Last modified: 2015-07-28 by bruce berry
Keywords: antakarana |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
The Embassy of Madagascar in Belgium gives the list of the ritual ceremonies in Madagascar.
The listed place names are Antakarana, Sakalava, Ambatoharanana, and
Ambilobe, in the "faritany" (province?) of Antsiranana.
Antsiranana, formerly Diégo-Suarez, is located at the
northern point of Madagascar. The island of Nosy Mitsio is located c. 30
km off the north-western coast of Madagascar.
Therefore, the flag might have belonged to a kingdom established in
the northern part of Madagascar.
Ivan Sache, 11 Jun 2005
According to this
website it did. The flag is as described by Ivan: white with a red crescent
pointing upwards below a red 6-pointed star. Image based on a small image
by Jaume Ollé, based on Flag Bulletin, X:2/3, 1971 and the
article by Lucien Philippe, Les anciens drapeaux de Madagascar, 6° ICV, IJssel Meer,
1975.
Antakarana was in the north of Madagascar, with this chronology:
Antakarana kingdom
1843 - 1891
French protectorate.
1895
Incorporated into French Madagascar colony.
Kings
.... - ....
Kazobe
.... - ....
.....
c.1740
Andriantsirotso
.... - ....
Lamboina
.... - ....
Tshimbola
1812 - 1825 Tsialana I
1825 - 1882 Tsimiharo
(d. 1882)
1882 - 1895 Tsialana II
(b. 1837 - d. 1924)
It looks like the line is continued up till now, with e.g. a Tsimiharo III.
According to Zimpel's "Lexikon der Weltbevölkerung", 1997, the Antankarana is a tribe with 100.000 members in Madagascar, sedentary cattle-owners, sailors, and fishermen. Ethnically mixed between negroid Africans and Arabs since the 12th century. In the middle of the 19th century Antankarane and its neighbour, Sakalava, were overrun by the Merina empire; the rulers fled to small islands off the coast, and applied for assistance from the French; in return they would place themselves under the French protectorate - which resulted in the downfall of the Merina empire and the colonisation by the French.
The UNESCO General History of Africa, vol. V, 1992, has this:
Andriantsirotso ruled c. 1697-1710, or, depending of the texts, 1710-c.1750.
He introduced the unifying symbol of Antankara royalty, the "saina",
the flag with crescent and star, brought back from Maroantsetra.
It adds in a footnote, that "Although the royal Antankara family converted
to Islam in the 1840s (in exile), the flag itself and its crescent had no connections with this religion other than visual (copy
of the crescent).
Jarig Bakker, 12 Jun 2005