Malagasy Uprising Of 1947

Monument commemorating the Malagasy uprising.

The uprising of 1947 is a Malagasy uprising which took place in 1947 and 1948 on the island of Madagascar , then colony French. It is often considered one of the harbingers of decolonization in Francophone Africa.

The uprising was followed by a terrible repression conducted by the French army who made several thousands of deaths. The number of victims of this repression is still debate among historians, the figure ranging from 11 000 deaths and to consider these events as the darkest of the French colonial history.

This uprising is commemorated by a holiday in Madagascar every March 29 since 1967 ^, .

The insurrection

The insurgency broke out after requisitioned during the Second World War. The struggle for independence is active throughout the Democratic Movement for Malagasy Renovation (MDRM) and secret societies of liberation. It begins in the southwest quarter of the island and on the coast south-east. It extends to the region of Antananarivo in the center and the entire highland region of Fianarantsoa in Lake Alaotra , north of Antananarivo in April 1947 . The rebels initially the number of 2000 are rapidly increasing their numbers. Farmers south of the island will join them. The insurgents are attacking the French but also in Madagascar working for the colonial administration . Thus around 1900 supporters PADESM are killed .

Punishment

French troops are about 8000 on the island at the beginning of the insurgency. In one year, the quota is increased to 18 000 men . The insurgency back in May 1947 before the French army. Punishment is such that some historians described as colonial war . The killings are numerous, largely affecting the civilian population including women and children . A senior official recalls a " Oradour Madagascar "about the massacre in the village of Moramanga.

The colonial troops, reinforced in particular by the Senegalese riflemen, taking a year to defeat the guerrillas. Of elected MDRM, yet party hostile to the insurgency, Malagasy deputies to the National Assembly , Joseph Ravoahangy and Joseph Raseta are arrested, stripped of their parliamentary immunity and sentenced to death. Sentence later commuted to life imprisonment.

The colonial order reign again in Madagascar. In January 1951 , Franois Mitterrand , then Minister of France Overseas said in a speech that the "future is inextricably linked to Madagascar to the French Republic . Madagascar gained independence after the end of the fourth republic and the creation of the French Community in 1960.

Number of victims

The formal evaluation of victims of "pacification" continues to be debated. A mission of informing the Assembly of French Union end of 1948 establishes an initial assessment to 89 000 deaths (more than 2% of the Malagasy population at the time). This assessment will then be lowered and secured "officially" by the colonial power in 1950 to 11 342 deaths . But then, nobody questions the terrible violence of the repression imposed by the French army to the Malagasy people. Some Malagasy and foreign analysts put the figure at 100 to 200 000 deaths . For historian John Fremigacci, such figures are far from reality: "There could be up to 40,000 dead in Madagascar in 1947-1948. But more than three-quarters is attributable to disease and malnutrition that affected populations in flight, often under pressure from insurgents . "

This death toll includes a vast majority of Malagasy people killed in the clashes, shot with or without trial, died in internment camps, exhaustion or hunger, including many women and children, having fled their village to take refuge in the forest . Among the dead Malagasy few thousand have been killed by insurgents , part of the police or the colonial administration. Hundreds of Senegalese soldiers were killed too, often sent in first line, and French settlers .

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