producer in the country and a leader in the national agribusiness sector. The success of his enterprises made Ravalomanana a wealthy man. In the mandatory self-disclosure of wealth submitted to the High Constitutional Court in 2000 by all presidential candidates, Ravalomanana declared ownership of 27 properties valued at over two billion Malagasy francs. He owned 90 per cent of Tiko Inc., 80 per cent of Tiko Agri and 50 per cent of Tiko Oil Products, a portfolio worth 13.1 billion Malagasy francs, and declared 77 million Malagasy francs in annual revenues. Vivier (2007) demonstrates that the valuation of Ravalomanana's holdings and his annual revenue in particular were significantly underestimated. In 1999, Ravalomanana ran as an independent candidate in the local elections, spending over $110,000 on his campaign—a level of expense then unheard of in a Malagasy mayoral race. He was elected with 45 per cent of the votes. His tenure stretched from December 1999 to his ascent to the Presidential office in May 2002. During his time as mayor, he balanced the city's budget and improved its water quality and waste management, and drew criticism for an urban-restoration project that demolished houses that were still being lived in. He has been described as one of the most popular mayors in Antananarivo's history. Ravalomanana ran for president in the election to be held on 16 December. His campaign promoted his image as a self-made man who would draw upon his business to develop the country and played upon his youth (aged 52) and his non-alliance with the elderly "political dinosaurs" who had dominated politics over the previous three decades. His origins as a village farmer inspired support among rural voters, who made up over four-fifths of the population. Many voters wished to see established in Madagascar in place of corrupt power networks dominated by nepotism. The Council of Christian Churches of Madagascar (FFKM) rallied behind Ravalomanana. Ravalomanana's announcement sparked retaliatory actions by the Ratsiraka administration, resulting in frequent defamatory attacks in the press and a court judgment fining him 300 billion Malagasy francs (55.6 million Euros) in relation to his management of Tiko, which were later settled out of court. These attacks were denounced by spokesmen for Ravalomanana's campaign, Tiako iMadagasikara (TIM), and in speeches the candidate delivered in urban and rural areas across the island, by his considerable personal wealth and the airplane and seven helicopters registered to Tiko. October 2001 polls showed Ravalomanana ahead of Ratsiraka. Following the December election, official results put Ravalomanana in first place, with 46 per cent, against Ratsiraka's 40 per cent; without a majority. Ravalomanana, claiming to have won a majority in the first round, refused to participate in a run-off and after a recount, on 29 April 2002 the High Constitutional Court declared that Ravalomanana had won 51.3 percent of the vote, enough for a narrow first-round victory. The court's decision was contested by Ratsiraka and his supporters. Some Ratsiraka supporters, mostly of the Betsimisaraka people, cut off routes from the port city of Tamative to the mostly Merina Antananarivo, initiating a months-long period of sporadic ethnic and political violence until Ratsiraka's July 2002 concession of the race and exile to France. Upon election to the presidency, Ravalomanana sought to mitigate the negative economic impact of the eight-month political standoff with Ratsiraka, which had cost Madagascar millions of dollars He enacted a series of new laws, policies and reforms that sought to efface remaining traces of Ratsiraka's socialist ideology and replace it with a firmly capitalist, market-driven economic environment. The new head of state moved away from reliance on its principal trading partner, France, and cultivated relationships with partners such as Germany, the United States and South Korea as part of his strategy for Madagascar's economic development. In 2004 the World Bank approved his administration's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, entitled Madagascar Naturellement (Madagascar Naturally). The protected natural areas were tripled on the island from 1.6 million hectares (6,200 sq mi) to 6 million hectares (23,000 sq mi) – ten per cent of the country's land surface – over five years. In 2004 he established the Bureau Indépendant Anti-Corruption (BIANCO), leading to a decline in government corruption. That same year, the International Monetary Fund agreed to write off half Madagascar's debt. In 2005 Madagascar became the first country to benefit from the Millennium Challenge Account, a new development fund managed by the United States. Consequently, the economy grew at an average annual rate of seven per cent throughout his presidency. Under his administration, hundreds of kilometers of roads were paved in formerly isolated rural areas. Dramatic