The Indian ocean Madagascar, Réunion, Mauritius, the Seychelles 9783822877562, 3822877565

Citation preview

Madagascar

Reunion

SJexl Elian

AURITIUS

/

ta i/ix Christian Vaisse

Madagascar, Reunion, Mauritius, Seychelles: names that evoke images of sand, sea and sky, coral reefs and pure, unbounded nature. The islands of the Indian Ocean are steeped in history, lying as they do along the main trading routes that Arab, Portuguese, Dutch, English and French ships sailed in days of old. The largest of these islands, Madagascar, the “red island”, attracts many visitors with its unique flora and fauna, and fully deserves its reputation as a naturalist’s paradise. Twenty different ethnic groups have long lived happily side by side on Madagascar, a phenomenon reflected in its cultural heritage - a rich mix of African, Arabic and South Asian influences. Reunion, the “Little France of the Indian Ocean”, was created by a volcano erupting from the depths of the sea, but is no ordinary tropical island. “Reunion goes down 9,000 feet into the ocean and 9,000 feet up into the sky”, say the locals. Immigrants from throughout the world have formed a truly multicultural society there that, gradually over 300 years, has developed an identity of its own. Just 40 miles long and 29 miles wide, Mauritius sits like a tiny emerald surrounded by coral reefs. “Before God created Paradise, he made Mauritius”, they say. Untrammelled natural beauty and the way its many different people live together in perfect harmony have earned Mauritius the title “Pearl of the Indian Ocean”. More than 90 islands of various sizes make up the Seychelles. The diversity of their marine flora and fauna has made these islands a mecca for diving enthusiasts. A whole chapter is dedicated to each island in this richly illustrated book, which includes a list of everything the traveller to these parts needs to know. This is a guide that leaves the beaten track to explore the full diversity and richness of some magical islands.

Front cover: © Photo Claude Pavard Back cover: © Photo Christian Vaisse

The Indian Ocean

EVERGREEN is an imprint of Benedikt Taschen Verlag GmbH © for this edition: 1998 Benedikt Taschen Verlag GmbH Hohenzollernring 53, D-50672 Koln © 1997 Editions du Chene - Hachette Livre - L’Ocean indien Under the direction of Michel Buntz - Hoa Qui Photographic Agency Editor: Corinne Fossey Maps and illustrations: Jean-Michel Kirsch Text: Eliane Georges Photographs: Christian Vaisse Cover: Angelika Taschen, Cologne Translated by Simon Knight In association with First Edition Translations Ltd, Cambridge Realization of the English edition by First Edition Translations Ltd, Cambridge Printed in Italy ISBN 3-8228-7756-5

The Indian Ocean Madagascar

Reunion

Mauritius

Eliane Georges Christian Vaisse

The Seychelles

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• Madagascar*

The Pangalanes Canal, running parallel with the east coast, has recently been restored to encourage water-borne traffic.

F

rom Tana, the train - one of the more tangible reminders of the 60 years of French colonization - grinds its way in a

metallic clatter of protesting axles and rattling wheels towards Toamasina (“it seems salty”), formerly Tamatave, the great port of Madagascar’s east coast. Twelve hours to cover 370 kilometres (230 miles), with nearly 40 stops on the way, but what a journey! Having crossed the rice-grow¬ ing plains of the highlands, the locomotive begins its descent, tack¬ ling an escarpment clothed in creepers and cascades of greenery, with occasional glimpses of sun-lit valleys closed in by mountains. Soon the atmosphere becomes heavier and more humid, and it is time to switch on the fan. Halfway, the train stops at Perinet (Andasibe), whose nature reserve shelters rare orchids and the largest of Madagascar’s lemurs, the indri or babakoto {Indri indri), with its eerie, wailing cry. The dense primary forest in this area is under threat. Every day, slash-and-burn agriculture (tavy) destroys a little more of the remaining virgin forest, and a secondary growth of pandanus, ravenala (traveller’s tree), bamboo and eucalyptus

54

• Madagascar*

takes over from the original hardwood species. As it crosses the banana plantations of the coastal strip, the train begins a crazy pitching motion: land crabs have undermined the tracks and the rails have become deformed. The soft breath of the alize (trade wind) wafts through the window. The east coast, with its scent of cinnamon, shark-infested waters and memories of piracy, has a hot, wet, equatorial climate. The impressively regular coastline runs north-south, constantly exposed to the ocean swell. An inland waterway, the Canal des Pangalanes, linking Toamasina and Manakara, has been restored to facilitate commerce between the coastal towns. But canal is something of a misnomer. It is more a chain of lagoons and vast lakes, watery avenues and capricious channels, best suited to an outrigger canoe. An occasional barge laden with graphite, or carrying a cargo of sugar-cane or coffee, makes its ponderous way among the tradi¬ tional Betsimisaraka craft. The original plan was to create a navi¬ gable network extending 665 kilometres (415 miles) from Foulpointe to Farafangana, but much work remains to be done.

