Ranavalona I did not ignore the decisive contributions of certain missionaries. When David Jones, the godfather of the Malagasy alphabet (abidia), left Antananarivo on June 23, 1830, after ten years of work, Ranavalona I ordered that he be saluted with cannon fire. In July 1857, when expelling Jean Laborde for his involvement in the Lambert plot, she granted him the exceptional permission to take his movable property and stay an extra day, unlike his accomplices who were expelled within the hour. Ranavalona had not forgotten that the industrial city built by the man she naturalized as an Andriamasinavalona had manufactured the weapons used by Merina soldiers against the French landing at Tamatave in 1845.
Radama I had a good reputation among foreigners because he allowed the arrival of missionaries who worked to fix the Malagasy alphabet and trained the ‘Roambinifololahy’. Few emphasize that, within this state coherence, Queens Ranavalona I and Rasoherina (1864-1868) recognized the skills of these individuals and sent them as ambassadors to London: Raharolahy and Rasatranabo in March 1837, and Rasatranabo-Rainandrianandraina and Ralehimaholy-Rainifiringa in March 1864. Furthermore, the education of the future ministers of the second half of the 19th century was entrusted to these same ‘Roambinifololahy’.
The 1837 embassy had proposed that the British provide technical assistance without religious proselytism—a misunderstanding for which Ranavalona was not solely responsible. Two years earlier, on March 1, 1835, Ranavalona had banned Christianity but allowed the last two missionaries, Johns and Baker, to stay until July 1836 in the hope of a final ‘technology transfer’.
Ranavalona’s decisions were consistent with a clear objective: the specificity of her culture and society inherited from the ‘Roambinifolomanjaka’ dynasty (the lineage of her predecessors, numbering symbolically twelve). One might call it her identity. It was a stance that would have undoubtedly been more polished with the corrections of formal education and the veneer of a broader culture, neither of which were accessible in her era.
After the death of Ranavalona, the European powers competing in the Indian Ocean, France and Great Britain, rushed to be represented at the coronation of her son and successor, Radama II.
Captured & Published at: 2026-08-26 05:38:46 (Madagascar Local Time EAT)
Original Source: https://www.lexpress.mg/2026/08/plaidoyer-pour-ranavalona-1ere.html