SSRC-IDRF Field Research Report 1 of 3 by Jennifer Jackson Department of Anthropology, Yale University October 26, 2003

The following report is submitted in accordance with the Social Science Research Council guidelines for IDRF fellows for the academic year 2003-2004. This report is number one of three for the sponsored dissertation research project, “Getting an Edge in Wordwise: The Social and Productive Role of Verbal Performance in Malagasy Democratic Process”, by Jennifer Jackson, anthropology graduate student at Yale University. This first report details initial practical issues involved in the research as well as early steps for establishing a long-term research methodology. The report is organized in three main sections: Getting oriented and settled, Current methods, and Next steps.

Getting oriented and settled. As for practical issues, I have had a pretty easy time getting settled. Because of my time here in the capital in past years, I knew how and where to find a house pretty easily, one that was pre-furnished, yet inexpensive. I chose to live in a part of a house located in the quartier known as Faravohitra. It is a busy, mixed-zone, mostly middle-socio-economic class area and is centrally located in the capital city, . The house is always full of people, because it also serves as an office. The first floor is a common space, kitchen, and outdoor patio with a view overlooking the main part of the city. The second floor is the office, and the third is my bedroom and office space. I climb 313 steps to get home from the main downtown area. This is a town made for walking, and there are winding paths of steps leading all over the city, paths of stairs that meander through and around backyards of homes clinging to the sides of the escarpments. One finds it is both easy and almost impossible to get lost by taking a set of stairs. No matter, as long as you go up when you need to go up and down when you need to go down, the stairs will lead somewhere closer to your destination. Within the first week, I registered with the United States Embassy warden system, something researchers are strongly encouraged to do since the last Presidential election crisis in 2001. In addition to registering for the warden system, I arranged to meet with political officers there. I hope to have informal conversations with these officers to entertain their perspective on the various genres of public, verbal performance in Antananarivo, specifically as these genres inform (or not) the Embassy’s efforts in the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Democracy and Governance programs. Before I departed for , I set up a website where I could drop important information, such as this report, onto the web for easier access by people here and in the United States. So far, this system has worked very well for transferring information without using slow, dial-up email lines to send attachments. I have posted my proposal in English and French, my CV, and various other necessary credentials and explanations for the access of officials and professors here in Madagascar. Also, I have provided space for some audio and visual files made from this research that are appropriate to post in a public venue such as the web, and I have included useful links to Malagasy websites for interested researchers. Perhaps other researchers in the future would find this option as equally suitable and helpful to their research. To view the website, go to https://pantheon.yale.edu~jlj26

Current methods…for now. At this early stage in my research, I am trying to mix my time with a good amount of structured activity along with the more unstructured observation and conversation, all of which are appropriate to engaging my research questions. This plan is helpful in this early stage, because I have found in past research projects that I sometimes arrive at overwhelming moments where I am not sure what to do with myself. These structured activities, sure to happen each day, help keep the research going, even when I am lost in research anxiety. These more structured activities, for now, include, attending oratorical performances Jackson, SSRC-IDRF Report 1 of 3 such as kabary and hiragasy throughout the city; participating in kabary courses; regularly attending the president’s church; buying and translating a good-portion of the daily newspapers and cartoon gazettes; researching specific topics in the archives; and, attending university discussions about topics corresponding to my research questions. The less-structured events in my daily life include informal conversations with people in the market, on the bus, and during church events—at least 2 hours a day; and, during breakfast and lunch with those who work in the office in my house—also at least 2 hours a day. I do not have organized, formal interviews with key participants, yet. I feel it is too early to constrain these conversations with commitments to formal interviews. Also, I am still getting settled in the language and coming to know what questions to ask and how best to ask them. Also, I have learned recently, that many people, apparently, are “afraid” still to discuss political matters because of the political crisis in 2001-2002, which ended in victory for , and exile for the long-time President, . It seems as though people who did not support the current President saw how powerful his Administration has been in silencing and exiling its opponents, and they fear being punished if they speak out against the Administration. Alongside this, those who supported the President recognize the power it took to win the seat, so that when it comes to speaking freely about everyday social and political matters, they fear a backlash of that very power they supported to win the Presidency. This is just a hypothesis once confirmed by a Malagasy political sociologist here in Antananarivo, but it has been enough to keep me from establishing too much too fast.

