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Madagascar

Madagascar

Work by: Eunice Kim

Edited by: Caroline Khameneh

  • General Information
    • Independence: June 26, 1960
    • Population: 22 million
    • Size: 226,597 square miles
    • Capital: Antananarivo
  • Ethnic Groups
    • Merina
      • Located: central plateau of Madagascar
      • Fact: Burying ancestors in family tombs, and believed that ancestors can intervene in events on Earth for good or for ill.
    • Betsimisaraka
      • Located: east-central and northeastern coast of Madagasvar
      • Fact: Speak a dialect of Malagasy, the West Austronesian language
    • Bara
      • Located: south central region of Madagascar
      • Fact: cattle farmers
    • Antanosy
      • Located: southeast coast of Madagascar
      • Fact: poorest people in Madagascar
  • Genres
    • Folk music
      • political songwriting led by the group Tarika
    • Salegy
      • best known and most widely exported dance pop music of Madagascar
      • Characterized by gently rippling guitar work, organ or keyboards and sometimes accordion as well as powerful vocal harmonies
    • Hiragasy
      • kabary oratory performed by a troupe
      • Merina ethnic group
    • Tsapika
      • Malagasy country music
      • Fast(people in that region talk fast), rowdy dance-pop genre has developed in beach-side towns in the poor, neglected South of Madagascar
  • Instruments
    • Valiha
      • Known as: tube zither
      • Fact: made from local bamboo
    • Mandoliny
      • Known as: square-shaped string instrument
      • Fact: homemade lute
    • Jejy voatovoo
      • Known as: three stringed instrument
      • Fact: long-necked sitar piece with two sets of three strings stretched across a large open gourd
    • Sodina
      • Known as: wood flute
      • Fact: used in popular and traditional folk music of Madagascar
  • Artists
    • Rajery
      • Jazz genre
      • Known for playing valiha
    • Tao Ravao
      • Afro-blues
      • A popular album is Tao Kabosy Ravao
    • Tarika Sammy
      • Based musical tradition
      • A label is Xenophile
    • Rakoto Frah
      • Vakindrazana
      • Plays the sodina
      • A label is Chants et Dnses en Imerina
  • Scholars
    • August Schmidhofer
    • Michel Domenichini-Ramiaramanana
    • R. Emoff
  • References
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