UNIVERSITY OF ANTANANARIVO FACULTY OF ARTS AND HUMAN SCIENCES ANGLOPHONE STUDIES DEPARTMENT Presented for getting MASTERS DEGREE DIPLOMA IN SCIENCES OF LANGUAGE OPTION SOCIOLINGUISTICS By HERINIAINA Marie Aimee THE FUNCTIONING OF THE INTERACTION ADMINISTRATOR- CITIZEN IN RURAL AREAS: CASES OF THE RURAL COMMUNES OF BELAZAO AND AMBOHIBARY SAMBAINA The Board of Examiners : Professor Lucien RAZANADRAKOTO Professor Andrea CLEMONS Dissertation advisor : Professor Gil Dany RANDRIAMASITIANA Presentation on 27th of June, 2008 Academic Year 2007- 2008 “…if I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, but have not love, I’m nothing…” I Cor 13, 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express all my gratitude to the Almighty God for His blessing which, during my five years’ study, allows me to come eventually to the achievement of this work. Thank you Lord! I’m also deeply grateful to my dissertation advisor, Professor Gil Dany RANDRIAMASITIANA, for despite his infinite responsibilities and occupations, he has always been generous with time, knowledge and experience. Not only is he a dynamic advisor but he also teaches me to do things properly. My deepest appreciation is similarly addressed to - Professor Lucien RAZANADRAKOTO and Professor Andrea CLEMONS for their good willing to evaluate the present work. Similar thanks are addressed to the following people: - Mr Jean de la Croix MALAZAMANANA for his revision of some phonological hints. - The administrative staff of the rural communes of Belazao and Ambohibary Sambaina for their warm reception. But I would like also to thank my family especially my parents for their financial and moral supports and anyone who has contributed to the achievement of the present work May God’s ampleness reward you all a hundred times over! THANK YOU! INTRODUCTION Rural world has been the focus of many universal studies in recent years. At present, it has become more and more interesting that several researchers or groups of researchers from powerful countries as well as from developing ones do not cease publishing books and journals aimed at rural development. As for the southern countries, “grain de sel” is an inter- network gathering 3000 members spread in about sixty countries all over the world when the two-thirds of which are in the sub-Saharan Africa: it consists of a bank of ideas in which debates, exchanges and training on rural subject are discussed in a joint publication, a journal published every three months. Countless countries all over the world are therefore turning to rural concerns. In Madagascar too, the current government is giving priority to rural development. But why is it so important to develop rural world? It is a fact that rural development contributes largely not only to the economic but also the general development of a country. However, this is not the main reason why we have chosen to conduct a study on rural society. Aware of the fact that it is not only a problem of administrative, financial or economic nature but rather human problems, we have decided to conduct a study that targets peasants or rural people who represent approximately the 85, 5% of the Malagasy population and who are but our compatriots. According to the agricultural campaign 2004-2005, the island has counted 13.950.000 (thirteen million and nine hundred fifty thousand) rural individuals1. This big majority of population deserves an appeal for some betterment within social frameworks. Rural development is already included among the eight commitments intended for the implementation of the so called Bold and Exciting Plan for Rapid Development; the Madagascar Action Plan or MAP. But how can we reach there if we do not consider first rural realities? Or if we are not aware of what really happens there? Rural concern covers a relatively vast field which has already been viewed from various domains: agricultural, economic and social. For the last domain, education improvement and health services were already carried out. Also, in the MAP, the fourth commitment which is “Rural Development and a Green Revolution” is made up of six great 1 Recensement de L’Agriculture - Campagne agricole 2004-2005, p 3 1 challenges namely “(1) secure land tenure, (2) improve access to affordable rural financing, (3) launch a sustainable green revolution, (4) promote market oriented activities, (5) diversify rural activities and (6) increase the agricultural value added and promote agribusiness”2. The matter is that when referring to rural land, communication is the last element to come to our mind. Very little consideration is given to communication and its existence is even almost forgotten. We should have noticed that none of these challenges deals with improving communication. Yet, there is no denying that an effective communication is what rural world lacks more particularly in our country. Bringing about revolution and development would be impossible without the consent and persuasion of rural people. Yet, due