55

amboo rafts are still made around Toamasina on the east coast.

M

A D A G A S C A R

1 he “pousse-pousse” is a picturesque means of transport, introduced by Pakistanis at the beginning of the century - an indicator of the island’s low level of economic development.

57

• Madagascar*

T'Jear Ranohira, the mysterious sandstone massif of the Isalo has been eroded into all kinds of strange

F

rom the jungle valleys of the Massif d’Ambre, which rises to 2,800 metres (9,100 ft) in the north of the island, to the semi-

desert conditions of the vast Horombe Plateau in the south,

shapes.

Madagascar presents the visitor with one breathtaking landscape after another. The Great Island’s wealth of imposing natural features is a source of wonder and enchantment, which the incursions of tourism have done nothing to diminish. And the further south you travel, the stranger the landforms become. First you must face the mists of the Ankaratra, the mountain range that forms the backbone of the island, and, further west, the mirageinducing landscape of the Tampoketsa, an immense red plateau of eroded hills, where the earth, haunting in its sensuality, appears to languish under a burning fabric of blue fire. South of Ambalavao, the Andringitra range is formed of overlapping granite blocks dom¬ inated by the mass of Pic Boby (2,658 m/ 8,727 ft), Madagascar’s second highest mountain, where the souls of the ancestors are said to hold council. As you come down out of the mountains, the Porte

60

• Madagascar*

du Sud, an immense cliff which glows red in the last rays of the sun, forms the gateway to Madagascar’s Deep South, marking the fron¬ tier between the rounded green humps of the highlands and the immense Horombe Plateau stretching away below. From this point on, there is a growing sense of penetrating into terra incognita: villages are few and far between, and the arid land¬

scape opens up in cinemascopic grandeur. This is Bara country, a limitless prairie of yellowing grass dotted with satrana palms. Natural rebels, the powerfully built Bara are a race of pastoralists, some still living a nomadic life. They range the savannah with their herds of zebu, and occasionally engage in cattle rustling, an age-old tradition. From afar, the mysterious Isalo Massif breaks the mono¬ tony of the featureless plain: jagged crests, deep-carved canyons, eerie projections of worn, red sandstone - it looks more like a scene from the American West. These mountains are sacred to the Bara and, when venturing with a guide into this nature reserve, it is well to respect the established taboos (fady). The ancestors are said to have forbidden salt and the use of reeds.

61

mm

• Madagascar*

Thhe baobab rarely grows beyond 25 m (82 ft), but it can measure as much as 40 m (131 ft) in girth.

• The baobab • A large tree with a disproportionately thick trunk and tiny branches, the baobab can go on growing indefinitely. Despite its imposing mass, it is a fragile tree: its roots are tiny, and its wood yielding as butter if cut or stabbed with a knife. Though not suitable as timber, the baobab is of great value to the Malagasy. Its bark and leaves are used to prepare soothing infusions. Its leaves are dried in the shade and ground to produce a nutritious powder, which can be mixed with other foods. The tender green leaves are eaten as a vegetable. The dried pulp of its fruit, known as

pain de singe (monkey bread), has a pleasant, slightly acid taste. In the west of Madagascar, baobabs are believed to have supernatural powers: evil spirits are held captive in their trunks and released to do mischief during the night. To protect themselves, the local people tie together three blades of grass growing at the foot of the tree.

63

• Madagascar*

around Tulear, water is scarce and the women often have to go long distances in search of it. Over their other clothes, they wear a brightly coloured lamba.

65

• Madagascar*

Aioalo are carved memorials marking Mahafaly tombs in the southwest of Madagascar. They depict the main events in the life of the deceased. They also form a link between heaven and earth. It is traditional to kill the cattle of the dead man and display their skulls on his tomb as evidence of his wealth.

68

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• Madagascar*

A

land of rock and sand, the extreme south of Madagascar is home to the Mahafaly and Antandroy; two fiercely inde¬

pendent peoples who have adapted their way of life to the austere conditions of this desert of cactus, giant thorn bushes and succu¬ lent plants. (“Antandroy” in fact means “people of the thorns”, the roy being a shrub with cruel spines.) You need a 4x4 vehicle to visit this extraordinary region, and should camp among the tree-sized euphorbia and aloes to appreciate just how tough life can be. Dark skinned, distinctly African in physique, loud of speech and with a ready smile, the people of the south are warriors by temperament, as evidenced by the ever-present assegai. They surrendered only to the colonial troops of Colonel Lyautey at the turn of the century, provoking the remark from Captain Deefort that: “I can only compare the Antandroy, as a whole, to the stub¬ born Gauls described by Julius Caesar”. Living in small clans, subsisting on maize, millet, sweet potatoes, and Lima beans, rain permitting, they profess a boundless love for their cattle, prize freedom above all things, and take collective deci-

