Some 19th-century historians described her as the modern Messalina; others as a female Caligula. Meanwhile, Ida Laura Pfeiffer, an explorer and travel writer who traveled around the world twice in the mid-19th century, said of her that she was one of the proudest and cruelest women on the face of the Earth, and her entire story is a compendium of blood and horrifying acts. The subject of such scathing descriptions was Queen Ranavalona I, who ruled Madagascar with an iron hand from 1828 to 1861, earning a terrible reputation in the West. However, this extremely negative image has begun to be re-evaluated in recent times.
Ida Laura Pfeiffer spoke from personal experience, as she had the chance to meet the queen for a couple of months in 1857, and her experience was far from pleasant. The monarch had embraced the xenophobic fever spreading through the country and imprisoned her, accusing her of participating in a plot orchestrated by Prince Rakoto with the help of two Frenchmen. Although Pfeiffer was innocent, she was expelled along with the Frenchman and four other Europeans. The journey from the capital, Antananarivo, to the coast took fifty-three days and was grueling, as they had to traverse mosquito-infested swamps. In fact, Pfeiffer reached Mauritius ill with malaria and never recovered, passing away in Vienna the following year.
In 1861, her son posthumously published the two volumes of Reise nach Madagaskar, a work she wrote about the ill-fated journey to Madagascar, which became one of the cornerstones of the unfavorable view of Queen Ranavalona in Europe. Pfeiffer’s book meticulously described the clash of cultures and the savage customs that contrasted with the civilized world. It is possible that some of her prejudices emerged, especially concerning the persecution of Christianity. However, scientists like Darwin and Wallace praised her data on fauna and flora (hundreds of specimens she collected enriched the collections of London’s British Museum and Vienna’s Naturhistorisches Museum).

Most, if not all, sources corroborate Ranavalona’s histrionic and fearsome character: a woman who ascended the throne after her husband’s death, hated Europeans but dressed like them, and enjoyed their music and art. She admired Napoleon and maintained a court dressed in Empire-style fashion, bathed ceremonially in public, likely had several lovers, mercilessly killed her opponents, massacred missionaries and indigenous Christians, caused the death of half the population through forced labor, and established the tangena (a local variant of ordeal) as a form of trial.
Ranavalona was born between 1778 and 1782 in Ambatomanoina, a locality in the Analamanga region of central Madagascar. At that time, Andrianampoinimerina reigned as monarch of Imerina (or Merina, a state dominating much of the island). He began the island’s unification, and upon his death in 1810, his son, Radama I the Great, succeeded him. Radama nearly completed this process by 1824, benefiting from the Napoleonic Wars and receiving British assistance to modernize the army by introducing artillery, cavalry, and Western-style training.
Radama sought to modernize at every level, incorporating Western cultural elements by inviting Protestant missionaries to establish schools, introducing printing, promoting a written form of Malagasy (which had previously been solely an oral language), and officially abolishing the slave trade. Despite this official abolition—one of the conditions stipulated by the British—it persisted in practice, as it was a cornerstone of an economy primarily based on agriculture, with the only industries being small-scale and European-run.

This policy was poorly received by the population, who were scandalized by the erosion of their traditions and gods. Thus, there was no mourning when the king died in the summer of 1828. The problem, as always in such cases, was that he had not designated a successor. Although tradition dictated that the closest matrilineal relative, his nephew Rakotobe, would inherit the throne, the executors delayed their decision for a few days due to a prior conflict with him and fears of retaliation. This delay was skillfully exploited by a military leader, Andriamihaja, who offered his support to another candidate.
That candidate was the royal widow, Rabodoandrianampoinimerina, better known as Ramavo, a princess from the Menabe tribe, the last to remain independent. Ramavo had been presented as a gift to her husband’s grandfather, Andriantsalamanjaka, and was later adopted by Andrianampoinimerina after her father warned him of a conspiracy. Grateful, Andrianampoinimerina arranged her marriage to his son, Radama I (who was also her cousin). This marriage likely had a strategic component, supporting unification efforts. However, Radama had multiple wives, and she was not one of his favorites. Perhaps as a result—or perhaps causing it—they had no children.
Furthermore, upon ascending the throne, Radama executed several of Ramavo’s relatives—a customary way of eliminating potential rivals—which may have strained their already tenuous relationship. Ramavo sought solace with other courtiers, associating with missionaries. Among them was the Welshman David Griffiths, translator of the Bible into Malagasy and creator of an alphabet for the language. Their friendship later saved his life during the persecution of missionaries. Ramavo secured her position as queen by eliminating Rakotobe and his parents, avenging the suffering inflicted on her own family in the past.

