Fianarantsoa, Madagascar

The Malagasy City of Good Education


On my way
A group of teenagers walks through an alley in the upper town of Fianarantsoa.
A Home in Green
Traditional house detached below the houses of the Upper Town of Fianarantsoa.
Merina boy
Boy of Merina ethnicity wrapped up in a cool morning.
Christian family
Faithful descend from a mass at the foot of the Upper City
Secure: high zone
Townhouse in the Upper Town of Fianarantsoa with the Cathedral of Ambonzontani highlighted, on the right.
Mass time
Mass in one of the various Christian churches in Fianarantsoa.
Contemplation
Residents of the Upper Town of Fianarantsoa with time to contemplate.
To bail out high and old
House of the Upper Town of Fianarantsoa.
Ambozontani
The Cathedral of Ambonzontani, the largest church in the Upper Town of Fianarantsoa.
Rova's Life
Moment of life at the foot of the Upper Town of Fianarantsoa.
Balance on typical balconies
Chicken on a balcony typical of the Upper and Old Town of Fianarantsoa.
Credit Lines
Retail of traditional religious and residential architecture in the Upper Town of Fianarantsoa.
conversation in day
Young residents in a small shop in the Rova neighborhood.
Dirty laundry
Women wash clothes in a washing machine in the Rova neighborhood.
Fianarantsoa was founded in 1831 by Ranavalona Iª, a queen of the then predominant Merina ethnic group. Ranavalona Iª was seen by European contemporaries as isolationist, tyrant and cruel. The monarch's reputation aside, when we enter it, its old southern capital remains as the academic, intellectual and religious center of Madagascar.

Literally, the term Fianarantsoa is translatable as “the city where you learn the good” or “the place where you can learn something good”. The first time we saw it, the centuries-old houses of its supreme and oldest area suggested an exotic and antipodean Coimbra, a Malagasy “lesson of dream and tradition…” that we were not willing to miss.

Like Coimbra, Fianar – thus treated with special affection – unfolds down the slope of Ivoneana to the banks of the rivers that flow through its base, the Tsiandanitra, the Mandanofotsy. It occupied the space of an old betsileo village with the same name, translatable as “where the dead are hidden”.

Casario, uptown, Fianarantsoa, ​​Madagascar

House of the Upper Town of Fianarantsoa.

Located at an average altitude of 1200 meters, Fianarantsoa is divided into three historical and urban levels that are easy to disentangle: the Upper or Old Town, the heart of its origins, where most of the traditional buildings are concentrated.

The Colonial City, located on the neighboring hill of Tsianolondroa, housed almost all the administrative buildings built during French sovereignty, between 1894 and 1960. Finally, the Lower City, spread by the alternation of small hills and valleys around it.

Even if his mentor Ranavalona Iª stated that she was opposed to the influence and arrogance of France and Great Britain – and even more to the Christianization attempted by the London Missionary Society in the reign of her predecessor Radama I – the (French) colonial imposition and proselytism Christian who came to him, they did not take long to triumph.

Ambonzontani Cathedral, Fianarantsoa, ​​Madagascar.

The Cathedral of Ambonzontani, the largest church in the Upper Town of Fianarantsoa.

Stairs, Churches and Much Faith

This explains the nearly fifty Protestant, Lutheran and Catholic churches that exist there, in the largest concentration of the entire island of Madagascar, and the succession of faithful in their best attire that we find as we climb the cement staircase that leads to the heights of the Old City , and as we wander through the alleys and alleys that serve it.

We entered one of the Protestant temples that hosted Mass, the FLM Trinitie Masombahoaka church, from 1859. There we came across a Eucharistic scene that would be familiar at all, were it not for the believers to leave free a wide front of seats that kept them far from both the altar and of the choir installed on your right.

Mass, Fianarantsoa, ​​Madagascar

Mass in one of the various Christian churches in Fianarantsoa.

The Mass ends with the faithful leaving in an orderly fashion through the central aisle, escorted by the priest and acolytes who place themselves at the exit of the temple, as a way of saying goodbye to the flock.

Outside, other faithful climb the wide steps of the Rabaut St. Etienne staircase and the old, somewhat uneven floors of Rue du Rova.

The Secular Daily Life of Fianarantsoa

But the Upper Town of Fianarantsoa does not live on faith alone. On those same sides, a group of women in lively play chastises the families' dirty laundry in a public washroom at the base of the hill.