Kabary and hiragasy performances. I have been attending a kabary or a hiragasy (hiragasy is used to describe either contemporary music or a traditional variety show) on average of once a week. There are less kabary by the President right now, because he has been preparing for the United Nations meetings in late September, but I hope to hear kabary by the President, quite soon. As for hiragasy, I have a potential key informant in one of the more popular musicians, and I am gradually seeing how others may have an interest in assisting my project. Specifically, I am pulling together questions in order to interview specific hiragasy performers, especially those whose lyrics concern political issues. So far, I am told, there are three popular groups whose lyrics seem to articulate with the actual words of politicians, or at least, address political issues: Dama, Rossy, and Tarika. To date, I have not been able to record these performances; however, I anticipate being able to do so in the near future. The kabary and hiragasy I have attended have either taken place at night when it seems unsafe to carry a camera, or in a large stadium where recording would have been limited due to distortion of the sound. However, I have documented these performances as best as possible, and they have helped me to devise a plan for handling future performances. Also, I do think it will be necessary to have at least 2 research assistants who can help me to transcribe these performances, because they tend to be an average of 2.5 hours long.

Kabary courses. Each Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, I attend kabary classes with young children, ages 11-17. I am not so great in Malagasy as to be able to participate in the kabary classes for adults, who are so skilled in this form of oratory that they make a living from various patron-client relationships involving weddings, funerals, and other ceremonies. Surely, there will be no shortage of comical moments, because I will certainly tower over these small children, yet struggle like a toddler to make the sort of winding speech necessary for kabary. Apparently, we will have a grand fete, or recital, of some sort in June, after the course is complete. By that time, I am told I will be able to make a kabary without any problem. We shall see. I must admit I am very pleased to have been invited to participate as a student in this course. I expected to be an observer in the course, and to interview kabary speakers; yet, my assumption to merely observe seems to have never entered the mind of the teachers and students, all of whom are confidant I am there, as they are, to learn by doing. I am in the process of getting a hold of the curriculum for these kabary courses, in order to get a better look at the conceptual and operative framework underlying these

2 Jackson, SSRC-IDRF Report 1 of 3 courses. Eventually, I will have more extensive conversations with my kabary counterparts—both young and old—and our teachers. This, no doubt, will prove critical to my research. I am eager to interview many of the teachers and students in a larger interview-project concerning memories of what was said in kabary and about kabary during the presidential campaign and the crisis. I am pulling together questions based on archival research of the newspapers and cartoon-gazettes from the campaign and crisis period.

Attending the President’s Church. Because the churches, especially the Protestant sect here, served as a great resource for the campaign and post-election struggles for the current president, and because Christianity is an integral part of the president’s life and work here, I attend the president’s church every Sunday. This is perhaps the easiest part of my current fieldwork, because I live just across the street from the president’s church. It is a Protestant church known here to belong to the FJKM denomination of Protestantism. FJKM stands for fiangonana jesoa kristy i’madigasikara, or glossed as Madagascar’s Church of Jesus Christ. I anticipate many of the sermons and discussions during any given Sunday to address Malagasy national politics. Already the sermons have covered topics such as the so-perceived wanton, licentious behavior of Tana’s sex workers, an issue that appeared in the daily newspapers the week preceding the sermon; and the fall of Israel to “pagan Jews and Muslims”, a subject corresponding to the current political climate in that part of the world. According to many reports of various media—newspapers, online international journals, and some conversations I have held with Malagasy here—the president baulks at the notion of separation of church and state, a significant amendment in the country’s Constitution. He insists parliament members open daily sessions with prayer, and he requires employees of his private enterprise, Tiko, to pray every morning before beginning work in this dairy factory. In fact, his motto for Tiko is “Azo matoahatra fa minoa fotsiny ihany”, Marka 3.6, which is the Scripture from the Book of Mark, Chapter 3, verse 6, glossed as “Don’t be afraid, just believe.” Attending church should prove a good way to observe the interplay of political matters discussed in formal sermons with the less informal communicative media such as television and newspapers, which seem to feed topics for sermons to the clergy. With the President as audience, I would venture to say these church meetings may index the complex relationships between the church and the Administration, if only between President Ravalomanana and his own church; between the position of the church on political matters, and, in turn, the position intimated in presidential kabary concerning matters which have been previously conveyed in sermons by the church. Surely, the sermon is the most public aspect of communication in the church. To really interrogate these relationships, the business meetings and private interaction between the high-members of the church and the president would need scrutiny, most likely an impossible task for me as researcher.

