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Rabearivelo was born out of wedlock to an impoverished young woman belonging to a noble family of the Hova people in Antananarive in either 1901, 1903 or 1904-he himself variously used the different dates. He was baptized Joseph-Casimir but later changed his name to Jean-Joseph so that he had the same initials as the “great French writer” (Jean-Jacques Rousseau). Rabearivelo was taken in by a maternal uncle; his formal schooling was cut short when he was expelled from school. From 1915 to 1919 he worked as secretary and interpreter for a Madagascan nobleman before being employed in 1923 as a proof-reader for the Imprimerie de l’Imerina (Imerina Press), a position that he held until his death by suicide in 1937. In 1926 he married Mary Razafitrima, with whom he had five children, one of whom, his beloved daughter Voahangy, died in 1933, aged only 2. Rabearivelo never recovered from her death and when another daughter was born shortly after, he named her Velomboahangy, Voahangy reincarnated.