Pier M. Larson. History and Memory in the Age of Enslavement. Becoming Merina in Highland Madagascar, 1770-1822. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann, 2000. xxxii + 414 pp. $24.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-325-00217-0. Reviewed by Gwyn Campbell Published on H-SAfrica (April, 2001) [Review Editor's note: H-SAFRICA is pleased sources, they produce dry, detached analyses that, to introduce the frst of our REVIEW ARTICLES/ at their worst, are mere exercises in number ROUNDTABLES in which interesting new books crunching. His list of prominent 'culprits' includes are reviewed by multiple authors. A further re‐ Walter Rodney, Phyllis Martin, Joseph Inikori, view of this book will follow. Raised here are im‐ Paul Lovejoy, David Eltis, Joseph Miller, Patrick portant differences between 'cultural'/'oral' and Manning, Robin Law, John Thornton, Stanley En‐ 'orthodox' or empirical historians and questions german, James Searing and Martin Klein. In ignor‐ of method that may prove fertile discussion ing techniques that might uncover the 'African' di‐ points.] mension of enslavement, their approach, Larson Introduction writes, is both 'narrow' and colonialist: This book sets out to examine the impact of ... most major studies of the slave trade pub‐ the slave export trade between 1770 and 1822 on lished during the last twenty years are based ex‐ Imerina, a small region of the central highlands of clusively or near exclusively upon contemporary Madagascar. However, its aim is wider. Assuming written documents produced by Europeans. The the role of spokesman for 'cultural' and 'oral' his‐ reluctance of historians of African slavery and the torians, Pier Larson launches an attack on 'ortho‐ slave trade to meaningfully engage African mem‐ dox' empirical historians of Africa and the slave ories is a serious shortcoming that returns African trade for their neglect of 'oral' history. Empirical historiography to colonial patterns. (p. 279) historians, he claims, neglect the history of en‐ Larson advocates rather research into 'social slaved peoples, some 24 million who remained in memory - defined as the way in which a commu‐ Africa, in part because they are preoccupied with nity understands its history or, more precisely, the Atlantic slave trade and the Afro-American ex‐ conceptualizes its experience through a variety of perience. Increasingly absorbed by quantitative means including narrative, ritual, dance, customs, assessments based on primarily European bodily practices, and other forms of socially H-Net Reviews meaningful action.' The techniques involved, history of the women of Imerina. The frst, Tanta‐ those of the 'oral' or 'cultural' historian, require ra ny Andriana, literally 'History of the Kings,' is scholars to temporarily set aside their own histor‐ presented by Larson as a 'popular' oral history ical memories with all their professional tech‐ source. The majority view is different. The Histo‐ niques and hypothesises... modifying the idea that ry of the Kings comprises a collection of royal tra‐ something verifiable and recoverable happened ditions centring on the dynasty founded by Andri‐ in the past that can be reconstructed if only factu‐ anampoinimerina in the late eighteenth century. ally accurate contemporary accounts can be locat‐ Typical of its type, it justifies the king's seizure of ed in the archives or extracted from 'oral tradi‐ power and glorifies his reign. Callet, the Catholic tions' through proper historical procedure, pro‐ missionary who compiled the History of the Kings cessing and analysis. (pp. 38-40) between 1865 and 1883, drew chiefly on courtly This polemic reflects a deep schism in the his‐ manuscripts and traditions. His initial informa‐ torical and social sciences in North America, one tion was gleaned from his time as teacher in the that needs to be set against the rise of Afro-Ameri‐ school for royalty at the court in Antananarivo, can studies and the historical legacy of America's while his main 'oral' source was Faralehibemalo, involvement in slavery and the slave trade. Lar‐ a native of Ambohimanga, the sacred capital of son thus throws down the academic gauntlet and Andrianampoinimerina (to which Callet was con‐ offers his study of Madagascar as a model of oral fined for fve years from 1876 to 1881), and who and cultural history, a contrast and corrective to was related to Rabefiraisana, a companion of the the empiricist trend. The central theme of his case celebrated hero-king.[1] Since the appearance of study is the hidden history of women in Imerina, the frst volume in 1873, the History of the Kings in the central highlands of Madagascar, from has been published in a number of editions. 