Tòkana: The Collapse of the Rural Malagasy Community

Abstract

Abstract:Madagascar is often cited as an example of a country with a long history of local institutional strength and stalwart community participation in the decision-making process. This article explores the crisis of community life in southern Madagascar, particularly the changed nature of community involvement. Associational life is in decline—a result not only of challenging economic conditions, but also of eroded social norms, as the rule-making institutions of the past have been replaced by the loose guidelines of the present. This situation, which has the potential of exacerbating economic problems, is also likely to have grievous political and ecological consequences.

The cattle raiders leave us no choice: New transhumance in the Mahafaly Plateau region in Madagascar

“…This change in the social environment has led to a modification of the traditionally shared mental models of 'the people love each other' and 'we are all one kin'. As described for other parts of Madagascar (Fauroux 1997, Ferraro 2002, Marcus 2008, the local unconditional hospitality shifts towards a narrower concept of kin including only people of the same descendancy (Bloch 1968, Keller 2009). From other pastoral societies around the world, social constraints on pastoral mobility and emerging conflicts are also known to be caused by narrowing or lacking solidarity and reciprocity (Finke 2000, Thébaud and Batterbury 2001, Beyene 2009).…”

“…Identity and kinship are understood in a broad sense of being created throughout one's life and "settled definitely perhaps only some considerable time after death" (Bloch 2005: 65). Identity is "fluid" (Marcus 2008: 88), changing with a persons' environment, association, choice and need (Bloch 2005, Marcus 2008). Moving herders and cattle owners from the plateau and the coastal plain were interviewed about the transhumance movements in general and their personal ways of conducting the move.…”

Whither the Community? Lessons Madagascar Can Learn from Israel’s Water Policy

“…Effective water "management" is challenged by the politics of water management. Kislev [8] notes the tremendous institutional gains made in Israeli water governance, pointing to state of the art water treatment plants, limitation on the supply side of potable water for agricultural purposes in favor of water designated for agricultural use, and water corporations under local authorities. However, he argues, transparency in governance remains elusive.…”

“…This is most likely due to the measurement method. Whereas Droy and Dubois include any salary plus all assets, both fixed and consumable, Marcus includes only consumable [8,9]. 2 Given the content of the statement, I will leave the quote anonymous.…”

Conceptualizing the Survival Sector in Madagascar

“…As seasonal variations in food prices in this period were three times as high in rural areas (2002:495), food availability and affordability is likely to be an important factor leading to rural–urban migration, a situation facilitated by dissolving community relations caused by an increasingly difficult economic situation: “the root cause of the decline in Malagasy community life is economic hardship. People do not associate with one another because they are too busy trying to eat” (Marcus 2008:86). In line with these findings, Minten and Barrett (2008:818) identified agricultural productivity as a key factor in addressing poverty: “The empirical evidence strongly favors support for improved agricultural production as an important part of any strategy to reduce the high poverty and food insecurity rates currently prevalent in rural Madagascar.”…”