Newspaper translations and thinking through interviews with artists and writers of political papers. When I first arrived, I began to read the so-called “most popular” newspaper here, MidiMadigasikara, which is written primarily in French. This is the newspaper I was able to read online while in the States, so I picked it up at the newsstand because it was most familiar to me, I saw a lot of people with it, and it was the paper every newspaper salesman offered up whenever I approached. However, only after a few days, once the jet-lag subsided, I noticed that most people who were in the markets—selling or buying—using the public transport, or standing en masse at the newsstand reading the posted papers, were all reading the all-Malagasy “Gazetiko”. This paper always has a political cartoon on its cover, which usually corresponds with the headlining story. This cartoon section is entitled, “Fantsy”, which is a gloss for “the spur of a cock; or, to the point.” Now, I am uncertain for now which gloss is intended, a question I am sure to ask many readers and the artists themselves. Political cartoons are appropriate media to scrutinize in this research, especially as they pertain to national politics. The intertextuality of the cartoon, the headlining story, and the events, which correspond to them in past and present communicative interaction, are all very intriguing to me in this research. I am still in an early stage of research, so I have yet to interrogate many readers about the topics covered in the Gazetiko

3 Jackson, SSRC-IDRF Report 1 of 3 cartoon, but this is my plan. Also, there is another paper that circulates twice a week, which is full of cartoons that address “quotidian politiky”, everyday politics. The paper is called “Ngah!”, the utterance SAE speakers would even make when they laugh at someone’s missteps. This cartoon-gazette plays with words, switching syllables and adding extra letters to some words to make the work fit with the theme of the paper (example: gazety becomes Ngahzety in Ngah!). It seems the word play is done especially in order to poke fun or comment on current everyday political or popular events. I am just beginning to look at both of these papers, “Gazetiko” and “Ngah!” and it is my hope to meet up with the writers and artists and discuss the content in a larger picture. These discussions should index some apperceptions of language, French and Malagasy—of both the writers and what they think their audiences think about language, especially as it works as a device in politics and political identity.

Archival research. At the Bibliotheque Nationale and the National Archives, I am reading for historical background to the literacy project and policy in Madagascar before colonialism. The history of literacy policy is significant to this research, because what is defended as standard spoken and written Malagasy-officiale today are the effects of the early-mid 1800s transcription by the London Missionary Society, and the ensuing literary policy established by King Radama. Today, this standardized spoken and written Malagasy serves as the basis of comparison for all Malagasy dialects, and is tied to how certain ideological stances are made concerning oral and written genres today. Understanding this history of orienting language policy according to a comparison between a standard “non”-dialect and other dialects is important for elucidating the ways in which language is tied to identity, especially as this standard/dialect articulates with the social and political rift between the Merina, who are associated with standard Malagasy, and coastal speakers, who are associated as speaking a Malagasy dialect. Also, this ideological comparison is important to understand as it points to how certain genres of verbal performance are accepted or denied based solely on the dialect in which they are conveyed, and not their semantic content. I am looking also into the recent history of a movement of unemployed youth in Antananarivo, who, in planning the May 1972 Social Revolution along with secondary and university students, engaged in a lexicon, which switched syllables and shifted stresses of standard Malagasy and French words and phrases. This lexicon, known as zomaka, is significant today, because it is still deployed in various genres of public performance, as a mode of protest or resistance to what is perceived as political conservatism that does not reflect the “national culture”. Zomaka is also the derogatory term often used in the past to refer to slaves or descendants of slaves. The best example of this can be found in the music of contemporary artist, “Rossy”. This 1972 revolutionary group, ZOAM, Zatovo Orin’asa Anivon’ny Madagasikara (unemployed youth of Madagascar), was reorganized as the TTS, Tanora Tonga Saina (revolutionary youth), and today, part of the movement exists within the MFM, Mpitolona ho amin’ny Fanjakan’ny Madinika (Party for Proletarian Party). In doing archival research on ZOAM and delving into the examples of it today, I am trying to ascertain the lexicon’s socio-political and historical connections, so that I can begin to ask questions of what it means to people as history that informs today’s practice; furthermore, I am looking to see how zomaka is still used in political arenas, specifically as it is deployed by the MFM, and how it is deployed in non-partisan media, such as in the lyrics of contemporary music. This is especially important if people are seeking alternative modes of addressing political issues that may help them evade political confrontation. Lastly, this archival research will be useful for looking at the current administration’s apperceptions of zomaka, a topic I have already begun to address with some representatives of the Administration.

