Insularity and Musical Horizons in Madagascar. Local Networks, Global Connection and Vice Versa
Résumé
In Madagascar, musical genres that were previously exclusively regional have
been broadcast nationwide for a few years. One of the notable changes concerning
representations lies in the transition from identity referents linked to regional and/
or ethnic affiliations to referents (assigned by the capital’s media) belonging to a
globalizing register: mafana music (“hot music”).
Artists, taken in this category, have migrated to the capital and are building new
musical forms combining regional or ethnic repertoires and international modern
forms, in particular by affirming and claiming a Black belonging through borrowings
from modern African and North American musical genres.
The article will focus on reflecting on globalization as a horizon. An alarming
economic reality, an unequal social order, strong relations of domination and
dependence at the local, national and global levels, are realities that strongly mark
Madagascar. However, we will see how the actors of the music studied come in part
and in their own way to challenge this context by an original local/global articulation.
From the so-called mafana music we will see how local music genres were formed and
have built meaning by connecting to global horizons.
Carried in part by young women from dominated regions and marginalized
communities and who have become stars, this phenomenon refers to multiple
imaginaries. It is among other things to be understood in a context of inter-ethnic
relations at the national level, inherited from the colonial system and mobilizing
stereotyped representations between merina (historically dominant ethnic group, of
the capital) and coastal, through oppositions “white” / “black”, “Asian type” / “African
type”, “civilized” / “savage”, unbridled /measured sexuality... The article will focus on
analyzing the processes of positive reappropriation of these stereotypes (transition
from the status of black women / coastal mainty to that of national black stars) and
the articulation of the phenomenon to new regional (Indian Ocean) and international (France) mobilities through community networks that are set up via the diaspora and
the internet (Youtube, Facebook).
At the heart of identity reformulations, these musics shake up categories and the
established order. Taken in emerging markets, deploying through new networks and
circulations from below, they are at the center of contemporary mutations where
insularity and expanded horizons are entangled.
Domaines
Sciences de l'Homme et Société
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