The Rising of the Red Shawls
A Revolt in Madagascar, 1895–1899
African Studies Series

Originally published in 1985, this book examines the rising of the menalamba, the Red Shawls, against French colonial rule in Madagascar in the 1890s. Using the words of the Malagasy themselves and the archives of the Malagasy kings and queens, as well as European records, it tells from the inside the story of an Afro-Asian society at a moment of crisis. In the century before the French conquest, rising tensions between modernising kings, self-seeking Christian oligarchs and reactionary guardians of the ancient talismans had weakened the capacity of the kingdom to resist. But just two months after the French occupation of the capital the menalamba revivalist movement sought to restore the customs of the ancestors and expel the French from the island. The civil war of 1895?9, which was fully described here for the first time, has cast a shadow on Malagasy politics ever since.

List of maps; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. The decline of Imerina; 2. The provinces of Madagascar; 3. The fall of Imerina (November 1894 to November 1895); 4. The rising of the menalambra (December 1895 to October 1896); 5. The war of the sects (November 1896 to November 1897); 6. The spread of resistance (1897 to 1899); 7. Conclusion; Appendix 1. Chronology of events; Appendix 2. Glossary of Malagasy words; Appendix 3. Biographies of principal Malagasy figures; Notes; Bibliography; Index.