The Political Elite of Imerina and the Revolt of the Menalamba . The Creation of a Colonial Myth in Madagascar, 1895–18981Madagascar, 1895–1898

This chapter provides a painstaking reconstruction of the revolt of the Menalamba in the two years following the French invasion of Madagascar in 1895, one of the most puzzling and fascinating of all resistance movements. The most mysterious aspect of the rising has always been the question of who, if anyone, was its leader. Using previously unopened archives, the chapter tells the story of the French suppression of the uprising and prosecution of its alleged organizers, a miscarriage of justice that portended a shift in French colonial policy, in the process picking up themes of rebellion and resistance, elite politics, rumor and conspiracy, spirit mediums and religion, and nationalist myth-busting.

Art · Colonialism · Economic Justice · Elite · Literature · Mythology · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Resistance (ecology) · Rumor · African history and culture studies · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Law