70

• Madagascar*

sions only after long, complicated discussions (kabary). Antandroy medicine men, who read the future with tamarind seeds and make healing ointments, are reputed throughout Madagascar for their knowledge of herbs. But so precarious are their circumstances that, in years of drought, the men are sometimes reduced to eating the boiled leaves of the prickly pear cactus (raketa). Although the Mahafaly may spend his life in a tiny grass-thatched hut, he knows that, when he dies, his bones will rest in an enor¬ mous stone-built tomb, worthy of his entrance into the ranks of the

A. Malagasy warrior poses beside a Mahafaly tomb holding the giant egg of an aepyornis; an ostrich-like bird

ancestors. This tomb, or valovato, will reflect the wealth of the occu¬

thought to have died out in the

pant, and is adorned with aloalo, wooden sculptures depicting

sixteenth century. Eggs are still

scenes from his past life, and in some cases naive-style paintings.

sometimes found in the region of

The more prosperous the dead man, and the more numerous his

Amboasary.

cattle, the more splendid his funeral celebrations will be. They include singing, dancing, drinking rum and firing shots into the air. But, above all, many head of cattle will be sacrificed, and their meat served to the assembled company. The skulls and horns are later arranged carefully around the tomb of their former owner.

71

• Madagascar*

N,ine-tenths of the world’s lemur species are native to Madagascar.

• Warning: species in danger • A century ago, Madagascar was still the lemur paradise. Survivors of the Tertiary era, these primates, ancestors of the monkeys, are thought to have colonized the island, via Africa, some 40 million years ago. More than one early explorer is said to have trembled on hearing, from the depth of the forest, the roar of the ruffed lemur (L. variagatus). The most astonishing of all is the legendary aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis), which was believed to have died out in the 1950s. Perching in the high fork of a tree, this ghost-like creature with the face of a medieval gargoyle, has an amazing middle finger; long and dry as a twig, which it uses for extracting grubs from their holes. But now it is under threat. Practising slash-and-burn methods, farmers have destroyed a good half of the forests. Although lemurs are regarded as taboo by many people, and therefore untouchable, their habitat seems likely to become more and more restricted.

73

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.

fit

• Madagascar*

Facing page: Pachypodium

M

adagascar has always fascinated botanists. As early as 1774,

lamieri, a bottle tree identified by its awesome array of triple spines.

natural historian Philippe Commerson wrote: “There, nature seems to have withdrawn, as if into a private sanctuary, to work on models different from those She used elsewhere; there, you will find the most unusual, and wonderful, of natural forms”. The great rain forest of the eastern escarpment is a vestige of the island’s original flora. All the tropical hardwoods so prized for tim¬ ber - palisander, rosewood, mahogany and ebony - thrust upwards in their race for the sunlight. In the undergrowth, over a 100 species of orchid have been recorded, including the creamy white Sainte Marie comet, which has a corolla 38 cm (15 in) deep. Over 80 per cent of Madagascar’s 12,000 species of flowering plant are in fact endemic, found nowhere else in the world. But it is in the arid regions of the southwest, where plants have had to adapt to drought conditions, that they appear in all their extravagance. Is it that they are oriented towards the black contin¬ ent? The bush of the west coast is certainly reminiscent of Africa, but in exaggerated form. Around Morondava, giant baobabs, which

76

• Madagascar*

This pitcher plant (Nepenthes

can live for 2,000 years, rise in clumps from a soil tanned the colour

madagascariensis), which grows in

of old leather. Madagascar has seven species; Africa only one. They

the region of Fort-Dauphin, is

are said to hold evil spirits captive in their trunks, and to release

carnivorous. Insects fall in and drown in its water-filled pitcher.

them at night. But do not worry: to ward them off, all you need do is tie together three blades of grass growing under the tree. In the spiny forest of the extreme south, the brick-red landscape appears surreal in the rays of the setting sun. Candelabra-shaped euphorbia, tentacular octopus trees, tiny bottle baobabs swollen with water, bloated pachypodiums - also known as elephant’s foot - fantsilohitras which extend their long scaly arms against the cobalt sky, enormous aloes, together form the backdrop to some extra¬ terrestrial fantasy. The island’s fauna is no less strange and archaic. Unlike Africa, Madagascar has no monkeys, big game species or elephants, but a host of primitive creatures, which come as a surprise. In the absence of major predators, and thanks to the dense forest which provided for their needs, many of the animals that had reached the island before it broke away from the African continent, 160 million years