As the reader might have already guessed, this was Ranavalona I, the name she adopted at her coronation on June 12, 1829, which meant something like kept aside. She was the first woman to rule Madagascar since Queen Rafohy in the 16th century, when her offspring Andriamanelo (founder of the Kingdom of Imerina) ended the vazimba tradition that allowed it (vazimba referred to the island’s first inhabitants), granting preference to men and generally reserving women to domestic roles, even though the line of succession was matrilineal.
Upon ascending to power, she immediately rewarded Andriamihaja by appointing him commander-in-chief—and reportedly making him her lover—only to later reverse the modernization policies of her late husband—whom some suspect she poisoned—in order to preserve Madagascar’s cultural sovereignty and secure popular support, halting the growing European influence in the country. First, she ended the friendship treaty signed with Great Britain; next, she asked missionaries to stop preaching, and when they refused, she banned Christianity, aiming to restore the people’s traditional animist worship. In reality, Radama himself had already begun to backtrack in this regard upon discovering that the first converts were less loyal to the crown than desired and claimed that his right to rule came not from his ancestors but from God.
It is worth noting that the missionaries introduced the printing press, which they used to publish Bibles and religious hymns but which also served as a classic tool of subversive propaganda. For this reason and due to popular disapproval, although Ranavalona adopted a more lenient stance during the first six years of her reign, allowing her subjects to attend religious services and study in schools in the capital, by 1835 she had banned it all and began persecuting dozens of missionaries for witchcraft, believing they were unhelpful to the nation. Those who were not prosecuted—there were 18 executions and nearly 2,000 people punished in various ways—chose to leave.

Some of them, along with Malagasy Christians caught engaging in Christian or witchcraft practices—or even theft—had to undergo the tangena, a type of ordeal originating in 16th-century Imerina in which the accused proved their innocence or guilt by ingesting poison extracted from the nut of the homonymous shrub, along with chicken skins and either rice water or juice from a plant, such as banana or cardamom. It was believed that a spirit named Manamango resided within the nut and could ensure the truthfulness of the test’s outcome.
If the accused vomited the skins in the correct direction, they were declared innocent, as the chicken was considered a symbolic representation of human flesh. In such cases, the accuser lost a third of the monetary bond they were required to deposit beforehand. The other two-thirds were divided between the accused and the queen, partly explaining why trials by tangena became so frequent during Ranavalona’s time (though it should be clarified that the natives of Imerina firmly believed in the process and underwent it without fear, confident in their ability to pass).
However, the tangena varied according to social class. The andriana (nobles) and hova (free citizens) had the right to have a dog or rooster ingest the poison on their behalf and would only take it themselves if the animals died; in contrast, the andevo (slaves) had to drink it directly. Those who died during such peculiar trials were buried in desolate places with their heads oriented south as a mark of disgrace. It is believed that 20% to 50% of cases ended in death, a demographic blow exacerbated by other causes we will address shortly.

