ABSTRACT
In this chapter I discuss how the terrible colonial war of 1947 is remembered some 40 years later in Madagascar in general and in a small forest village in particular. The village was burnt down by the French, and the inhabitants were forced to hide without proper food for almost two years. The narrative that is the main focus here recounts the traumatic return to the destroyed village. This story can only be understood, it is argued, when the central spiritual and social significance of houses is taken into account. Also of importance here is the Christian idiom, which has come to this part of Madagascar with the conversion of the inhabitants to Catholicism.
