Introduction: Material Histories

Malagasy was the primary language of my field research, and all interviews were conducted in Malagasy. After studying standard Malagasy (as used in the highlands and commonly taught in schools across the island) with language instructor Vololona Rasolofoson in Ann Arbor, with Olga Ramilisonina in Antananarivo, and with Ben Taoaby in Mahajanga, I eventually became proficient in the northern dialect of Malagasy spoken in Mahajanga (what some linguists have called “Northern Sakalava”) during my fieldwork in the city (2011 – 14). Although early on in the fieldwork I worked closely with Ben Taoaby as a research assistant during interviews, as my proficiency increased I conducted interviews on my own. Throughout the interviews many residents selectively incorporated French words, and those with closer ties to the Comoros used some Shikomoro words; friends and kin who joined us helped to interpret and translate these latter terms. Many interviews emerged organically during long afternoon visits or over meals; these were informal and diverse in content, ranging from memories of times past to political debates to didactic lessons on cooking, moral comportment, and proper gender relations. After several attempts to record these conversations were met with reticence, I resolved to rely entirely on handwritten notes. In addition, my partner, David Epstein, and I photographed, with the permission of those present, gatherings of spirit mediums and spirit possession (tromba) and life-cycle events such as marriages, funerals, and circumcisions. I also worked with a group of high school and university students to document their experiences in the city through photography and journals, which we collectively compiled into a photo novella that we used to facilitate discussion about belonging and urban life.

Because many of the oral accounts wove references to the highly sensitive events of the 1976 – 77 expulsion into broader discussions of the city's past, and given the tensions around this history today, I have chosen to maintain most interviewees’ anonymity and to identify them only with initials, except in cases where people explicitly expressed a preference for recognition. Some residents asked to be identified by name, and others chose their own pseudonyms; I have honored these requests throughout. Interviews were all conducted in Mahajanga and its surrounding areas and are listed chronologically.