1770-1822. This review assesses the validity of Larson's second source, Raombana's History, Larson's case study through an examination of is like the History of the Kings, elite in origin, and the main sources used and the techniques of in‐ a manuscript rather than an 'oral' source. Raom‐ terpretation employed. bana was of the royal lineage, a descendant of An‐ The Case Study: 'In Memory of the Forgotten' driamasinavalona, an earlier 'hero king' accredit‐ ed with frst uniting Imerina and establishing a Larson promises to reveal a history, forgotten 'golden age' that Andrianampoinimerina is said to by the Merina and hitherto undiscovered by histo‐ have recaptured. In 1820, aged 9, Raombana and rians, of the impact of the slave export trade upon his twin brother Rahaniraka were sent to Britain those who remained behind in Imerina, in the where they were educated under the supervision highlands of Madagascar. His central contention of the London Missionary Society, whose agents is that 70,000 Merina, mostly male, were exported had recently founded a mission in Madagascar. as slaves, with revolutionary consequences: mass He returned to Madagascar in 1829 aged 18, after impoverishment, a demographic imbalance that the death of Radama I, speaking only English (an‐ resulted in women entering agricultural work for other Malagasy - Raolombelona - served as inter‐ the frst time, and ultimately, a female revolt preter). Although Raombana relearned Malagasy, against the crown, focused around a sense of pop‐ his History, compiled in 1853, two years before his ular Merina ethnic identity expressed symbolical‐ death, was written in English. Later, his brother, ly through coiffure. Rahaniraka wrote a eulogy - also in English - of The Oral History Sources Radama II and his pro-European policies. Larson identifies three primordial oral histo‐ ry sources as his basis for uncovering the secret 2 H-Net Reviews Both the 'History of the Kings' and Raom‐ could be combated only by influencing the Merina bana's History are clearly 'elite' narratives, whilst courtly elite to accept English political and reli‐ the latter is heavily influenced by a British, mis‐ gious (Protestant) influence.[3] Ellis' History has sionary supervised education. They are well to be treated with due caution, and cannot be known and have been extensively used by schol‐ used with any reliability as a sole source for ars of Madagascar. events that occurred prior to 1820 - most of the Far more exciting and of potentially greater period covered by Larson's case study. significance in terms of 'oral' history is the Larson Also, a source central to some of Larson's key Fieldwork Collection, which the author identifies arguments, and from which the author has quot‐ as 135 'interviews' with 'Hira Gasy' [i.e. 'Malagasy ed extracts, is Voyage a Madagascar et aux iles Songs'], 'Famidihana ['secondary funeral'] pro‐ Comores (1823 a 1830), a two-volume work by ceedings' and people in south west Imerina. The Legueval de Lacombe. No serious historian of names, places and dates of these inteviews are de‐ Madagascar has used this work since 1871 when tailed over four pages (pp.384-88) but their con‐ Alfred Grandidier, one of the greatest scholars of tents are not revealed, and they are referred to in Madagascar, exposed it as being largely fctitious. the text but twice, in footnotes that support pe‐ [4] ripheral observations.(p. 108 n.107 and p. 151 n. Thus, far from presenting new sources of 158) Elsewhere, Larson provides a possible reason 'popular' or 'oral' historical traditions, Larson's for his neglect of this primary oral source: 'Public case study is based largely on the long published memory of enslavement... has generally faded and widely used 'elite' History of the Kings narra‐ with time and inclination, particularly among the tives and British missionary and other European descendants of slavers and slaveholders.' (p. 11) archival and published sources - one of which has By contrast, Larson makes far greater use of long been discredited. missionary sources than he does of either Raom‐ Interpreting the Silences bana or of his own Fieldwork Collection. A fre‐ In turning from Larson's sources to his inter‐ quently cited source is HOM, which he presents as pretation thereof, focus falls on the central and a primary missionary source.[2] However, HOM is novel aspect of his thesis, the 'secret history' of Larson's abbreviation for History of Madagascar Merina females (1770-1822), hitherto ignored by (London, 1838) by William Ellis, an LMS Director historians and forgotten even by the Malagasy who had never been to Madagascar, drew on mis‐ themselves (a case of what Larson terms 'social sionary journals, notably those of David Jones and amnesia'). 'Like Peter Burke', he writes, 'I see the David Griffiths (who worked largely in the orbit of historian as a "remembrancer," a custodian and the royal court from the early 1820s) and from a shaper of public memory who may remind people number of secondary sources. The only person to what they would rather forget.' (p. 286) check Ellis' manuscript was LMS missionary Joseph Freeman who arrived in Madagascar a Larson argues that the removal of 70,000 Me‐ year before the death of Radama I in 1828 and rina, mostly males, through the slave export trade was thus not in position to personally comment impoverished the ordinary people and obliged fe‐ either about the greater part of Radama I's reign, males to largely replace males in productive activ‐ or about that of Andrianampoinimerina.