Washer, Rova, Fianarantsoa, ​​Madagascar

Women wash clothes in a washing machine in the Rova neighborhood.

A young resident of one of the traditional homes made of brick and plaster in pastel tones, spreads out some of his clothes tucked into a tight CR7 t-shirt from the Portuguese national team that combines with a garnet imitation of All Stars tennis.

At the base of the Upper Town and the social pyramid of Fianarantsoa, ​​peasant vendors from the surrounding villages try to make a living in a small market with a makeshift floor against one of the many ocher adobe walls.

There they have bags of rice from their last harvest, bananas, pineapples, peanuts, tomatoes, other vegetables. Part of them share the Indomalayan features and caramel skin tone that migrants brought from those parts of Asia to the largest of the African islands it is believed to have been around the XNUMXth century AD

Residents, Fianarantsoa, ​​Madagascar

Residents of the Upper Town of Fianarantsoa with time to contemplate.

Merinos at the Summit of the Malagasy Ethnic Mosaic

Others have much darker skin and less refined facial features. The difference, as well as the colorful and patchwork pattern they wear as a kind of rural fashion, leaves us intrigued as to their ethnicity.

At that moment, we didn't have around the guide and driver Lalah Randrianary, himself a merino with almost white skin and eyes that were still somewhat slanted. Pondering on our own, a meaning for the genetics of those people would be, from the outset, an impossible mission.

We prefer to resign ourselves to the fact that there are eighteen main and official peoples who share Madagascar among themselves. And that, as one would expect, over time, these peoples amalgamated into something that can only be described as Malagasy.

We buy bananas from two of the sellers, chat a little about it, we don't even know what. Enough for us to ingratiate themselves with them and let us photograph them, even in those preparations that – for this we were warned over and over again – were not worthy of our work.

Up and Down the Steep Alleys of Rova

We point back to the top. In the square that serves as a preamble to the ramp that leads there, a worn sign indicates the direction of the “Centre de Santé de Base Niveau de Rova”.

Rova-Fianarantsoa-Madagascar

Moment of life at the foot of the Upper Town of Fianarantsoa.

It is preceded by a spontaneous parking lot occupied by brightly colored cars and vans, almost all of them French. There, two Renault 4Ls, among Clios, Peugeots 205 and the like, stand out for their maturity and chromatic exuberance.

Some kids ask for money they tell us for school notebooks. When in doubt about the destination of the budget, we bought a set of them. So we surrendered to his approach plan, which included carrying out the collection at the nearest and most convenient stationery entrance in the area.

A young mother appears at the door of a craft store with her heavy baby in her arms, between colorful straw hats and a metal basket in which she sells loose eggs.

Uptown, Fianarantsoa, ​​Madagascar

Townhouse in the Upper Town of Fianarantsoa with the Cathedral of Ambonzontani highlighted, on the right.

The Convenient Lookout at the Top of Fianarantsoa

In this final ascent of Rue du Rova, we came across more believers, this time coming from the Protestant church of FJKM Antranobiriky, pointed to the semi-base of the hill of Ivoneana, from which the cathedral d'Ambozontany stands out, the largest of the churches in To bail, at least as far as the Old Town is concerned.

We climb to the top of the hill, the site of a palace built in 1830 by Rafaralahindraininaly, one of the city's governors, under Ranavalona Iª.

A sealed water reservoir prevents us from exploring it as it deserved. To compensate, the summit reveals views over the Lower City and the green hills and valleys that surround it.

Typical house, Fianarantsoa, ​​Madagascar

Traditional house detached below the houses of the Upper Town of Fianarantsoa.

We don't even lack the company there. A kind of gang of airy, good-natured kids appears out of nowhere. They ask us what we are doing there and point us to some of the places down there that they can identify.

One of the girls, probably the oldest, is carrying a child aged one and a half, two years old at most. “It's my baby now, you know. His parents disappeared. I take care of him.”. The message, direct and genuine, in good youth fashion, moves us and leaves us almost embarrassed.

At least, until one of the young friends intercedes and plays with the child and the adoptive mother, with a much more mature sensibility than her puerile face would let her guess.

With the passing of the hours and successive contacts, we began to feel that the people of Fianar of all ages shared the same subtlety of being, a tact and common sense with their touch of contagion. Given the city's history, such attributes seemed as unexpected as they were explainable.

