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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Myth and History: The Malagasy 'Andriambahoaka' and the Indonesian Legacy |
Author: | Ottino, Paul |
Year: | 1982 |
Periodical: | History in Africa |
Volume: | 9 |
Pages: | 221-250 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Madagascar |
Subjects: | monarchy traditional rulers history myths (form) Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) History and Exploration |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/3171607 |
Abstract: | While it is beyond doubt that Madagascar received people, techniques, and ideas from all the areas around the Indian Ocean, recent work confirms the dominance of a double - or rather a triple - component: an Indonesian one, much Indianized before being tinged with a particular brand of Shi'ite Islam around the 13th century; an Arabo-Persian influence; an African, particularly Bantu, influence. The more recent, 'Islamized', arrivals brought with them new political concepts that led to the emergence of the first Malagasy kingdoms at the beginning of the 16th century. The concept of a kingship based on the mystic pre-eminence of a sovereign of which the prototype were the Andriambahoaka was introduced into Madagascar by the first Malagasy dynasty, the ZafiRaminia. The ZafiRaminia were Indonesians, Indianized but presenting a superficial layer of heretical Islam. The Malagasy dynasties are connected with the ZafiRaminia. The amalgamation of Indian(ized) and Islamic traits in the Malagasy synthesis appears in the whole mythic literature, legendary and historical, that constitutes 'the Cycle of the Andriambahoaka'. This Malagasy synthesis is characteristically Indonesian. Fig., notes, tab. |