improvements in education and health were also achieved under his administration., thousands of new primary schools and additional classrooms were constructed, older buildings were renovated and tens of thousands of new primary teachers were recruited and trained. Primary school fees were eliminated and kits containing basic school supplies were distributed to primary students. Logging in protected areas was outlawed until January 2009. Also after being elected in 2002, Ravalomanana remained a prominent player in the private sector. The 2003 privatisation of SINPA (Societe d'lnteret National Malgache des Produits Agricoles), the state agricultural corporation, and SOMACODIS (Société Malgache de Collecte et de Distribution), the national trading corporation, provided Ravalomanana the opportunity to purchase both entities, which he incorporated under Tiko. He also created a public roads construction company, Asa Lalana Malagasy. The benefits of economic growth during the Ravalomanana administration were not evenly distributed, leading to higher costs of living for all Malagasy and a deepening poverty among much of the population with fewer able to increase their wealth. Detractors indicate a decline in purchasing power and dramatic inflation early in Ravalomanana's presidency as evidence of a failure to reduce poverty. Ravalomanana's critics remarked that the greatest beneficiary of his reforms and policies was the president himself, giving the example of road construction projects that enabled Tiko to distribute more efficiently as well as the farmers and other small businesspeople targeted by the initiative. Furthermore, his own companies tended to be awarded most of the government contracts for which they bid, although this occurred transparently and legally, due to a weak legal framework around conflict of interest. Critics condemned his tendency to make unilateral decisions and disregard the views of his entourage, a number of whom resigned or were dismissed. Many joined an opposition movement that had gained considerable strength by late 2007. On 18 November 2006, Ravalomanana's jet was forced to divert from Madagascar's capital during a return trip from Europe following reports of a coup underway in Antananarivo and shooting near the airport. The attempted coup by General Andrianafidisoa was ultimately unsuccessful. Ravalomanana ran for a second term in the presidential election held on 3 December 2006. According to official results, he won the election with 54.79 per cent of the vote in the first round. In Antananarivo Province he won 75.39 per cent of voters. During his second term, Ravalomanana oversaw revisions to the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. Renamed the Madagascar Action Plan (MAP), this new strategy was intended to build on the successes of his first term to accelerate and expand national development. The plan focused on "the eight commitments": accountable governance, more extensive and interconnected infrastructure, agriculture based rural development, family planning and health (particularly fighting HIV/AIDS), strong economic growth, environmental protection, and the traditional principle of fihavanana (solidarity). The plan's targets were aligned with the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. As construction of schools and hiring of teachers continued in Ravalomanana's second term, additional measures were adopted to improve education quality, including a shift to Malagasy as the language of instruction in grades one to five, expansion of primary schools to house grades six and seven for greater access to lower secondary schooling In the Constitution of 2007, English was added to Malagasy and French as an official language. In the later half of his second term, Ravalomanana was criticized by domestic and international observers, who accused him of increasing authoritarianism and corruption. On 13 December 2008, the government closed Viva TV, owned by mayor of Antananarivo Andry Rajoelina, stating that a Viva interview with exiled former head of state Didier Ratsiraka was "likely to disturb peace and security". This move catalyzed the political opposition and a public already dissatisfied with other recent actions undertaken by Ravalomanana, including a July 2008 deal with Daewoo Logistics to lease half the island's arable land for South Korean cultivation of corn and palm oil, and the November 2008 purchase of a second presidential jet at a cost of 60 million U.S. dollars. Within a week, Rajoelina met with twenty of Madagascar's most prominent opposition leaders (referred in the press as the "Club of 20"), to develop a joint statement demanding that the Ravalomanana administration improves its adherence to democratic principles. The demand was broadcast at a press conference, where Rajoelina promised to dedicate a politically open public space in the capital, which he would call Place de la democratie ("Democracy