Chicken and typical balconies, Fianarantsoa, ​​Madagascar

Chicken on a balcony typical of the Upper and Old Town of Fianarantsoa.

Ranavalona Iª – the Queen Averses Colonial Interferences

As the French and British emissaries witnessed, Ranavalona Iª, the founder of Fianarantsoa, ​​did not joke about service and made a point of making it very clear: “To all Europeans, English or French, in recognition of the good they have done to my country by teaching wisdom and knowledge, I express my thanks to you….

And I declare to you that you can follow your habits, do not be afraid because I have no intention of changing them….” Now notice the reader in the warning that follows: “but if I see any of my subjects wanting to change whatever is in the rules established by the great twelve kings of my ancestors, that I will never allow…. So, with regard to religion, whether on Sundays or during the week, baptisms and communions, I prohibit my subjects from taking part in them, leaving you Europeans free to do as you please”.

Christian believers, Fianarantsoa, ​​Madagascar.

Faithful descend from a mass at the foot of the Upper City

Lady with an imperial nose, Ranavalona Iª wasted no time in endowing her southern capital with academic institutions that attracted more and more intellectuals from the kingdom, some professors, others not really. After her death, her son Rakotosehenondradama succeeded her as king Radama II.

No matter how childish, Radama II despised her mother's isolationism and anti-Europeanism. He proved to be a strongly Francophile monarch who admitted that, in addition to schools and other academic institutions, the religious and cultural institutions that persist and proliferate in the city are joined.

Little by little, Fianarantsoa shone with knowledge and faith. To which was added the no less French-speaking trump card of having become the wine and gastronomic center of the great island of Africa.

The Bipolar Relationship with Ravanalona Iª the ex-French colonists

During the 50s, the Malagasy people underwent the independence process common to all African colonies.

Although the French maintain their historic stamp in Fianar and in Madagascar in general, whenever the nation is threatened by excessive post-colonial intrusions, it is common for the Malagasy in the city (and beyond) to exalt the reference to the cruel sovereign Ranavalona Iª, not that of the almost Gallic descendant Radama II.

This, despite the fact that the queen ensured her reign of 33 years and 15 days after having murdered all the regents who threatened her in the succession of her late husband: other women, children and even her own mother, of having tortured and murdered numerous Malagasy subjects but also foreigners.

Young residents, Rova, Fianarantsoa, ​​Madagascar

Young residents in a small shop in the Rova neighborhood.

And many Malagasy dissenters treat its validity as "tany maize” or “the years of darkness”.

At dawn, led by the native Lalah Randrianary, we embarked on another of the European contributions that Ranavalona Iª would have allowed and thanked: the Fianarantsoa-Côte Est railway.

This railway was built by the French in ten years (1926 – 1936) to connect, in 162 km, the plateau where Fianar expands to the tropical coast of the east coast of the island. The TGV (Train à Gran Vibrations) Malagasy took almost 40 hours to complete the journey. Fianarantsoa was almost entering another era.

Fianarantsoa-Manakara, Madagascar

On board the Malagasy TGV

We depart Fianarantsoa at 7a.m. It wasn't until 3am the following morning that we completed the 170km to Manakara. The natives call this almost secular train Train Great Vibrations. During the long journey, we felt, very strongly, those of the heart of Madagascar.
Morondava, Avenue of Baobabs, Madagascar

The Malagasy Way to Dazzle

Out of nowhere, a colony of baobab trees 30 meters high and 800 years old flanks a section of the clayey and ocher road parallel to the Mozambique Channel and the fishing coast of Morondava. The natives consider these colossal trees the mothers of their forest. Travelers venerate them as a kind of initiatory corridor.
Houses

Homes Sweet Homes

Few species are more social and gregarious than humans. Man tends to emulate other homes sweet homes in the world. Some of these houses are impressive.
hippopotami, chobe national park, botswana
Safari
Chobe NP, Botswana

Chobe: A River on the Border of Life with Death

Chobe marks the divide between Botswana and three of its neighboring countries, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia. But its capricious bed has a far more crucial function than this political delimitation.
Thorong Pedi to High Camp, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal, Lone Walker
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 12th - Thorong Phedi a High camp

The Prelude to the Supreme Crossing

This section of the Annapurna Circuit is only 1km away, but in less than two hours it takes you from 4450m to 4850m and to the entrance to the great canyon. Sleeping in High Camp is a test of resistance to Mountain Evil that not everyone passes.
holy plain, Bagan, Myanmar
Architecture & Design
Bagan, Myanmar

