The South is a completely
contrasting picture. Scenes of
desperation and desolation
become the norm. The blinding
poverty is heartbreaking and very
real. Tradition dominates life in
the South. People live according
to ancient traditions and beliefs.
The number 7 is very prosperous
for the Malagasy and some rural
women still live by the belief that
to bear 7 daughters and 7 sons
each would be a blessing. This
tradition is omnipresent, as little
children are everywhere, occupying themselves in dusty soil in
tattered clothing and barefoot,
playing outside single-room
thatched huts. Their faces light up
on seeing a visitor. Elderly men and
teenage boys can be seen lugging
rickshaws-a-pied, where they carry
passengers on wooden carts with
two back wheels, whilst holding
two protruding wooden pillars and
running with their legs. It is literally
a running rickshaw. The rickshawrunners are painfully skinny from
arduous labor, their faces worn
from the pain and sweat.
Photo: Anisha Shah
Vanilla and chocolate,
Madagascan exports
Agriculture is a predominant
lifeline throughout the country.
Stepped rice paddy fields dot
hilltops and mountains, making
striking scenery, swirling across
heights and depths. During rainy
season, rice is planted but through
the dry season, potatoes are
preferred or other crops requiring
little water. Madagascar’s rice is
export quality and the best grade
is sold straight off to other countries. The nation is also known for
it’s vanilla and clove plantations,
mostly lining the North-west,
as well as cocoa and coffee
beans. Few people know this but
Madagascar does have some vineyards in the south. Wine-tasting is
a fun activity, though the product
isn’t quite upto the grade.
Southern scenes
Drives are long and faces through
the window scream abject poverty
and helplessness. Yet, the people
of Madagascar are genuinely
w arm and welcoming. As we pass
through the heart of this reality,
Tanjona tells me of a Malagasy
tradition in which any traveler
journeying long distance can
knock on any stranger’s door in
the countryside to ask for a place
to sleep, and would be taken
in. The people are gentle. The
gut-wrenching reality of their
situation is made worse by the fact
there is no help. For this reason,
they burn the precious forests
of Madagascar, for charcoal and
to sell as firewood. When simply
surviving becomes a daily priority,
there can be no blame.
Precious little remains of
Madagascar’s rainforests and
primary forest. The rest has been
deforested and the land plundered
to dearth by a process called ‘Slash
and Burn.’ It involves the burning
and felling of trees for use as charcoal and persistently scorching the
land to encourage new growth for
rice plantations, leaving the soil
deplete of nutrients and produc-
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