These picturesque customs and other shocking practices abolished by the queen—such as leaving babies in the street to determine whether their birth would bring good fortune—can be explained by the geographical uniqueness of Madagascar, an island—the fourth largest in the world—that remained essentially isolated in nearly all respects since it separated from the Indian subcontinent 65 million years ago. Evolutionarily, this allowed the development of a unique fauna and flora, with 90% of species endemic and found nowhere else on Earth, such as lemurs, boas, geckos, the fossa, several types of baobabs, and the elephant bird (which weighed half a ton and went extinct in the 17th century), among others.
All this fervent policy led to the departure of most Europeans, which posed a danger to the national economy. To compensate for the imbalance, a tradition called fanompoana was strengthened, a system of forced communal labor, unpaid and only for a few rotating days a year, allowing labor to substitute for tax payments. In other words, a local version of the corvée practiced by many civilizations from Antiquity in the Fertile Crescent to the Middle Ages in Europe, or the mita created by the Incas and later adopted by the Spanish.
Unfortunately, the fanompoana was implemented relentlessly, with deterrent physical punishments and conditions so harsh that they severely impacted the demographics: between 1833 and 1839, the population was halved, dropping from about five million to two and a half million. Ida Laura Pfeiffer speaks of tens of thousands of people forced to pay in this manner and concludes that if this woman’s government lasts much longer, Madagascar will be depopulated… Blood -and always blood- is Queen Ranavalona’s maxim, and this wicked woman considers a day wasted if she cannot sign at least half a dozen death sentences.
Of course, Pfeiffer was not very impartial. In her physical description of the queen, she says that Ranavalona was strong and robust in constitution, rather sinister, and in her opinion, older than she claimed. Other accounts, perhaps more reliable because it seems the Austrian never saw her up close, explain that her head and face are small, compact, and well-proportioned; her expression is pleasant, although it sometimes indicates great firmness. It appears her skin was very dark, which likely created an intriguing image for the people of the time, seeing her adorned in the elaborate florals typical of early 19th-century European romantic fashion.
Returning to the matter at hand, fanompoana and war were combined. The inhabitants of Imerina had to contribute to this system by mainly providing manpower to the army; thus, Ranavalona maintained a force of between twenty and thirty thousand men, enabling her to quell any secessionist attempts and reduce rebels to the condition of andevos. The andevos primarily came from the coastal regions, the most rebellious, and it is estimated they numbered around a million between 1820 and 1853; as previously mentioned, the slave trade was one of the economic foundations.

Additionally, the pacification and expansion campaigns claimed around 160,000 lives—some lost in battle, others due to famines caused by scorched-earth tactics, and many more from resulting epidemics. Regarding the latter, it should be noted that Merina soldiers came from the central highland areas, where malaria was virtually nonexistent, leaving them without natural defenses against it; operating in lowlands filled with swamps, they died in droves, with an estimated 4,500 annually, such that Imerina gradually became depopulated.
As one might expect, France and Great Britain did not stand idly by and saw in Ranavalona’s tyrannical government a casus belli to intervene in Madagascar, a country over which they had been vying for influence—or even outright ownership—for years. In this regard, it is worth recalling that the French controlled several small surrounding islands, while the British viewed Madagascar as an ideal base to protect their route to India. Against both, recent historical revisions suggest, the queen sought to maintain her independence and self-sufficiency, which led the two powers to distort her true image and exaggerate it to the point of caricature.
Malagasy opinions are divided on the matter. Christian Malagasy corroborate that she was a bloodthirsty and bizarre despot, while nationalists view her as a patriotic and anti-imperialist leader who defended indigenous traditions. I feel neither shame nor fear for the customs of my ancestors! is a phrase attributed to her, and in a letter to European residents, she acknowledged the good they had done and announced her determination to respect their English and French customs as long as they did the same, establishing a strict separation between Christianity—reserved for foreigners—and the local religion, which was mandatory for Malagasy people.