The Plain of Pagodas, Temples and other Heavenly Redemptions

Burmese religiosity has always been based on a commitment to redemption. In Bagan, wealthy and fearful believers continue to erect pagodas in hopes of winning the benevolence of the gods.
Passengers, scenic flights-Southern Alps, New Zealand
Adventure
Aoraki / Mount Cook, New Zealand

The Aeronautical Conquest of the Southern Alps

In 1955, pilot Harry Wigley created a system for taking off and landing on asphalt or snow. Since then, his company has unveiled, from the air, some of the greatest scenery in Oceania.
Camel Racing, Desert Festival, Sam Sam Dunes, Rajasthan, India
Ceremonies and Festivities
Jaisalmer, India

There's a Feast in the Thar Desert

As soon as the short winter breaks, Jaisalmer indulges in parades, camel races, and turban and mustache competitions. Its walls, alleys and surrounding dunes take on more color than ever. During the three days of the event, natives and outsiders watch, dazzled, as the vast and inhospitable Thar finally shines through.
Nigatsu Temple, Nara, Japan
Cities
Nara, Japan

Buddhism vs Modernism: The Double Face of Nara

In the 74th century AD Nara was the Japanese capital. During XNUMX years of this period, emperors erected temples and shrines in honor of the Budismo, the newly arrived religion from across the Sea of ​​Japan. Today, only these same monuments, secular spirituality and deer-filled parks protect the city from the inexorable encirclement of urbanity.
Meal
Markets

A Market Economy

The law of supply and demand dictates their proliferation. Generic or specific, covered or open air, these spaces dedicated to buying, selling and exchanging are expressions of life and financial health.
Visitors to Ernest Hemingway's Home, Key West, Florida, United States
Culture
Key West, United States

Hemingway's Caribbean Playground

Effusive as ever, Ernest Hemingway called Key West "the best place I've ever been...". In the tropical depths of the contiguous US, he found evasion and crazy, drunken fun. And the inspiration to write with intensity to match.
4th of July Fireworks-Seward, Alaska, United States
Sport
Seward, Alaska

The Longest 4th of July

The independence of the United States is celebrated, in Seward, Alaska, in a modest way. Even so, the 4th of July and its celebration seem to have no end.
trip around the world, symbol of wisdom illustrated in a window at Inari airport, Finnish Lapland
Traveling
Around the World - Part 1

Traveling Brings Wisdom. Find out how to travel around the world.

The Earth turns on itself every day. In this series of articles, you will find indispensable clarifications and advice for those who make a point of going around it at least once in their life.
Moa on a beach in Rapa Nui/Easter Island
Ethnic
Easter Island, Chile

The Take-off and Fall of the Bird-Man Cult

Until the XNUMXth century, the natives of Easter Island they carved and worshiped great stone gods. All of a sudden, they started to drop their moai. The veneration of tanatu manu, a half-human, half-sacred leader, decreed after a dramatic competition for an egg.
sunlight photography, sun, lights
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Natural Light (Part 2)

One Sun, So Many Lights

Most travel photos are taken in sunlight. Sunlight and weather form a capricious interaction. Learn how to predict, detect and use at its best.
History
Nikko, Japan

Nikko, Toshogu: the Shrine and Mausoleum of the Tokugawa Shogun

A unavoidable historical and architectural treasure of Japan, Nikko's Toshogu Shrine honors the most important Japanese shogun, mentor of the Japanese nation: Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Montserrat island, Plymouth, Soufriere volcano, path to volcano
Islands
Montserrat, Lesser Antilles

The Island of the Volcano that Refuses to Sleep

In the Antilles, volcanoes called Soufrière abound. That of Montserrat, re-awakened in 1995, and remains one of the most active. Upon discovery of the island, we re-enter the exclusion area and explore the areas still untouched by the eruptions.  
Geothermal, Iceland Heat, Ice Land, Geothermal, Blue Lagoon
Winter White
Iceland

The Geothermal Coziness of the Ice Island

Most visitors value Iceland's volcanic scenery for its beauty. Icelanders also draw from them heat and energy crucial to the life they lead to the Arctic gates.
Almada Negreiros, Roça Saudade, Sao Tome
Literature
Saudade, São Tomé, São Tomé and Principe