Discussions with university professors and political representatives. At least three days a week for the past two weeks, I have attended a morning lecture and discussion with university professors who speak to subjects appropriate to this research. These discussions include topics in contemporary politics, journalism, and political history, and have been taught by sociology, history, and anthropology professors. Not only have these lectures and discussions been extremely helpful to orienting my work and my questions, it has been helpful for establishing contacts with teachers and

4 Jackson, SSRC-IDRF Report 1 of 3 students who have similar research interests to mine. After attending one discussion on the history of the Merina Dynasty, I visited the former seat of the monarchy, Ambohimanga, and was guided through the area by a professor who explained the history of the monarchy in more detail than I could ever hope to glean from a book. Already, I have plans to discuss certain topics in more detail with students and professors, and I have shared my research proposal with many faculty. I plan to interact with many of these professors and students throughout my research. This interaction not only is helpful to me and to those interested in similar topics, it is what is expected here in the scholarly community.

Next steps. Even as I send this report off to SSRC, my project is gaining momentum and direction. The mayoral elections in Madagascar will take place in November, and the propaganda for them began October 25th. I have already attended several political kabary performances by candidates in the political party A.V.I., Asa Vita ny Ifampitsarana, the party of which my advisor here is a member. I also have had the fortune to sit with speech-writers for A.V.I. and observe their work as they write a speech for a candidate who will delver it as a radio address. Also, there is television, newspaper articles, and radio covering the propaganda, all of which I am paying close attention. In general, for next steps, I intend to continue all of the structured methods I have just described, throughout the duration of this research. To add, I plan to develop more organized topics for discussion, through interviews, formal or informal, and begin to record both these interviews as well as the activities they discuss. For example, and perhaps this will change, I am organizing mini-exploratory projects within this larger project, all of which I hope come together to feed the larger research questions. I will organize a small “memory-project” to document people’s stories of the Presidential campaign and crisis. The project will target memories concerning the speeches, the talk surrounding the events. This project will give historical anecdotes to elucidate more conceptual questions about what people think kabary and other speech genres are and what they accomplish. This, hopefully, will help me to organize another mini- project about kabary ideology, especially as it is taught in the kabary schools here. And, this can be read against the data I glean from hiragasy performers and newspaper cartoon-gazette artists who constrained to different genre parameters and devices, as well as completely different socio-political circumstances. Also, I plan to devise some method for gleaning more information from members of the church I attend, especially information elucidating the communicative relationship between the church and the current Administration. As I learn more in the kabary course, I would like to interview the ministers in the church to learn what they think kabary is and how they see it fitting in their work as ministers. This will be expanded, later, to include interviews with the speech-writers of the President. Working first with the church, and the kabary school, will help me to pre-test many questions about kabary and politics that I want to ask to the President’s speech writers. The newspapers need more in-depth translation and discussion, something I look forward to doing with the artists themselves and audiences to these newspapers. Mostly, I am looking forward to speaking at-length with the artists, just as I am looking forward to interviews with the musicians from groups such as Dama, Tarika, and Rossy. In addition to these interviews, I am considering serving as co- DJ to a radio show with which I have been collaborating on a music-CD project since earlier this year (2003). The only issue with this is the show deals with music from around the world, and I must constrain this already large project. Lastly, in the archives, I plan to continue research on the topics I described, as well as any areas from interviews that need clarification. The SSRC’s IDRF grant and its accompanying philosophy of research has been integral to getting the steps of this early research stage established. I have found the book that the IDRF shares with its fellows, Overseas Research, to be a necessary companion at this stage. It is very easy to try to do too much too fast, and the book, the requirement of four separate reports, as well as the information provided in the award packet have been instrumental in helping me organize how and when I will conduct various parts of this research.

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