Square"). Beginning in January 2009, Rajoelina led a series of political rallies in downtown Antananarivo where he gave voice to the frustration that Ravalomanana's policies had triggered, particularly among the economically marginalized and members of the political opposition. On 3 February, Ravalomanana dismissed Rajoelina as mayor of Antananarivo and appointed a special delegation. Rajoelina incited demonstrators on 7 February to occupy the president's office. The presidential guard opened fire on the advancing crowd, killing 31 and wounding more than 200. Popular disapproval of Ravalomanana intensified, conflicts between pro-Rajoelina demonstrators and security forces continued over the following weeks, resulting in several additional deaths. On 11 March, following a declaration of neutrality by army leadership, pro-opposition soldiers from the Army stormed the army headquarters and forced the army chief of staff to resign. Over the next several days the army deployed forces to enable the opposition to occupy key ministries, the chief of military police transferred his loyalty to Rajoelina and the army sent tanks against the presidential Iavoloha Palace. Rajoelina rejected Ravalomanana's offer on 15 March to hold a national referendum. The following day, the army stormed the Ambohitsorohitra Palace and captured the Central Bank. Hours later, Ravalomanana transferred his power to a group of senior army personnel. Ravalomanana later declared he had been forced at gunpoint to relinquish power. A military council would have been charged with organizing elections within 24 months and re-writing the constitution for the "Fourth Republic". However, Vice Admiral Hyppolite Ramaroson announced on 18 March that the council would transfer power directly to Rajoelina, making him president of the opposition-dominated High Transitional Authority (HAT) that he had appointed weeks earlier. With the military's backing Rajoelina was sworn in as president on 21 March at Mahamasina Municipal Stadium before a crowd of 40,000 supporters, a transfer of power that was considered illegitimate and unconstitutional by the international community and described as a coup d'état. After coming to power, Rajoelina's HAT pursued legal action against Ravalomanana. On 2 June 2009, Ravalomanana was fined 70 million US dollars (42 million British pounds) and sentenced to four years in prison for alleged abuse of office which, according to HAT Justice Minister Christine Razanamahasoa, included the December 2008 purchase of a presidential jet worth $60 million. Razanamahasoa claimed Ravalomanana "mixed public interests with his personal interests". The former head of state was in exile in Swaziland at the time, having been prevented from returning to Madagascar the previous month. Additionally, on 28 August, Ravalomanana was sentenced in absentia to hard labour for life for his role in the protests and ensuing deaths. Ravalomanana's Tiko Group faced heavy pressure from the transitional government, which in April 2009 demanded that the company pay 35 million US dollars in back taxes or risk being shut down. Both Ravalomanana and Rajoelina were requested by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to renounce participation in the 2013 Malagasy presidential elections in order to end the ongoing political crisis. On 10 December 2012, Ravalomanana announced that he would not participate in the elections, and encouraged Rajoelina to follow. Marc Ravalomanana was candidate at the Malagasy presidential elections 2018. He qualified for the 2nd round, with 35,35 % of the votes. The 2nd round he lost with 44.34% of votes against Andry Rajoelina with 55,66 % of the votes. Marc Ravalomanana ran as a candidate at the 2023 Malagasy presidential elections. Ravalomanana is a fervent Christian. As a young adult he gradually took on increasingly responsible leadership roles within his church community. In 2000 he was elected Vice-President of the FJKM. Ravalomanana owns media group Malagasy Broadcasting System (MBS), which operates radio and television stations. Madagascar: Grand Cross, First Class of the National Order of Madagascar Germany: Grand Cross Special Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2006) Mauritius: Grand Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean (2008) Honorary Doctorate from University of Antananarivo (2007) Honorary Doctorate of Law from Abilene Christian University, Texas (2008) Galibert, Didier (2009). Les gens du pouvoir à Madagascar – Etat postcolonial, légitimités et territoire (1956–2002) (in French). Antananarivo: Karthala Editions. ISBN 9782811131432. Vivier, Jean-Loup (2007). Madagascar sous Ravalomanana: La vie politique malgache depuis 2001 (in French). Paris: Editions L'Harmattan. ISBN 9782296185548.
9. Radama II (1829 - 1863)
With an HPI of 57.45, Radama II is the 9th most famous Malagasy Politician. His biography has been translated into 26 different languages.
