ABSTRACT
Among my most cherished souvenirs from years spent doing research in Madagascar is a map that I bought in one of the island's tourist markets. It features an outline of the island on which photocopied images of 18 human heads have been glued atop a neat pattern of crushed coloured stone. Inspired by a colonial convention, the heads are meant to indicate both the traditional territories and cultural heterogeneity of the 18 ethnic groups or tribes that are often said to inhabit Madagascar. The crushed stone, meanwhile, is meant to represent the vast mineral wealth of the island. Capping the map, the top of the frame features an image of what may be Madagascar's best known international ambassador — the ring-tailed lemur, a primate that is endemic to the island — alongside the map's title: ‘MADAGASCAR ET SES MINES’ (‘Madagascar and its mines’).
