, Christianity is practiced by 85.3% of Madagascar's population, according to the Pew Research Center. However, other surveys put the figure at 58%.World Religions Database at the ARDA website, retrieved 2023-08-08 Malagasy Christianity is generally practised in syncretic form with traditional religious practices.
Background Protestantism was introduced by the first envoys of the London Missionary Society in 1818, who proselytized and taught literacy through a Malagasy language Bible at the public schools they established in the highlands at the request of King Radama I. The number of converts remained low but gradually grew under repression during the reign of his successor, Queen Ranavalona I, and the more permissive religious policies of her son, Radama II, and his widow, Queen Rasoherina.
The spread of Protestantism among the Merina upper classes by the mid-19th century, including Queen Ranavalona II, coupled with the growing political influence of the British missionaries, led Prime Minister Rainilaiarivony to legislate the conversion of the royal court. This prompted widespread popular conversion to Protestantism throughout the highlands in the late 19th century.
Catholicism was introduced principally through French diplomats and missionaries beginning in the mid-19th century but only gained significant converts under French colonization of Madagascar beginning in 1896. The early spread of Protestantism among the Merina elite resulted in a degree of class and ethnic differentiation among practitioners of Christianity, with the association of Protestantism with the upper classes and Merina ethnic group, and Catholicism attracting more adherents among the popular classes and coastal regions. Practitioners of Protestantism slightly outnumber adherents to Catholicism.
History
Initial spread Portuguese and French began the first Christianization of Madagascar during the 17th century. They preached in the southeastern parts of the country. The Antanosy prince Andriandramaka is the first known Malagasy receiving baptism. The first formal European-style school was established in 1818 on the east coast of Madagascar at Toamasina by members of the London Missionary Society (LMS). King Radama I, the first sovereign to bring about half the island of Madagascar under his rule, was interested in strengthening ties with European powers; to this end, he invited LMS missionaries to open a school in his capital at Antananarivo within the Rova palace compound to instruct the royal family in literacy, numeracy and basic education. This first school, known as the Palace School, was established by LMS missionary David Jones on 8 December 1820 within Besakana, a Rova building of great historic and cultural significance. Within months, classes were transferred to a larger, purpose-built structure on the Rova grounds.
Beginning in December 1820, LMS missionaries established workshops in Antananarivo to teach trades and technical skills, and developed a network of public schools. By 1822, LMS missionaries had successfully transcribed the Merina dialect of the Malagasy language using the Latin alphabet. This dialect, spoken in the central highlands around Antananarivo, was declared the official version of the Malagasy language that year – a status that the highlands dialect has retained ever since.Koerner (1999), p. The Bible, which was incrementally translated into this dialect and printed on a press, was the first book printed in the Malagasy language and became the standard text used to teach literacy.Sharp (2011), p.
Convinced that Western schooling was vital to developing Madagascar's political and economic strength, in 1825 Radama declared primary schooling to be compulsory for the andriana (nobles) throughout Imerina. Schools were constructed in larger towns throughout the central highlands and staffed with teachers from the LMS and other missionary organizations. By the end of Radama's reign in 1829, 38 schools were providing basic education to over 4,000 students in addition to the 300 students studying at the Palace School, teaching dual messages of loyalty and obedience to Radama's rule and the fundamentals of Christian theology. These schools also provided Radama with a ready pool of educated conscripts for his military activities; consequently, some andriana families sent slave children to spare their own offspring from the perils of military life, exposing an educated minority among the lower classes of Merina society to the tenets of Christianity. An additional 600 students received vocational training under Scottish missionary James Cameron. Despite high attendance at the schools, the LMS were initially unsuccessful in converting pupils to Christianity. Near the end of Radama's reign, the king perceived the few Malagasy who had been converted as irreverent toward royal authority. He forbade Malagasy people from being baptized or attending Christian services.
