Missionaries, Fanompoana and the Menalamba Revolt in Late Nineteenth Century Madagascar

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Periodical article

Title:	Missionaries, Fanompoana and the Menalamba Revolt in Late Nineteenth Century Madagascar
Author:	Campbell, Gwyn
Year:	1988
Periodical:	Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:	15
Issue:	1
Period:	October
Pages:	54-73
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Madagascar
Subjects:	Menalamba revolt forced labour History and Exploration Religion and Witchcraft Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/2636448
Abstract:	Historians to date have considered that the Menalamba rebels of 1895-1897 in Madagascar were primarily inspired by political and religious grievances. This interpretation, however, fails both to account for rank and file, rather than élite, rebel motives, and to recognize the major role played by the State-church in fomenting the revolt. This paper argues that it was the totality of State-church fanompoana (any service demanded by a superior of an inferior) which accounted for the rising tide of antimissionary and anti-Christian sentiment amongst the populace during the 1880s and early 1890s (termed the Menalamba revolt). It shows that the subject peoples of the Merina empire not only had to suffer State fanompoana, much of which was organized through the schools and churches, but also suffered State-church fanompoana, the major components of which were the donation of time, labour, material goods and money to the erection of churches and schools, and the maintenance of permanent State-church personnel. Abstr., ref.