QUEEN RANAVALONA I

Despite having no connection to the royal family at birth, Ranavalona (1788-1861) became queen of Madagascar. She was an eccentric and sometimes cruel leader who believed strongly in the traditions of her tribe, the Merinas. While Ranavalona was in power, Madagascar resisted attacks from the French. 

 

Ranavalona was born in 1788 to a common family with no connection to royalty but eventually became queen of Madagascar. Her father discovered a plan to kill the future king, Andrianampoinimerina, and told his master who passed the information to the royal family. Andrianampoinimerina was very grateful and so adopted Ranavalona and promised that she would marry his son Radama. 

 

Radama became king and Ranavalona was his first wife of twelve. When King Radama died, his nephew Rakatobe was next in line to the throne. At that time Ranavalona had no children, but according to law, any child of Ranavalona would be heir to the throne, even if the child was born after Radama’s death. This meant that Rakatobe might kill Ranavalona to make sure that another heir would not be born and become king. Ranavalona wanted to keep power, so she gathered supporters and seized control at the palace. She was crowned queen on 12 June 1829 and arranged for Rakatobe and his parents to be killed. 

 

Ravalona undid a lot of Radama’s work by cancelling trade agreements with England and France. France attacked Madagascar but were defeated, partly by Radama’s army and partly because of malaria. Ranavalona had the heads of 21 Europeans mounted on pikes to serve as a warning to anyone who went against her.

 

Ranavalona was from the Merina tribe and once she was queen, she restored traditional Merina society. Other tribes suffered whilst she was queen, as she allowed the troops to steal from villages that were not Merina. She used a traditional Merina test for anyone who she thought might not be loyal. The person had to swallow three chicken skins and then a poisonous nut called tangena. The tangena would make the person sick, and if they vomited all three chicken skins back up then she believed they were loyal, otherwise they were punished for being disloyal. 

 

Once Ranavalona had established her power, she began to persecute christians. While King Radama was alive, he had allowed missionaries into Madagascar and they had been spreading Christianity. Ranavalona was a traditionalist, she decreed that Christianity was not to be practiced in Madagascar. Missionaries left Madagascar or went into hiding. In 1836, 14 Christians were killed for refusing to give up their religion. 

 

However, Ranavalona did not reject everything Western, she was fascinated by French fashion and also had a French confidant, Laborde. Laborde increased industry in Madagascar by setting up a factory which produced items that Madagascar otherwise had to import, such as soaps, silks and ceramics. 

 

Ranavalona became more and more confident in her power, and more strange in her choices. On one occasion she ordered that the entire court, along with their servants, go on a rhino hunt. The hunting group was made up of 50,000 people! Ranavalona said that they should build a road in front of them as they went along. The hunting trip was a disaster, many people died of starvation and heat exhaustion, and no one even saw a rhino!

 

Laborde may have been the father of Ranavalona’s son, Rakoto. Laborde and Rakoto came up with a plan to take power from Ranavalona. She heard of the plan, probably through spies, and prevented Laborde and Rakoto from taking power. She told Laborde she would spare Rakoto and his accomplices, but actually she had a plan to send them on a mission that would kill them. The mission took them through dangerous, malaria-filled swamps, many died but Laborde and Rakoto survived. 

 

On 16 August 1861, Ranavalona died. After her death, Rakoto became King Radama II but he was assassinated within two years of becoming king. By 1896, Madagascar had been successfully attacked by the French and became a French colony.