Radama II (September 23, 1829 – May 12, 1863 [contested]) was the son and heir of Queen Ranavalona I and ruled from 1861 to 1863 over the Kingdom of Madagascar, which controlled virtually the entire island. Radama's rule, although brief, was a pivotal period in the history of the Kingdom of Madagascar. Under the unyielding and often harsh 33-year rule of his mother, Queen Ranavalona I, Madagascar had successfully preserved its cultural and political independence from European colonial designs. Rejecting the queen's policy of isolationism and persecution of Christians, Radama II permitted religious freedom and re-opened Madagascar to European influence. Under the terms of the Lambert Charter, which Radama secretly contracted in 1855 with French entrepreneur Joseph-François Lambert while Ranavalona still ruled, the French were awarded exclusive rights to the exploitation of large tracts of valuable land and other lucrative resources and projects. This agreement, which was later revoked by Prime Minister Rainilaiarivony, was key to establishing France's claim over Madagascar as a protectorate and, in 1896, as a colony. The dramatic contrast between Ranavalona's isolationism and her son's pro-European stance represented an abrupt reversal of policy that threatened the traditional sociopolitical order. Radama's absolutism in pursuing dramatic reforms in disregard of the advice of his ministers ultimately turned them against him. In a coup led by his prime minister, Rainivoninahitriniony, Radama II was strangled on May 12, 1863. His wife Rabodo, who took the throne name Rasoherina, was allowed by the ministers to succeed her husband on the condition that she and future sovereigns would no longer rule unilaterally, but rather in concert with the Hova (the class of free citizens) as represented by the position of prime minister. The public was informed that Radama had committed suicide and that his body had been unceremoniously interred in a tomb in Ilafy. However, there soon emerged rumors – believed by prominent foreigners Jean Laborde and William Ellis – that Radama lived and was making plans to reclaim the throne. A strong case has since been made on the basis of significant evidence that Radama may indeed have revived after the strangling and lived to old age in anonymity near Lake Kinkony in the northwestern part of the island.
10. Rasoherina (1814 - 1868)
With an HPI of 56.59, Rasoherina is the 10th most famous Malagasy Politician. Her biography has been translated into 24 different languages.
Rasoherina (1814 – 1 April 1868) (also Rasoherina-Manjaka) was Queen of Madagascar from 1863 to 1868, succeeding her husband Radama II following his presumed assassination.
People
Pantheon has 30 people classified as Malagasy politicians born between 1745 and 1974. Of these 30, 11 (36.67%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Malagasy politicians include Marc Ravalomanana, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, and Andry Rajoelina. The most famous deceased Malagasy politicians include Ranavalona III, Ranavalona I, and Andrianampoinimerina. As of April 2024, 3 new Malagasy politicians have been added to Pantheon including Rivo Rakotovao, Désiré Rakotoarijaona, and Monja Roindefo.
Living Malagasy Politicians
Go to all Rankings
Marc Ravalomanana
1949 - Present
HPI: 57.47
Hery Rajaonarimampianina
1958 - Present
HPI: 53.96
Andry Rajoelina
1974 - Present
HPI: 52.58
Omer Beriziky
1950 - Present
HPI: 51.47
Christian Ntsay
1961 - Present
HPI: 51.21
Norbert Ratsirahonana
1938 - Present
HPI: 48.68
Albert Camille Vital
1952 - Present
HPI: 43.28
Jean Ravelonarivo
1959 - Present
HPI: 41.31
Rivo Rakotovao
1960 - Present
HPI: 41.06
Désiré Rakotoarijaona
1934 - Present
HPI: 40.79
Monja Roindefo
1965 - Present
HPI: 33.41
Deceased Malagasy Politicians
Go to all RankingsRanavalona III
1861 - 1917
HPI: 62.78
Ranavalona I
1788 - 1861
HPI: 61.19
Andrianampoinimerina
1745 - 1810
HPI: 59.15
Ranavalona II
1829 - 1883
HPI: 58.91
Didier Ratsiraka
1936 - 2021
HPI: 58.22
Radama I
1793 - 1828
HPI: 58.00
Philibert Tsiranana
1912 - 1978
HPI: 57.53
Radama II
1829 - 1863
HPI: 57.45
Rasoherina
1814 - 1868
HPI: 56.59
Gabriel Ramanantsoa
1906 - 1978
HPI: 55.05
Rainilaiarivony
1828 - 1896
HPI: 54.23
Albert Zafy
1927 - 2017
HPI: 53.94
Newly Added Malagasy Politicians (2024)
Go to all RankingsRivo Rakotovao
1960 - Present
HPI: 41.06
Désiré Rakotoarijaona
1934 - Present
HPI: 40.79
Monja Roindefo
1965 - Present
HPI: 33.41
Overlapping Lives
Which Politicians were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 16 most globally memorable Politicians since 1700.
