StapleMadagascar
Vary sy Laoka
Rice with an accompaniment, which is how Malagasy people describe a meal. Madagascar eats more rice per head than almost anywhere on earth, three times a day.
Serves 6 · 30 minutes
Bara
The cattle people of Madagascar's southern plateau — herders for whom stealing zebu was a required proof of manhood before marriage, and whose dead are carried up sandstone cliffs into caves that nobody can reach.
Bara people
Bara 09.JPG · Wikimedia Commons
Identity
Population: Around 700,000 in south-central Madagascar
Location: The Ihorombe plateau and the Isalo massif — Ihosy, Betroka and Ranohira
Language: Malagasy (Bara dialect)
Language family: Austronesian → Malayo-Polynesian → Malagasy
Traditional governance: Clan chiefdoms (mpanjaka) with lineage elders; the fokonolona assembly; Malagasy communal administration today, with cattle theft a chronic security problem.
Clans, Sections & Sub-groups (3)
Most African peoples are federations of named sub-groups (clans, sections, chiefdoms or sub-tribes), each with its own dialect, territory and traditions.
Bara-Be
The largest division, of the central plateau.
Bara-Imamono and Bara-Iantsantsa
Northern and eastern divisions.
Bara-Vinda and Bara-Antivondro
Southern groups towards the Androy margins.
Gallery
2 images
Culture
Clothing: Lamba wraps; men's silver ornament and spears; hair and dress styles marking clan and status.
Food: Zebu milk and meat, maize, cassava and rice where irrigation allows; the herd is wealth, ceremony and social standing rather than daily food.
Ceremonies: Funerals with zebu killed and the body carried to cliff caves after temporary burial; circumcision; the savika bull-wrestling contests in which young men grapple a zebu's hump.
Marriage customs: Bridewealth in zebu; historically a young man was expected to steal cattle successfully before marrying, a demonstration of courage that the state now prosecutes as banditry.
Initiation rites: Circumcision; the cattle raid as the traditional proof of manhood; savika wrestling as a public display of the same qualities.
Food & Recipes
Every dish the Atlas publishes for Madagascar, at national rather than community level — 9 in all: the staple a household eats daily, the dish the country names as its own, street food, what is cooked for a wedding or Eid, regional specialities and a drink. Quantities and method are given for every one, so these are recipes rather than descriptions, and each has a photograph from Wikimedia Commons. The Food page carries the whole continent, searchable by country and by ingredient.
National dishMadagascar
Romazava
Beef broth with brèdes mafana, a leaf that numbs and tingles the mouth. Madagascar's national dish, once reserved for royalty, and unlike anything else in the region.
Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes
National dishMadagascar
Akoho sy Voanio
also Chicken in coconut
Chicken braised in coconut milk with ginger and tomato, the coastal Malagasy counterpart to the highland romazava, and the dish most often cooked for guests.
Serves 6 · 1 hour 15 minutes
Street foodMadagascar
Mofo Gasy
Sweet rice-flour cakes cooked in a dimpled iron pan over charcoal, sold at dawn from street carts and eaten with coffee on the way to work.
Serves Makes 16 · 2 hours
Street foodMadagascar
Koba Ravina
also Koba, Peanut rice cake
Ground peanuts, rice flour and sugar wrapped in banana leaf and steamed for hours into a dense sweet log, cut into slices and sold on every Malagasy roadside.
Serves 10 · 5 hours
Festival & feastMadagascar
Ravitoto sy Henakisoa
Pounded cassava leaves cooked with pork and coconut milk, made for family Sundays and celebrations. Pounding the leaves by hand is the whole difference between good and indifferent.
Serves 6 · 1 hour 45 minutes
Regional specialityMadagascar
Lasary
A sharp salad of tomato, onion and green mango dressed with lime and ginger, served alongside every rich dish. The Malagasy answer to a plate that needs cutting through.
Serves 6 · 20 minutes
Regional specialityMadagascar
Sakay
also Malagasy chilli paste
A fiery paste of bird's eye chilli, ginger and garlic in oil, kept on every Malagasy table and added by the teaspoon to everything.
Serves Makes about 250ml · 20 minutes
Drink & sweetMadagascar
Ranovola
also Ranon'ampango
Water boiled in the pot with the toasted rice crust left in the bottom, producing a smoky drink served with every meal. Nothing is wasted and nothing else is needed.
Serves 4 · 10 minutes
Stories & Oral Literature
The Raid and the WeddingSocial institution
Among the Bara a young man was expected to prove himself by stealing zebu, and a family might refuse a suitor who had not. The practice was a controlled exchange within a shared understanding. Automatic weapons, commercial cattle theft and organised dahalo banditry have made it lethal, and the Malagasy state's response has included mass operations and extrajudicial killings.
Tombs in the CliffFunerary tradition
Bara dead are buried temporarily, then exhumed and carried to caves and ledges high in the sandstone cliffs of the Isalo, placed where no one can easily reach them. The cliffs of the massif are full of them. The living do not visit; the point is separation, and the dead's protection from disturbance.
Proverbs
“A man without cattle has no voice at the meeting.”
Herd as standing.
“The zebu that is stolen is remembered longer than the one that is bought.”
The raid's social weight.
“The cliff keeps what the ground would give back.”
Why the dead go up.
Mythology & Spiritual Beliefs
Creation: Zanahary as creator; the razana as active powers; fady prohibitions governing places, days and foods by clan.
Beliefs: Ancestral religion; ombiasy diviners and healers; bilo possession-healing ceremonies with dancing and zebu sacrifice; Christianity present in the towns.
Ancestors: The dead are placed beyond reach in the cliffs, and their authority is exercised through diviners rather than through tomb visitation.
Gods, Goddesses & Spirits
Zanahary
The creator
Razana
The ancestors in the cliffs, the effective authority over the living
Bilo spirits
Powers addressed in possession-healing ceremonies
Architecture
Traditional settlements: Villages of timber and thatch houses behind cattle kraals on the open plateau; the Isalo cliffs holding the tombs.
Building techniques: Timber and grass construction; thorn and timber kraals for large herds; rope and ladder work for cliff burial.
Village layout: Village with the kraal at the centre and houses around; tombs in cliff ledges and caves at a distance.
Artifacts
Cliff tombs of the Isalo
Heritage site
Burial ledges and caves in the sandstone massif.
Zebu and cattle marks
Livelihood
Clan ear marks identifying ownership across a raiding landscape.
Savika wrestling
Performance
Bull-grappling contest demonstrating courage.
Silver ornament and spears
Craft
Men's status objects of the herding society.
Historical Timeline
Pre-1700
Bara clans settle the southern plateau and build a cattle-centred society.
1800s
Merina expansion reaches the plateau; Bara resistance and periodic accommodation.
1896–1960
French conquest; cattle taxation and control attempts.
1990s–present
Dahalo cattle banditry becomes organised and heavily armed.
Present
State operations against cattle theft have produced serious human rights concerns in the region.
Sources & Further Reading
Open sources
- Britannica: Madagascar — peopleEncyclopaedia Britannica
- Amnesty International reporting on MadagascarAmnesty International
Premium & scholarly sources