Parution FRANCE - Madagascar: les bergers blancs de l’ile rouge. par Patrick Delance
The Sambatra : the collective circumcision rite of the Antambahaoka.
Every seven years, the year of the Friday, the Antambahoaka who make up one of the eighteen ethnic groups on the island of Madagascar have been celebrating for centuries the biggest event that defines them: the Sambatra. This major moment in their lives is not just the ritual of the collective circumcision of the boys born in the seven years preceding it. It is also an initiation and integration rite practiced by the Antambahoaka boy that will permit him to make the passage from an asexual state to the statute of male. From this moment on, he will be integrated into the paternal clan and initiated into the life of the true Antambahoaka man. He, himself, will thus become a Zafiraminia, a son of Raminia, the founding ancestor of this ethnic group. But for this to happen, he has to symbolically relive the history of his ancestors, which was the exodus that brought them to Madagascar. During one month, the Sambatra lets the Antambahoaka remember their origins and so honour Raminia.
Photos and text ©Jacques Bock/LightMediation
Contact - Thierry Tinacci Lightmediation Photo Agency +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 thierry[AT]lightmediation.com
The white shepherds of the red island
On the Highlands of Madagascar in the region of Betsileo is a curious village where time stands still, and practically everybody is dressed in white! The inhabitants are the fervent adepts of a very specific branch of Christianity on Madagascar: Fifohazana or the Church of Revival, whose influence on the Red Island continues to grow. The village of Soatanana is the historic heart and radical centre of a movement that advocates a strict reading of the Bible.
Photos and text: © Patrick Delance / Lightmediation
Contact - Thierry Tinacci Agence Lightmediation +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21
thierry [at] lightmediation.com
