Madagascar

INTRODUCTION

Madagascar is known to the world as the Big Red Island at the end of the earth. It is separated form the African continent by the Mozambique Channel. According to the various sources I have read and reviewed it is the forth largest Island in the world. Madagascar is divided in to three regions the central highlands, the east coast, and the west coast. The people of Madagascar however are very poor; as a matter of fact it has been ranked by the World Bank as being among the 13 poorest countries in the world. The country is so deeply in dept that the International Monetary Fund has given it the lowest possible rating, on par with Zaire. Education and heath indicators, including literacy rates and life expectancy are at or below average. According to the National Institute for Statistics, over 70% of the population lived blow the poverty line in 2003. Agricultural productivity is low. Farmers relay on rely on traditional farming practices, often including slash and burn and adoption of new technologies occurs but slowly. Domestic markets function poorly and links to international markets are weak. Madagascar's economy posted a strong recovery in 2003 following a severe economic deterioration due to the eight-month political crisis in 2002. Growth has slowed in 2004, and the economy has suffered from two cyclones, substantial depreciation of the Malagasy franc, and rising prices for the petroleum and rice on the world market during the year.

DEPENDENCY THEORY VERSUS MODERERNIZATION THEORY

Although the early history of Madagascar is somewhat vague, it is believed that human beings first set foot on the shores of the island shortly after Jesus birth. Madagascar was apparently uninhabited until about 2,000 years ago when the first settlers arrived not from Africa as one might have guessed, but from the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia, 4,000 miles to the east. Beginning is the 6th century more settlers, including Muslim traders arrived. Different tribal groups began to establish control over various areas. In 1642 the French established a colony, but plagued with disease and attacked constantly by the local inhabitants, they left. The recent history of Madagascar has been greatly influenced by the struggles for power between the two main ethnic groups the coastal people and the highland people. According to various authors the supposedly independent Madagascar continued to be dominated by France, which stayed in control of trade and financial institutions. In 1972 massive antigovernment demonstrations took place, the civilian government was replaced by a military one. In June of 1975 the Supreme Council of the Revolution, changed the name of the country from the Malagasy Republic to the Democratic Republic of Madagascar.

Religion and Politics

The Malagasy people regard their country as the sacred land of their ancestors, who remain its rightful owners. Most of them believe in one God, either in a traditional or Christian sense. Many claim to go to church, but that does not stop them form making sacrifices to their ancestors. Christianity is practiced alongside traditional beliefs; it has not taken their place. According to Jay Heale the people of Madagascar worship in one of two ways traditional and Christian, we will take a look at them both.

The Christian faith has existed in Madagascar ever since the early 19th century. Over a period of 15 years, they opened schools and chapels, produced the first dictionary of the Malagasy language, translated the bible into Malagasy and converted many to Christianity. About 28% of the population is Roman Catholic, 22% Protestant, and 5% Muslim. The rest of the population practice traditional beliefs.

The earliest Malagasy believed in a Supreme Being as well as secondary deities or spirits that haunted waters, trees, and stones. They also respected creatures such as snakes, crocodiles, and lemurs, and held that humans have spirits that do not die after bodily death. Even today, the people believe strongly in their ancestor's power to influence disasters as well as happiness, prosperity, and luck.

The Malagasy people however in my opinion did practice there religious believes along with there political structure. Most of there protest to things were in a peaceful manner and they maintained a democracy style government with the people. According to the Wikipedia website, the Malagasy Christian Council of Churches assisted the Malagasy people with drafting new constitutions for the betterment of their country.

ETHNIC AND CULTURAL DIVISIONS

The faces you see in Madagascar are a living family album that shows the results of ethnic mixing. Combinations of light and dark skin color and eye color, and straight or wavy hair, contradict everything we think we know about how genes behave. The people of Madagascar are of mostly Indonesian ancestry with some African and a little bit of French. Still there are eighteen distinct ethnic groups among them, and each has its own history and culture. Each group lives in a fairly distinct part o the county, but more people are moving to Antananarivo, where they mix with other groups. The groups share many other practices, such as circumcision of children, and have similar political views.

The Malagasy people talk over their problems of everyday life as well as the major issues to be decided. They have a number of names for the different types of meetings they hold for these discussions. An example is the kabary. This is a public meeting in which formal speeches are made, often using old proverbs.

WOMEN AND DEVELOPMENT

The women of Madagascar have not developed with the many changes as the men of Madagascar have. They are still subject to a lot of inequality just as they were in the past. There are strong socioeconomic differences between women and men in this country.

Women heads are mainly widows, divorced and separated women. A small minority belongs to polygamous marriages. The age of women heads is older than the equivalent men, i.e. on average higher from 5 to 10 years. This gap varies between the regions and is lower in the South. The median age is 38-40 for men and 45-50 for the women. The averages size of the woman-headed household is between 4 to 5 persons while for men it is between 5 and 6. The difference in size varies between the regions from 0.3 to 1.8 people per household.

The rate of dependency is a key indicator that expresses the ratio between the non-active and the active persons in the household. The higher this rate, the heavier the burden for active members. For most of the regions, 10 out of 13, the average rate of dependency is higher for women headed