Insularity and Musical Horizons in Madagascar. Local Networks, Global Connection and Vice Versa

In Madagascar, musical genres that were previously exclusively regional have been broadcast nationwide for a few years. One of the notable changes concerning representations lies in the transition from identity referents linked to regional and/or ethnic affiliations to referents (assigned by the capital’s media) belonging to a globalizing register: mafana music (“hot music”). Artists, taken in this category, have migrated to the capital and are building new musical forms combining regional or ethnic repertoires and international modern forms, in particular by affirming and claiming a Black belonging through borrowings from modern African and North American musical genres. The article will focus on reflecting on globalization as a horizon. An alarming economic reality, an unequal social order, strong relations of domination and dependence at the local, national and global levels, are realities that strongly mark Madagascar. However, we will see how the actors of the music studied come in part and in their own way to challenge this context by an original local/global articulation. From the so-called mafana music we will see how local music genres were formed and have built meaning by connecting to global horizons. Carried in part by young women from dominated regions and marginalized communities and who have become stars, this phenomenon refers to multiple imaginaries. It is among other things to be understood in a context of inter-ethnic relations at the national level, inherited from the colonial system and mobilizing stereotyped representations between merina (historically dominant ethnic group, of the capital) and coastal , through oppositions “white” / “black”, “Asian type” / “African type”, “civilized” / “savage”, unbridled /measured sexuality... The article will focus on analyzing the processes of positive reappropriation of these stereotypes (transition from the status of black women / coastal mainty to that of national black stars) and the articulation of the phenomenon to new regional (Indian Ocean) and international (France) mobilities through community networks that are set up via the diaspora and the internet ( Youtube, Facebook ). At the heart of identity reformulations, these musics shake up categories and the established order. Taken in emerging markets, deploying through new networks and circulations from below, they are at the center of contemporary mutations where insularity and expanded horizons are entangled

Aesthetics · Art · Colonialism · Epistemology · Ethnic group · Globalization · Literature · Musical · National identity · Phenomenon · Political science · Politics · Sociology · African history and culture studies · Anthropology · Cultural Identity and Heritage · Gender Studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Law

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