L’activisme politique des descendants d’esclaves à Antananarivo : les héritages de Zoam

Abstract

Cet article analyse les héritages laissés par un mouvement malgache d'inspiration marxiste, né en 1972 et composé de jeunes d'origine servile, dans les trajectoires politiques et les discours des ex-militants et des habitants des « bas quartiers » d'Antananarivo. Il considère le rôle que ce mouvement a eu dans la renégociation de la position sociale des descendants d'esclaves au cours des dernières décennies, les trajectoires de vie des militants après la disparition du mouvement et la manière dont le stigmate de l'origine servile a été reproduit, contesté et teinté de nouvelles valeurs politiques. Dans plusieurs régions de Madagascar, comme dans d'autres contextes africains 1 , l'ascendance servile continue d'être fortement stigmatisée. Cet état de fait n'est que rarement devenu une référence explicite des mobilisations politiques ou un objet de débat public 2. La honte liée à l'ascendance servile s'est perpétuée malgré l'abolition officielle de l'esclavage en 1896 et a poussé la plupart des descendants d'esclaves à cacher leur origine 3. L'héritage de l'esclavage est une question qui reste difficile à aborder, qui suscite l'embarras (des descendants d'esclaves, mais aussi des descendants de personnes 1

The risk of sliding down

“…Conversely, for many employers of noble and free origin, having domestic workers is the most explicit way of reaffirming a social status that they believe is insufficiently recognized in the political arena (Gardini 2015). 11 This is particularly true if a family's economic fortunes have declined, thus making the employment of a domestic an even more important status marker.…”

“…Ference 2016), Malagasy domestic workers must bear the weight of stigma and exploitation alone. They have not reappropriated their stigmatized status as a political weapon, as some slave descendants of the bas quartiers of Antananarivo did in the 1970s (Gardini 2015; Randriamaro 1997), nor have they found in the “neoabolitionist” rhetoric an empowering tool. On the contrary, they have tried their best to resist the processes of essentialization to which they are subjected in a desperate (and often lonely) effort to avoid class relations being read and metaphorized through the prism of status distinctions.…”

“…1111The country's political trajectory is often simplified through the prism of a long‐standing opposition between the highlands’ noble Merina elite of free and noble origin, who ruled much of the country during the 19th century, and the slave descendants and “people of the coasts” who, during the colonial and postcolonial periods, acquired a supposedly privileged position (Gardini 2015; Randriamaro 1997). …”

The chameleonic nature of freedom: notes on the concept offahafahanain the Highlands of Madagascar

“…This is the reason it is so difficult to find.' With these words, Rado, 1 a Malagasy former political activist who participated in the popular demonstrations of 1972 that ended the Tsiranana regime (Randriamaro 1997;Gardini 2015;, resumed a very long conversation we had on the (unfulfilled) aspirations of young people of slave origin in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, and the political role they played in those years. Like many others among my Malagasy interlocutors, 2 he found it easier to talk about the many forms of bondage, constraints and restrictions characterizing the life of those who were at the bottom of local social and economic hierarchies than about 'freedom'something that he considered alternately as a relatively abstract concept, a rhetorical device, or a promise that could never be fulfilled entirely.…”

“…7 Marriage between 'free' and slave descendants continued to be socially forbidden and slave descendants understood quickly that their 'liberation' by the colonial power was not considered legitimate by a significant part of the Merina elite. They might have achieved formal emancipation, but what mattered most was their inability to provide 'clean' genealogies and family histories (Razafindralambo 2005;2014;Graeber 2007;Regnier 2015;2020;Regnier and Somda 2019;Gardini 2015;2020;.…”