J. J. Rabearivelo, Literature and Lingua Franca in Colonial Madagascar (review)

We have been waiting for a long time for a complete study in English of the works of Malagasy poet Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo (1903-37), and Moradewun Adejunmobi has not disappointed us. Rabearivelo is virtually unknown on this side of the Atlantic; I would even venture to say that he is little known in the anglophone world. By publishing his study in English, Adejunmobi not only does justice to this great Malagasy writer (doubtlessly Madagascar's greatest), but this tribute, though a little late, also coincides with the anniversary of the ceremonies commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the tragic death of this poet from the "Great Island." The work contains four chapters, of which three are devoted to the works of Rabearivelo. In all, Adejunmobi shows us—in order—the poet, the playwright, and novelist, and finally the translator.

In the chapter devoted to his study of the poet, one possible fear was that Adejunmobi's analysis would fall into the well-tread paths of previous studies focusing primarily on the poet's struggle fought on two fronts: against the colonial authorities in order for his works to be accepted and against the alienation of the Malagasy bourgeoisie who refused to recognize him as their poet and spokesperson at the time. But it turns out that this fear is unfounded, because, by focusing his study on the negative attitude of the metropolitan French with regard to any work coming from colonial writers, whoever they may be, Moradewun Adejunmobi succeeds in helping us to understand the fairly closed atmosphere of the local literary circles in Madagascar of the '20s and '30s. By enlarging her field of study, she succeeds in helping the reader to understand the importance of the struggle led by these colonial writers and even shows us Rabearivelo as the leader of future generations of poets and writers of today's francophone world.

Adjunmobi's greatest contribution can be found in the chapter entitled "Le dramaturge et le romancier" (The playwright and the novelist). Indeed, none of the studies up to now has ever mentioned that Rabearivelo also ventured into these two domains. In order to better understand the reason for this silence, let us analyze these two genres separately.

The totality of the Malagasy poet's dramatic works includes two plays: Imaitsoanala, fille d'oiseau and Aux portes de la ville. Imaitsoanala, fille d'oiseau is a drama about filial love that could be summarized in these words, put into the mouth of one of the characters at the end of the play: "Si tu aimes ton époux, aime également ta mère" 'If you love your spouse, love your mother equally' (32). Aux portes de la ville is a play lacking a framework, being simply the juxtaposition of six scenes representing the Malagasy traditions. The failure of these two plays can be easily understood, because Rabearivelo himself admitted that "[l]e théâtre dramatique nous [Malgaches] est inconnu . . ." 'Dramatic theater is unknown to us,' and the French audience whom this could have interested did not like the choirs in the first play and criticized the lack of structure in the second.

As for the novel, the absence of any analytical study can be easily explained by the fact that the existence of Rabearivelo's two novels was not made public until only recently in 1988. L'interférence and Un conte de la nuit comprise the totality of his novels. L'interférence, a historic novel, begins under the reign of Ranavalona I with the persecution of Christians and ends with a dramatic love trilogy between a young Malagasy woman, a young Malagasy man, and a young Frenchman. Un conte de la nuit, an autobiographical novel, is nothing other than the retelling of a very difficult period in the life of Rabearivelo, that...