to their traditional culture, rural people need a particular logic to accept a change and to be fully integrated in a new culture or civilization. Communication is then fundamental to the development of rural world. The Malagasy government has already taken an initiative to this element; it is noted in the MAP that better roads and communication networks will be established in order to further support rapid rural development. But this would not touch the “rural” himself. Considering the fact that even thinking of entering village hall office makes peasants afraid, we would rather direct the approach of communication to the context of administration and bureaucracy. In L’Administration Publique à Madagascar, MASSIOT, M. postulates that in Madagascar, the participation of rural populations to public life still remains a badly solved problem and that the forms of decentralized administration in the countries of the Third World still need to be further studied. As such, the urgency of the situation compelled us to refer to communication which is the first and foremost best way to get to the reduction of this gap between the government and rural people. To contribute to this issue, we have chosen to focus particularly on administrative communication in rural area. But as WATZLAWICK notes it ”Un phénomène demeure incompréhensible tant que le chant d’observation n’est pas suffisamment large pour qu”y soit inclus le contexte dans lequel le dit phénomène se produit”3 , our focus consists primarily of an authentic observation of the interactions between administrators and citizens in communal offices. By so doing, we have studied in particular the cases of the rural communes of Ambohibary Sambaina and Belazao which are both parts 2 Madagascar Action Plan 2007-2012, p. 064 3 Alex Muchielli, Jean Antoine Corbalan, Valérie Fernandez, Théorie de processus de la communication, Armand Colin (Masson), Paris, 1998, p. 15 2 of the Sous prefecture of Antsirabe II. We have made lots of raids in the two places and recorded some useful pieces of conversation and discourse. But we have also enriched information from an intensive reading about the theoretical and experimental frameworks of the research. We have particularly focused our study on the observation of two particular sections: copy of act of birth and register office practice. As such, we have tried to determine the problems of the interaction, understand peasants’ expectations and aspirations, and suggest some solutions adapted to rural logic. Then, we realize that “communicational problems constitute a determining factor of behaviour change of rural people”. Interacting in an administrative or bureaucratic context is a strange and different phenomenon for peasants that if they have the chance to, they would escape from it in their daily lives. So to begin with, the first part will present with details the settings of the research: description of the two places of investigation, theoretical and experimental frameworks of the research and the methodology used. Then, in the second part, we will concentrate on the culture of the two rural communes as seen through administrative practices: users ‘presentation, social divisions of work, civil marriage practice and language use. At last, we will focus on the correlation between different factors resulting in a failing administration and communication while suggesting at the same time some appropriate remedies to these failures. 3 PART I: PRESENTATION OF THE RESEARCH SETTINGS I.1. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PLACES OF INVESTIGATION Our research is conducted in two rural communes in the Vakinankaratra region: Belazao and Ambohibary Sambaina. Both communes are parts of the “sous-prefecture” of Antsirabe II, the Prefecture of Vakinankaratra, and the autonomous province of Antananarivo. Picture n° 1 Location map of the places of investigation FTM-BD 500 4 I.1.1. The rural commune of belazao I.1.1.1. Historical and geographical background I.1.1.1.1. Historical insight The commune of Belazao was in the old time the site of a market of reputation. People do come there to make purchases but mainly to exchange information which never knows an end, hence the name “BELAZAO” (much information). I.1.1.1.2. Geographical location of the commune The rural commune of Belazao is demarcated by the four following communes North: Antanimandry South: Mangarano and Tritriva East: Antsirabe I West: Tritriva Leaving from Antsirabe city and following the national road RN° 34 until reaching the village of Talata Andraikiba, one just turns off to the left and runs 4 kilometres of the RIP to be welcome to Belazao4. I.1.1.1.3. Territorial organization The rural commune of Belazao is made up of 7 Fokontany: Belazao which is the administrative centre, Amboniavaratra, Anjanamiakatra, Miadakofeno, Andranonandriana, Tsarahasina and Ambohinapetraka. It covers an area of 38, 89 km2. It is densely populated with about 243 inhabitants per square kilometre. I.1.1.2.