Paper short abstract:

In this paper I retrace different approaches of dealing with the memory of the anti-colonial war in Madagascar. By discussing changing commemorative practices I ask when, how, and by whom official history is made, and discuss post-independence politics and practices of historiography.

Paper long abstract:

When the first president of the post-colonial state in Madagascar proclaimed independence from France in 1960, this act was the result of political negotiations and the starting point of a close bilateral relationship on more or less equal terms between former colonizers and colonized. This continuation on friendly terms necessitated the glorification of shared history and the suppressing of narratives of militant anti-colonial movements and colonial violence. It was not until ten years into independence that the memory of the anti-colonial uprising in 1947 officially became a lieu de mémoire in the Malagasy commemorative landscape. The second post-colonial government firmly built its anti-French politics on introducing the heroic independence movement and the brave freedom fighters into the collective national memory and establishing anti-colonialism as national heritage. Ever since the question on how to deal with the traumatic and triumphant shades of anti-colonial resistance in official commemoration has troubled politicians, historians and activists in Madagascar and France alike.

In this paper I retrace different approaches of dealing with the memory of the anti-colonial war and its heroes and victims in Madagascar. By discussing changing commemorative practices like national days, monumentisation and museumisation between 1947 and 2010 I ask when, how, and by whom official history is made, and discuss politics and practices of official and unofficial historiography of colonialism and independence.