Ambohimanga means the blue hill. It is a place of the sacred, a place untouched, a place looked upon from afar with the certainty that some things will remain intact. Kings ruled there, and the razana (ancestors) rest there. Pilgrims still climb it barefoot to ask the ancestors for what the living can no longer provide. UNESCO inscribed it as a World Heritage site in 2001 as the “most significant symbol of the cultural identity of the Malagasy people.”
This weekend, two bodies were found in a ravine on this hill. Two young women, one not yet eighteen. They wanted to go to the cinema on a Friday afternoon—a simple act that any girl in any country should be able to do without losing her life. They never returned. Their bodies were reportedly found thanks to a phone signal. The circumstances suggest a deliberate choice of location, as the bodies were moved there after the crime.
The author reflects on the recent climate of fear in Madagascar, noting how rumors of occultism and ritual sacrifices have spread following a police raid on a Masonic temple last month. Now, with this tragedy occurring at the sacred site of Ambohimanga, there is a risk that these deaths will be exploited to stigmatize traditional Malagasy beliefs and ancestral practices.
The article concludes with a plea: these young women deserve a thorough investigation, not a convenient narrative. Ambohimanga should not be turned into a symbol of danger. The hill is blue, and it is not the hill that needs to be searched or blamed.
Captured & Published at: 2026-08-27 05:38:33 (Madagascar Local Time EAT)
Original Source: https://www.lexpress.mg/2026/08/la-montagne-bleue.html