Repression
Radama died in 1828 and was succeeded by his widow, Ranavalona I. Her succession initially resulted in a relaxation of state control over Christianity. The island's first printing press, which was imported by LMS missionaries at the end of Radama's reign, was only effectively put into operation in 1828. The press was in heaviest use during the first several years of Ranavalona's reign, when thousands of hymnals and other materials were transcribed and printed. Translation of the New Testament was completed in the second year of her reign, and 3,000 copies were printed and distributed between 1829 and 1830. From the beginning of her reign, Ranavalona forbade the distribution of books within the military to prevent subversion and preserve discipline. She allowed missionaries free rein in operating the printing press, however, and exempted from military service all Malagasy personnel trained to operate the press. In 1835, translation of the Old Testament was completed and the first copies were printed. The freedom allowed to LMS and Malagasy Christians to print religious materials and teach religion in the state schools during the first six years of Ranavalona's reign allowed Christianity to become firmly established among a small but growing group of converts in and around the capital. In 1831, Ranavalona authorized Malagasy attendance at church services, administration of the sacrament, and baptism of her subjects. Within a year, the first 100 Malagasy were baptized out of an estimated 200 practicing Christians total; these converts were drawn from all social classes, including slaves, commoners, respected elders, court officials and even sampy guardians, who were considered the bulwarks of traditional culture.
The conversion of major religious, political and social leaders sparked a backlash that led Ranavalona to become increasingly wary of the political and cultural effects of Christianity, which she saw as leading the Malagasy to forsake the ancestors and their traditions. In October and November 1831, the queen enacted a ban on Christian marriages, church services, and baptisms for soldiers and members of government studying in the schools.Ellis (1870), p. 71 In December 1831, she extended the ban on church service attendance to all Malagasy. From 1832 to 1834, baptisms and church services continued, increasingly in secret. During this time, several Christians each year were charged with witchcraft and exiled or made to undergo the tangena ordeal, and Ranavalona requested the departure of three missionaries, retaining only those whose particular technical skills she viewed as valuable to the state. In 1835, the queen attempted to shut down the press without directly targeting the LMS by banning Malagasy personnel from working at the printing house. The LMS missionaries, capitalizing on the absence of legal decrees against their own work at the press, managed to continue independently printing and distributing materials.
In a kabary speech on 26 February 1835, Queen Ranavalona formally forbade the practice of Christianity among her subjects. In her discourse, she was careful to differentiate between her own people, for whom the new religion was forbidden and its practice a capital offense, and foreigners, to whom she permitted freedom of religion and conscience. She furthermore acknowledged the valuable intellectual and technological contributions that European missionaries had made to the advancement of her country and invited them to continue working to that end on the condition that their proselytizing would cease:Koschorko (2007), p. 199
The majority of the London Missionary Society missionaries, whose primary activity was teaching Christian theology and literacy at their newly established schools using the Bible as the principal Malagasy-language text, departed the island. James Cameron and other key missionaries preferred to leave rather than remain on the island without authorization to proselytize. The last two remaining missionaries chose to continue teaching practical skills in the hope that the restrictions might loosen, but one year later, after receiving indirect information that the government desired their departure, they shuttered the LMS mission and left Madagascar.Campbell (2012), pp. 185–186
Pursuant to the 26 February decree, those who possessed a Bible, worshiped in congregation, or continued to profess adherence to Christianity were fined, jailed, manacled, subjected to tangena or another trial by ordeal, or executed.Oliver (1886), pp. 60–63 Lurid accounts of the execution and torture of Christians were reported by missionaries with informants on the island who placed emphasis on what they perceived as the savagery of the queen's actions.Laidler (2005), p. For instance, they reported the public execution of fifteen Christian leaders near the queen's palace who were dangled on ropes 150 feet above a rock-filled ravine before the ropes were cut upon their refusal to renounce Christianity. The Andohalo cathedral was constructed on this outcropping to commemorate early Malagasy Christians martyred at the site.Andrew, Blond, Parkinson and Anderson (2008), p. 79 The number of Malagasy citizens put to death for religious reasons during Ranavalona's reign is unknown. British missionary to Madagascar W.E. Cummins places the number executed at between 60 and 80. Far more were required to undergo the tangena ordeal, condemned to hard labor, or stripped of their land and property, and many of these died. Persecution of Christians intensified; in 1849, 1,900 people were fined, jailed, or otherwise punished for their Christian faith, of whom 18 were executed.
Legitimization and mass conversion