78

• Madagascar*

ago, have been caught in a time warp. For instance, 30 species of

^ladagascar is home to two-thirds

that minuscule prehistoric monster - the chameleon - live in the

of the world’s known chameleon

forests of Madagascar. There are 3,000 kinds of butterfly, one more

species. This is Chamaeleo parsoni. The largest, Chamaeleo ostaleti,

beautiful than another, including the charaxes, which are unique to the island. Sadly, only 300 or 400 specimens of the splendidly marked angonaka, or ploughshare tortoise (Geochelone yniphora), which lives in the region of Cap Saint Andre, now survive. Their numbers have been reduced by bush fires and wild boar, which are very partial to their eggs, and they have been taken by local people eager to make money out of their shells. As for the aepyornis, the giant ostrich-like bird which stood 3 metres (10 ft) tall and weighed 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) - the “elephant bird” of Malagasy folklore - it is now the stuff of legend. According to Flacourt, it died out in the seventeenth century, but the Antandroy still occasionally find its eggs, buried in the sands of the south.

79

grows to 70 cm (27 in).

■ ■

Madagascar

A.t Tulear (Toliary), fishermen use an ox cart to unload their catch.

82

• Madagascar*

When evening comes, the Vezo, nomadic fishermen of the southwest, use masts and sails to pitch a tent for the night.

83

$'

• Madagascar*

O

n the southwest coast, some 1,000 kilometres from

The church at Ambodifototra, on

Antananarivo, right on the Tropic of Capricorn, the Route

the east coast island of Sainte Marie,

Nationale 7 at last reaches its goal: the sun-drenched, dazzling white

is the oldest in Madagascar. Its first bishop, Monseigneur Delmond, is

town of Tulear. Wide avenues swelter in the heat, a burning wind scorches flame trees and tamarinds, the sun beats down overhead, and red dust blows in from the bush irritating the throat. The beauty of the south is harsh and violent. Tulear awaits the cool of the evening to emerge from its lethargy. In the sandy lanes, the flickering light of paraffin lamps casts theatrical shadows. And in the discos, open to the ocean breeze, the music pulsates to an African rhythm. The coastal villages on the edge of the semi-desert Mahafaly country are the territory of Vezo fishermen, who defy the ocean in flotillas of outrigger canoes. On Madagascar’s west coast, the sea (ranomasina = salt water) breaks over coral reefs. Comb the beach and, half buried in the sand, worn, bleached, encrusted with barnacles and sometimes inhabited by hermit crabs, you will find specimens of tropical shellfish which are becoming all too rare: conchs, murex, giant clams, nautilus and cowries. With a little imagination, the driftwood might be taken

85

buried there.

• Madagascar*

for pirates’ bones, long rolled on the bottom by the restless breakers. The coastline of Madagascar was for centuries the scene of buc¬ caneering exploits, especially the delightful island of Sainte Marie, which lies off the east coast. As far back as 1685, this little paradise shaded by huge jackfruit trees became a strategic base for piracy, a safe distance from the petty kings of mainland Madagascar. Crumbling under a weight of luxuriant vegetation, epitaphs half Simple though they may be, shops and small hotels in country

eaten away by the tropical humidity, the cemetery where the pirates lie buried is still there, on Madame islet.

areas are not devoid of charm.

Sainte Marie - or Nosy Boraha, as it is now officially known - is a long tongue of land, lying parallel to the coast north of Mahavelona (Foulpointe). It has changed little over the intervening years. Life flows by, as the women plait one another’s hair in the shade of the veranda, and the clove trees give off their pungent scent. Tracks disappear among the jambarakas, linking the tiny raised huts made of bamboo and thatched with the leaves of the traveller’s palm. In the lagoon, women and children chant together as they close in on a shoal of fish they have encircled with their net.

86

• Madagascar*

And yet, the island has known some exciting times. All the best-known pirates hung out here at some time or another. Each gang imposed its own rules, forcing its members to swear an oath of allegiance on the crucifix, the Bible or an axe. In the eighteenth century, they eventu¬ ally formed a tumultuous society, a 1,000 or more sailors of all nation¬ alities, and got along well with the native population. This fruitful cohabitation was to lead to a curious historical episode. The mulattos - descendants of these pirates and the daughters of local chiefs - soon established their hegemony over the entire east

A. banana leaf has many uses: as packaging material or as an umbrella.

coast of Madagascar, as the apathetic Betsimisaraka tribes put up little resistance. One of these mulatto sovereigns, Queen Bety, mar¬ ried a French corporal, La Bigorne, who had fled to Madagascar to escape the anger of a jealous husband he had cuckolded back in the lie Bourbon (now Reunion). This tropical Don Juan was so successful in arousing the francophile sentiments of Queen Bety that, in 1750, she granted Sainte Marie to the king of France. In fact, until quite recently, the people of the island were entitled to the status of citizens under French common law.

87

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