Ranavalona I
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Ranavalona I (c. 1782-1861), Queen of Merina, was born Rabodoandrianampoinimerina (Ramavo). After succeeding her husband, Radama I, and becoming Queen, she was also known as Ranavalo-Manjaka I. Over the course of her bloody reign, and after it, she was referred to as the Modern Messalina, the Bloody Mary of Madagascar, and Wicked Queen Ranavalona.
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[edit] History
[edit] Early life
Rabodoandrianampoinimerina was born into the Menabe tribe somewhere between 1782 and 1790. Little is known of Ranavalona's early life, but it was during her first years that the King Andrianampoinimerina was attempting to unite Madagascar's various factions under a single crown. The king of the Menabe ruled the western portion of the island, and he was unwilling to unify. Because of this, Andrianampoinimerina's successor, Ramada I, did the next best thing by marrying the eldest daughter of Andrian-Tsala-Manjaka and his wife Rabodo Andrian-Tampo. During the early years of the union, little is mentioned of her, but a physical description follows, taken from George MacDonald Fraser's novel Flashman's Lady (a work of fiction).
She might have been anywhere between forty and fifty, rather round-faced, with a small straight nose, a fine brow, and a short, broad-lipped; her skin was jet black and plump – and then you met her eyes, and in a sudden chill rush of fear realized that all you had heard was true, and the horrors you'd seen needed no further explanation. They were small and bright and evil as a snake's, unblinking, with a depth of cruelty and malice that was terrifying.
— George MacDonald Fraser
She was married to Radama when she was little older than a child, and was suspected of poisoning her husband. Radama left no descendants when he died and Ranavalona took the throne in 1828 after eliminating any potential rivals.
[edit] Reign as Queen
After becoming Queen, Ranavalona had most of her relatives assassinated. She persecuted and expelled foreigners, including the island's missionaries, in 1835, and extended her rule all over the island with her 20,000-man army. Ranavalona was a violent persecutor of Christians; after expelling the missionaries failed to eradicate Christianity from her island, she began a gruesome scourging of the land. All people who possessed a bible, or outwardly claimed to be Christian, were executed. Some were trussed up like chickens and thrown from hilltops repeatedly until they died. Others were dressed in the bloody skins of animals and had hunting dogs set upon them. Some were yoked together like cattle and placed in the thick tangled jungles of Madagascar where they would break their necks trying to get free, or would get caught in the undergrowth and starve to death. However, Ranavalona's favorite method of execution was to have a prisoner placed in a pit at the bottom of a hill and have her soldiers, at the top of the hill, tip over pots of boiling water; when the water reached the pit, it would slowly rise up and boil the prisoner alive.[citation needed]
Queen Ranavalona died hated by her subjects and foreign countries alike, although a few revisionists have given her some credit for preserving traditional forms of poetry. She was mother of King Radama II, who succeeded her.
[edit] Sources
- Meanings in Madagascar by Oyvind and Yvind Dahl
- Madagascar Rediscovered by Mervin Brown.
| The Merina monarchy |
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King Andrianampoinimerina | King Radama I | Queen Ranavalona I | King Radama II | Queen Rasoaherina | Queen Ranavalona II | |
