Feeding Globalization - Jane Hooper Indian Ocean Studies Series

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(Tsimanato, Tsimenata) journeyed north. He may have even received support from his brother’s rivals in Menabe.94 According to traditional histories, his men fought for control of the northwestern coast of Madagascar through a series of clashes, including with Muslims long resident in the region. Throughout his march, Andriamandisoarivo relied upon an ombiasy to advise him (as the Raoandriana had in Anosy) and Sakalava traditions would later credit divine support as well as the power of an enchanted vy lava, a long iron knife, for his victories.95 By the early eighteenth century, Andriamandisoarivo, with the support of his eight-hundred-man army, founded a new Sakalava dynasty in the north which he named Volamena, meaning red money or gold. His descendants were known as the Zafibolamena, children of the Volamena.96 He died in the northern city of Bezavo around 1710, having cemented his name in traditions as the founder of a powerful new kingdom.97 His kingdom contained the port of Mazalagem Nova, or Massaliege, already a prosperous center for trade, as well as the new ports of Boina and Mahajanga (Majunga).98 Within decades, the rulers of the northern Sakalava branch had surpassed the Maroseraña dynasty of Menabe to the south in both military and economic power, as the Zafibolamena benefited from bustling trade networks already operating in the northwestern region.99 Traditions describe the respect the Sakalava held for the communities they defeated in the north, likely tied to their desire to maintain access to commerce with the Comoros and East Africa. During their march northward, Sakalava followers reportedly respected local grave sites and the sacred trees that surrounded them. They granted religious freedom and allowed Arab and Muslim traders to continue their trade with visiting merchants.100

      These histories may have overemphasized the respect that Sakalava rulers paid to the people of the northwest, as the slave trade underwent a sudden burst of activity directly following Sakalava conquest.101 In 1695, Dutch slavers described their slaving negotiations with “Andiaximanatte” (Andriamandisoarivo?), the present king of Magelage (Massaliege) and “Maringande” (Manigare, a northwestern port). This king had used firearms, supposedly acquired through trade with the English, to overpower “unarmed tribes” in his battles for control. In a dramatic reversal of earlier slave-trading practices, the king told the Dutch that he would only accept guns, no cloth or other merchandise, in return for his slaves.102 American slave traders visiting the island during this period also reported that the king told them he had six thousand slaves for sale, obtained in his wars of expansion.103 Two years later, when Dutch merchants returned to the northwestern ports, they discovered that slaves were suddenly more expensive, costing two guns instead of one, although, thanks to the continuation of these “internecine wars” in western Madagascar, captives remained plentiful. The king told them that he still required “good muskets with which to destroy his enemies.” Even though the Dutch were able to acquire slaves with guns during this second voyage, most of the 119 slaves died shortly after their arrival at the Cape Colony. Their poor health was due to being “prisoners of war,” or so the Dutch speculated.104

      Despite this period of intense violence, it does seem, judging by later observations, that relations between the Muslim merchant elites in the northwest of the island and the new Sakalava rulers were quickly eased, as reported in the traditions. Portuguese visiting “Maselagache” in 1726 described dealing with the “principal Moors” and, a few years later, meeting a king who spoke Arabic fluently.105 Sakalava involvement in the export trade was also clear in other European observations. One English captain described the northwestern town of Mahajanga as a bustling, cosmopolitan port in 1764. He wrote that the town, built “after the Indian fashion,” contained many stone buildings and mosques. Inhabited by “native” Muslims and others from “Surate, Johana, Mosembeck, and the Commoro islands,” Mahajanga was clearly a prosperous and cosmopolitan port. Within the city, the Sakalava rulers allowed Muslims to practice their religion freely. In return, the Sakalava instituted a series of trading controls. The king appointed a “purser authorized to carry trade on in the king’s name, in conjunction with another purser that comes down from the king.”106 Sakalava kings and queens even allowed visiting European merchants to trade with local “Arab” merchants as well as with Sakalava representatives and appeared to be increasingly tapped into these networks crossing the southwestern Indian Ocean region.107 A Sakalava queen married an East African (or Comorian) man around the middle of the eighteenth century, according to English and Dutch reports.108 Sakalava kings and queens also incorporated Islamic beliefs and rituals into their practice of divine kingship and some converted to Islam by the early nineteenth century.109

      Instead of destroying trade networks along the northwestern coast, Sakalava rulers reestablished them, under their control, and continued to expand the export trade by extending their power, directly and indirectly, even further into the island. From the northwest coast, the Sakalava rulers gained significant influence over the north of the island during the eighteenth century, but we have few details about how this occurred, as Europeans largely avoided the rocky northern coast of Madagascar prior to the mid-eighteenth century. For example, a 1665 Dutch map displays, with some accuracy, ports around the coast of Madagascar, except in the north. The mapmaker labeled this region “pays incogneu,” an unknown land.110 By the end of the eighteenth century, following several European visits, it became clear that the Sakalava rulers indirectly controlled much of this region as well.111 As the French observed in 1742, several coastal rulers throughout the northern region had familial ties to the Sakalava king at Boina to whom they owed tribute.112

      As other Europeans began to frequent major ports dotting the northern coastline, including Nosy Be, Diego Suarez (Antsiranana), and Vohémar, they also noticed that the rulers in these locations all claimed to be blood relatives of the Sakalava ruler of Boina.113 In the 1770s, the French sent several expeditions to explore the north of the island. One representative, Nicolas Mayeur, discovered that a Sakalava leader ruled over a northern province stretching from the west coast to Vohémar in the east. The king, named Lamboine (L’Amboine, Lamboeny), lived in the extreme north of the island in Ankara and oversaw some twenty local leaders controlling smaller provinces. These monarchs ruled over smaller villages located along rivers, which both enabled the easy transportation of trade items to the coast and provided water for growing crops.114 Local leaders sent Lamboine annual tributary payments in rice, cattle, and slaves, which were later sent to Boina. A benevolent ruler, Lamboine exempted the communities from the tributary payments during times of war and privation.115

      This picture of tolerance was not without violence. In 1774, the French observed that Lamboine sent five hundred armed men to attack various villages throughout the north. His army raided and stole cattle from villages not already under his control. As a result of their growing military and commercial power, the influence of the Sakalava was expanding all the way to northeastern Madagascar. By 1780, the French discovered that the Sakalava king also had an alliance with a king named “Raminti” ruling over the port of Vohémar on the northeast coast.116 When the French tried to negotiate for cheaper cattle prices from the people of the north and bypass the Sakalava monopoly at Boina, they discovered the extent of Sakalava control over the commerce of northern Madagascar. The Sakalava kings and queens forbade the people in the north to sell cattle directly to French merchants.117

      THE LIMITS OF SAKALAVA POWER

      By the close of the eighteenth century, the Sakalava king in Boina was known to be a “despotic” king who treated “all of his subjects” as slaves, just as his ancestors had “since time immemorial.”118 Despite this description, it is far from clear that Sakalava queens and kings exercised any sort of absolute domination over communities in western Madagascar. Indeed, the continued reliance on various other elites, translators, and merchants to complete trading agreements with Europeans suggests otherwise. Rather than exercising direct rule, the Sakalava leaders appear to have controlled portions of Madagascar by forming tributary relationships with other communities and marrying into the families of their neighbors. Powerful military, religious, and political leaders thus became kin and part of the Sakalava family.

      Karen Middleton has described a similar pattern of political rule among the Karembola in south-central Madagascar. She has argued that “power is concentrated at the center; at the outer margins the ruler’s

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