The Malagasy language is the foundation of both the oral and written forms of the Malagasy literature.

The first known form of literature present in Madagascar was the oral tradition or verbal art, which is considered one of its foremost artistic traditions expressed in the forms of hainteny (poetry), kabary (public discourse) and ohabolana (proverbs). As an artistic tradition, hainteny or Malagasy poetry that is originally an oral literary component holds an important role in featuring Malagasy folklore wrapped up in literature. Malagasy poetry and poems are rich in the elements of Malagasy people's daily life. Thanks to the old traditions and histories that passed down across generations, many stories and poems are told through musical forms or with song patterns. Since the traditional Malagasy poetry has been inseparable from song, it has gained its own literary structure which combines words, known as tonony with song or hira – tononkira and tononkalo as the Malagasy words for poem.

In his book “Research in African Literatures” and its chapter about “Folklore and the history of literature in Madagascar,” author Lee Haring talks about the complexities of this verbal art categorized as folklore but then turned into “native literature”. Haring also describes the process whereby the oral hainteny were transformed into written literature by mentioning the vital role of missionaries in contributing to the publications of various written literary contents, of Malagasy and foreign authors and poets such as Madagascar’s great poet named Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo and Jean Paulhan – the French writer who republished some of his earlier translations of hainteny.

Jean Joseph Rabearivelo as a key figure of the Malagasy poetry.

Born Joseph-Casimir Rabearivelo, Jean Joseph Rabearivelo is a Malagasy writer recognized as one of the most important and first modern African poets. He has been baptized the father of modern literature in Madagascar. Rabearivelo’s life was a living proof of all his achievements and huge contributions to the Malagasy literature, since he grew up in a poor family and did not even finish his secondary school. Despite his family’s fate, he did not settle but educated himself instead.

During the colonization, Rabearivelo was influenced by French culture and language. The 19th and 20th century French literature became his passion and shaped his career as a self-taught artist. Since then, his writing career took off. He changed his name to Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo to have the same initials as Jean-Jacques Rousseau – a famous Swiss-born writer, philosopher and political theorist.

Before his tragic death, J.J.R. managed to write seven volumes of poetry in French, including “La coupe de cendres” or “The bowl of Ashes” (1924) which was his first collection of poems, “Sylves” (“Virgin lands”, 1927), “Presque-Songes” – “Half Dreams” (1934) and “Traduit de la Nuit” or “Translated from the Night” (1935). Many of the poems in Rabearivelo’s last collection called “Vieilles Chansons du pays Imerina” or “Old Songs from the land of Imerina” are love poems and are based from the traditional Malagasy poetic form known as hainteny.

Sources: Britannica / Chicago Review “Hainteny : The
traditional poetry of Madagascar”, Leonard Fox, 1990
/ “Research in African Literatures”, Lee Haring, 1985.