Malaza Local Customs

What can I say ?
We use to party hard...

For the family being big, tied but spread out, we value those Sundays spent together. From my Dad only, I have circa 45 cousins, grand-children of a couple: my Dad's father and mother. Gee! I admit spending Sundays alone has been the toughest thing I got to really get used to when arriving in Belgium.

When I lived in Malaza, our Sundays were almost dedicated to some of our aunts and uncles coming at our place. Those were simple gatherings. Sometimes, they advised they were intending to come, others not... Just come as you are with enough food for your household. We then displayed all the dishes on the table and shared what was there. Sometimes, my parents called a bbq session, then together with the usual suspects, they planned the meal (to each household something to prepare: either meat, dessert, starter or rice... anyways, us, the kids used to find those fun.. carefree days munching, partying around the pool and under the shade of the poolhouse and the trees.

Since then, kids grew up... many of my cousins have their significant ones. Good! The more the merrier. Most of my 45 cousins are married now (many have kids), that just double or treble the partyers headcounts.

Some have settled in Malaza, others stayed in the city, a third category had gone either abroad either in other cities. Thus, we have to plan our gatherings in advance. For our March 6 get together, we had to seek for a day that would fit the most of us. Still, those in remote areas couldn't attend. Nonetheless, the loss in spontaneity hadn't affected the fun... in the contrary.

It was cheering and fun to see my uncles and aunts, my parents pampering their grand-children. To think, those were the partyers of my childhood and teenhoud. Nowadays, my generation has taken over... We even have our mother of all parties, Dolores.

As my generation managed to take over from the previous generation, the following generation, probably led by this young lady Lorraine, will manage too.

For me, she appeared to be one of most "partyer" of the kids of her generation (i.e, my nieces & nephews')... yes! she will... and she won't be alone.

Vokatra means "result" or "harvest" or "output", depending on the context. Vokatra I refer to are the auctions made to collect money (fund raising) for the parishes. They use to take place in countryside churches.

You have to understand that most of families in urban Tana have their roots in Tana surroundings (countryside). Malagasy people are fervent believers. They use to return once a month (if not each week-end) to the village where they originate from. One sunday to attend the mass and pay visit to relatives. My dad's family comes from Malaza. Most of my uncles and aunts live in urban area for convenience. But on week-ends, at least, on Sundays, they use to pay us a visit, bring food and we spend Sundays together, sharing food and chat. Listening to music. So do many families.

Easter is the time for countryside parishes to raise funds. They use to be the sole auctions of the year. For this, those who live in the area use to boast the zanak' ampielezana (lit. "children whom one uses to inform"). The latter are, for us, my uncles who live in urban Tana but who have their parish in countryside. It happens that they go to other parishes but they are strongly tied to this particular one since, for instance, my grand-grand-father built this Anglican church in Malaza. So, they are zanak'ampielezana. Can't escape from that, I think. :)

The D day, after the mass, at 11.30 am, attendees gather in the church parish court, for chatting and auctionning. The vokatra are food items (cakes, starter, dishes), poultry, snacks, fruit... Usually, they are local products (harvests... red rice, peanuts, cassava, voanjobory, those peas on the picture that are proper to Malagasy cuisine..). This event gathers many people since zanak' ampielezana join the locals to buy vokatra, to finance works on the church or social actions... I love the ambience there.

Around noon, when everything has been sold, they count the raised amount and families head to their place, with the purchase, dine with a feeling of duty done.

To cultivate rice, the villagers share the Laniera plains with other neighbouring villages' inhabitants. The Laniera plains had been fit by King Andrianampoinimerina (short. Nampoina) who ruled, at first place, Ambohimanga hill and, gradually, surrounding area till he conquested Antananrivo itself. To organize economy and feed the Greater Antananarivo area, Nampoina had fit Laniera (18th cent.), just as had his predecessors, decades earlier, who arranged Betsimitatatra plains in West and South-West of Tana.
Laniera plains occupy a great part of North and North-East of the Tana.

It's simple, between the many hills that the area counts (amongst them the 12 sacred ones), there should be plains. Since dwellings occupied the hills, plains were fit to feed the growing population, rice being the staple food.

Rice cultivation in Madagascar implies several steps and activities as rice plants grow. Each person in charge of his plot(s) uses to work solely on his plot(s), with his sons sometimes and zébus. However, there are bigger works such as harvesting that require the help of other persons and to avoid crops being flooded, one has to hurry up in collecting them (talking about vary aloha, lit. early rice, that is harvested from Jan, coinciding with start of the rainy season, till March). For centuries, solidarity played some role here: everybody is getting ready to help a peasant collecting his crops. Harvesting a plot may take up to a week. Evenings are the scene of diners at the crop owner's around a communal table. When it's done with a plot, "next time" (the following week, generally) is for another harvesting... so on and so on.. till everyone has his crops in his yard.

Solidarity had prevented peasants to hire the services of harvesters that are reported to cost too much for the meager resources of the peasants.