Almada Negreiros: From Saudade to Eternity

Almada Negreiros was born in April 1893, on a farm in the interior of São Tomé. Upon discovering his origins, we believe that the luxuriant exuberance in which he began to grow oxygenated his fruitful creativity.
Teide Volcano, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
Nature
Tenerife, Canary Islands

The Volcano that Haunts the Atlantic

At 3718m, El Teide is the roof of the Canaries and Spain. Not only. If measured from the ocean floor (7500 m), only two mountains are more pronounced. The Guanche natives considered it the home of Guayota, their devil. Anyone traveling to Tenerife knows that old Teide is everywhere.
Mother Armenia Statue, Yerevan, Armenia
Autumn
Yerevan, Armenia

A Capital between East and West

Heiress of the Soviet civilization, aligned with the great Russia, Armenia allows itself to be seduced by the most democratic and sophisticated ways of Western Europe. In recent times, the two worlds have collided in the streets of your capital. From popular and political dispute, Yerevan will dictate the new course of the nation.
Pitões das Junias, Montalegre, Portugal
Natural Parks
Montalegre, Portugal

Through Alto do Barroso, Top of Trás-os-Montes

we moved from Terras de Bouro for those of Barroso. Based in Montalegre, we wander around the discovery of Paredes do Rio, Tourém, Pitões das Júnias and its monastery, stunning villages on the border of Portugal. If it is true that Barroso has had more inhabitants, visitors should not miss it.
Jingkieng Wahsurah, Nongblai Village Roots Bridge, Meghalaya, India
UNESCO World Heritage
Meghalaya, India

The Bridges of the Peoples that Create Roots

The unpredictability of rivers in the wettest region on Earth never deterred the Khasi and the Jaintia. Faced with the abundance of trees elastic fig tree in their valleys, these ethnic groups got used to molding their branches and strains. From their time-lost tradition, they have bequeathed hundreds of dazzling root bridges to future generations.
female and cub, grizzly footsteps, katmai national park, alaska
Characters
PN Katmai, Alaska

In the Footsteps of the Grizzly Man

Timothy Treadwell spent summers on end with the bears of Katmai. Traveling through Alaska, we followed some of its trails, but unlike the species' crazy protector, we never went too far.
Balandra Beach, Mexico, Baja California, aerial view
Beaches
Balandra beach e El Tecolote, Baja California Sur, Mexico

Seaside Treasures of the Sea of ​​Cortés

Often proclaimed the most beautiful beach in Mexico, we find a serious case of landscape exoticism in the jagged cove of Playa Balandra. The duo if forms with the neighbour Playa Tecolote, is one of the truly unmissable beachfronts of the vast Baja California.
Promise?
Religion
Goa, India

To Goa, Quickly and in Strength

A sudden longing for Indo-Portuguese tropical heritage makes us travel in various transports but almost non-stop, from Lisbon to the famous Anjuna beach. Only there, at great cost, were we able to rest.
Chepe Express, Chihuahua Al Pacifico Railway
On Rails
Creel to Los Mochis, Mexico

The Barrancas del Cobre & the CHEPE Iron Horse

The Sierra Madre Occidental's relief turned the dream into a construction nightmare that lasted six decades. In 1961, at last, the prodigious Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad was opened. Its 643km cross some of the most dramatic scenery in Mexico.
Society
Arduous Professions

the bread the devil kneaded

Work is essential to most lives. But, certain jobs impose a degree of effort, monotony or danger that only a few chosen ones can measure up to.
Women with long hair from Huang Luo, Guangxi, China
Daily life
Longsheng, China

Huang Luo: the Chinese Village of the Longest Hairs

In a multi-ethnic region covered with terraced rice paddies, the women of Huang Luo have surrendered to the same hairy obsession. They let the longest hair in the world grow, years on end, to an average length of 170 to 200 cm. Oddly enough, to keep them beautiful and shiny, they only use water and rice.
Masai Mara Reservation, Masai Land Travel, Kenya, Masai Convivial
Wildlife
Masai Mara, Kenya

A Journey Through the Masai Lands

The Mara savannah became famous for the confrontation between millions of herbivores and their predators. But, in a reckless communion with wildlife, it is the Masai humans who stand out there.
Full Dog Mushing
Scenic Flights
Seward, Alaska

The Alaskan Dog Mushing Summer

It's almost 30 degrees and the glaciers are melting. In Alaska, entrepreneurs have little time to get rich. Until the end of August, dog mushing cannot stop.