In reality, both positions are not incompatible. Ranavalona could be eccentric, dictatorial, and ruthless, which does not prevent her from wanting to maintain a proud sovereignty against foreign influence, despite acknowledging the good it might bring. In fact, it is known that her secretary was educated by the English, and she herself imitated European courts in protocol. In any case, there were no shortages of external attempts to overthrow her. In 1829, a French squadron of six ships led by Admiral Gourbeyre bombarded the fort of Foulpointe and the city of Ivondro, but the queen’s coastal artillery repelled the attack, and the malaria affecting the crews did the rest, forcing the invaders to retreat. Several heads of fallen marines adorned the beach, mounted on pikes as a warning for future attempts.
In 1845, a new raid was carried out, this time by two French ships, the Berceau and the Zelée, commanded by Admiral Romain-Desfossés, along with the British frigate Conway under Commander Kelly. This involved the bombardment of Tamatave, the country’s second-largest city, located on the east coast. The official explanation for the mission was a demand for an apology for the expulsion of missionaries and the persecution of Christians. When no apology was forthcoming, they resorted to arms. However, this only caused the regime to become more insular, imposing reconstruction costs on foreign merchants residing on the island and closing the ports to the outside world.
Let us recall that King Radama I had modernized his forces thanks to a treaty with the British. Later, Ranavalona hired Jean Laborde, a French adventurer, engineer, and slave trader who had himself been enslaved after shipwrecking there. Once freed by the queen, he became the director of the fledgling local arms industry, employing thousands of fanompoana men to manufacture muskets, cannons, and gunpowder, ensuring the kingdom did not have to rely on external purchases. But the conflicts were not over and resurfaced in 1857 in the form of a peculiar conspiracy to dethrone Ranavalona and crown her son Rakoto.

Joseph-François Lambert, also a slaver, had signed the so-called Lambert Charter in 1855, granting him the exploitation of all minerals, forests, and unoccupied lands in Madagascar in exchange for a ten-percent royalty. In a message sent to Napoleon III, he requested protection and intervention in exchange for facilitating the annexation of Madagascar, in agreement with Laborde and other French residents. The plot was uncovered, and Ranavalona expelled them—as we mentioned, Ida Laura Pfeiffer was inadvertently implicated—although Laborde would return four years later, under a new king, to become the first French consul in Madagascar.
Ranavalona’s succession was not straightforward. The queen had several children and designated Rakoto, who had distanced himself from the plot against his mother (who, it was said, deliberately allowed it to develop almost to the end to determine who was loyal and who was not within the government). Rakoto was considered progressive, prompting conservatives to maneuver against his ascent in favor of a nephew, Ramboasalama. Fortunately, his brothers—who were the prime minister and the head of the army—supported him, surrounding the palace with troops and forcing Ramboasalama to publicly swear allegiance.
Ranavalona passed away on August 16, 1861. It was a peaceful death during her sleep, which did not foreshadow the tumultuous nature of her funeral. The elaborate ceremonies included the sacrifice of twelve thousand zebus, whose meat was distributed among the population, and a nine-month mourning period was established. As with her predecessors, her body was placed in a silver-plated coffin and buried in a tomb in the royal city of Ambohimanga. However, a barrel of gunpowder intended for fireworks accidentally ignited and exploded, destroying three buildings in the palace complex and killing several attendees.
Rakoto adopted the name Radama II and took the reins, reopening the country to foreign powers. He granted France a commercial monopoly that, ironically, in the last quarter of the century, would serve as a pretext for the French to invade Madagascar. He did not live to see it, as he was assassinated in 1863 in a coup involving military officers and the prime minister, who feared foreigners would take over everything. One of his wives, Rasoherina, a Catholic Christian, his cousin, and Ranavalona I’s niece, ascended to the throne, succeeded by her sister Ranavalona II and her niece Ranavalona III, who was the last queen as the French deposed her in 1897, establishing a protectorate. It turned out her great-aunt was right.
This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on January 9, 2025: Ranavalona I, la implacable reina de Madagascar que persiguió el cristianismo para proteger las tradiciones y la fe de su pueblo
SOURCES
Ida Pfeiffer, The Last Travels of Ida Pfeiffer. Inclusive of a Visit to Madagascar
Hseham Amrahs, Life Tales of Historical Queens
Keith Laidler, Female Caligula: Ranavalona, the mad queen of Madagascar
Gwyn Campbell, An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar, 1750-1895. The Rise and Fall of an Island Empire
George MacDonald Fraser, Flashman y señora
Wikipedia, Ranavalona I
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