History and Memory in the Age of Enslavement: Becoming Merina in Highland Madagascar, 1770-1822 [Paperback]

Pier M. Larson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0325002169 | ISBN-13: 978-0325002163 | Publication Date: July 30, 2000

In this story of the impact of slave trade on an insular African society, Larson explores how the people of highland Madagascar reshaped their social identity and their cultural practices. As Larson argues, the modern Merina ethnic identity and some of its key cultural traditions were fashioned and refashioned through localized experiences of enslavement and mercantile capitalism and by a tension-filled political dialogue among common highland Malagasy and their rulers. Larson's analysis expands traditional definitions of the African diaspora to include forcible exile of African slaves within the African continent as well as areas external to it. By locating Merina history within wider narratives of merchant capitalism, African history, African diaspora, and Indian Ocean history, Larson has produced a book that both recognizes the diversity of historical experience and highlights the structural connections of intercontinentally joined systems of forced labor.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Larson's book raises a series of challenging questions about the historical production of ethnic identity, and the complex epistemological relationships between historical memory, identity, and history. It is smart, well written, and intellectually challenging. In the historiographical level, Larson succeeds in integrating Malagasy history into the mainstream history of the continent.”–Richard Roberts, Department of History, Stanford University

Book Description

In this story of the impact of slave trade on an insular African society, Larson explores how the people of highland Madagascar reshaped their social identity and their cultural practices.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 440 pages
• Publisher: Heinemann (July 30, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0325002169
• ISBN-13: 978-0325002163
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,578,695 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #65 in Books > History > Africa > Madagascar

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars History and Memory in the Age of Enslavement, December 28, 2000

By 

Godwin R. Murunga (Evanston, IL. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: History and Memory in the Age of Enslavement: Becoming Merina in Highland Madagascar, 1770-1822 (Paperback)

Following the television series, Wonders of the African World by Henry Louis Gates Jr., the Africanist world refocused attention on slave trade in Africa. Gates Jr. oversimplified the complex history of slavery by suggesting that if Africans had not sold slaves, there would not have been any slavery. Pier Larson's text comes at an appropriate time, to demonstrate just how complex the story of enslavement was and to correctly warn that we do a lot of injustice to a complex history by stopping at identifying losers and winner, benefits and disruptions.

The study focuses on the realm of cultural transformation and is exceptional in several identifiable ways. First, it pays immense attention to the process of enslavement and to those who remained in the slave supplying society. Secondly, it re-integrates Madagascar into the wider Indian Ocean mercantile system and into the general history of Africa. Thirdly, the study demonstrates that slave trade entailed opportunities and challenges and that people made choices on the basis of their circumstances, some of which changed drastically and forced some to enslave kin, neighbors and relatives.

Larson argues that the notion of diapora ought to be extended. Many people were displaced within Africa. They were mostly women and children and they were more than those who crossed the Atlantic. The notion of diapora, he argues, ought to be extended to include intra-continental displacement. Finally, the study shows that some societies worked to create a post-slavery dispensation that was fruitful to their existence. In Madagascar, Larson demonstrates how the people constructed memories of slavery that they used to create their political and later ethnic identity as Merina while at the same time they constructed historical amnesia about those things they did not wish to remember.

This study is a welcome addition to the history of slave trade, the historiography of Africa and to the discipline of history. The study re-interprets the notion of historical sources in a more inclusive perspective. This should be intriguing to all historians. It also extends our history of social displacement which should be good reading for human rights activists, humanitarians and people operating in conflict situation. The author is not only persuasive but is also innovative and lucid in his analysis. I strongly recommend this book to all those mentioned above and students of African studies around the world.