Madagascar: Zafimaniry marquetry and Ambositra

Our journey continued along R7, heading south towards the city of Ambositra, which is located about 100km south of Antsirabe. It was going to be around lunchtime before we were going to arrive here, so it was all about sitting back and enjoying the ride – as much as that is possible on the roads of Madagascar. It was a case of beautiful scenery and horrible, potholed roads which seemed to be getting worse the further we went.

We were moving away from the highland territories of the Merina people to the lands and Betisleo ethnic group. The Betsileo are the third largest ethnic group in Madagascar in terms of population. They chose their name, meaning “The Many Invincible Ones”, after a failed invasion by King Ramitraho of the Menabe kingdom in the early 19th century. The Betsileo occupy the south of the Madagascar plateau. Their traditional territory extends from the north of the Mania River in the north to the foot of the Andringitra Massif in the south; to the west by the Bongolava chain and to the east by the Eastern Forest, occupied by the Tanala tribe. Most of the Betsileo region lies within the boundaries of the Malagasy province of Fianarantsoa, where their capital city of the same name can be found.

Most Betsileo are either Catholics or Protestants. The Betsileo also continue to observe many aspects of their pre-Christian religion. Their supernatural realm includes beings, powers, and forces. Among the beings are deities, souls, ancestral spirits, ghosts of evildoers and legendary beings, and spirits of nature and water. Like the Merina people the Betsileo practice exhumation and have large ancestral tombs. As well as communal tombs the Betsileo, especially the wealthier ones build large multistorey homes, to demonstrate their financial status which is multigenerational and passed from father to son. If the family grows larger, they simply extend the family home. As we passed through towns and villages on our way to Ambositra we were able to see these homes alongside the road.

Another oddity we saw as we drove was young boys wrestling with zebu bulls on the side of the road. In Madagascar, the traditional type of cattle is called a zebu, a large beast with a large fatty hump on its shoulders and floppy ears which originated in the Indian subcontinent. They are strong animals and frequently used for pulling carts and ploughs, they are also used for meat and milk production, although their milk production is not very high. These boys were practising a form of traditional bullfighting called ‘Savika’. This centuries-old sport is a rodeo-like sport practised by Betsileo men and it’s considered a rite of passage for young men. The sport consists of bullfighters locally known as “mpisavika” and a very angry bull called a “zebu”. To determine the winner of the traditional sport, the mpisavika must climb and hold on to the bull’s hump the longest without getting stomped on or stabbed with its long and hard horns. It is a big thing in the areas where the Betsileo live, in the larger towns there are stadiums where Savika tournaments are held.

As predicted it was late morning as we approached Ambositra, which is in the centre of a picturesque valley lined with rice paddies and ringed by verdant peaks. This town is the heart of Zafimaniry territory. The Zafimaniry are a sub-group of the Betsileo that live in the forested mountains of the southern central highlands southeast of Ambositra. There are approximately 100 Zafimaniry villages and the total population of this group is estimated to be only 25,000. They are known for their woodcarving knowledge and art, which was added in 2003 to UNESCO’s list of the world’s Intangible Cultural Heritage. This style of woodworking was once common throughout Madagascar but has decreased because of deforestation. Their art is considered by historians to provide insight into the applied arts of the past in Madagascar. This is why we had come to Ambositra to see the woodcarving and marquetry skills of the Zafimaniry.

Ambositra is a busy town and with our arrival at lunchtime, it was a buzz with people going about their business and school children going home on their lunch break. The roads were jammed with rickshaws full of school children, in some cases a rickshaw would have ten people packed inside. Somehow Zo managed to find a place on the side of the road, and we hopped out.

We followed an alley and into a small, dark room full of hand tools, bits of wood and partially completed wood carvings and inlaid marquetry. In the next room, we could see the man who we’d come to meet, one of the Zafimaniry craftsmen, who was talking to some other visitors. His workshop was so small you could only get 3 or 4 people in there at one time. Once the other people had left, we were able to go into the workshop.

The artisan was a middle-aged man, his exact age was hard to tell, but if I had to guess I would have said he was our age. He was working on marquetry and there was a lot of his work lying around the workshop. His basic tool was a manual reticulating saw. The downward motion was down by a press of his foot, the return was created by a spring, which had obviously been salvaged from a bed. We asked about the blade, which he told he made himself by taking the wire from an old car tyre and making the serrated edge himself. The level of his craftsmanship was amazing, especially considering the tools he had to use to create the marquetry.