Antananarivo
Antananarivo: Located at the highest point (1,480 meters above sea level) of three ranges of hills forming a Y-shape, Analamanga dominated a floodable plain more than 200 meters below, drained by the River Ikopa, and transformed over the centuries, through successive kings’ irrigation policies, into a set of rice-growing regions known as the Betsimi-tatatra.Â
This vast area, which was devoid of canals, came to represent both the partnership between the monarch (rice) and the people (water) in the kingdom. The migrants who arrived in Imerina before the end of the first millennium preferred to settle near the lower ground, but control of a position as unique as Analamanga piqued the interest of the Vazimba, who established their capital there by the end of the fourteenth century at the latest.
The location piqued the interest of the Andriana dynasty, which traveled from the east and settled near Analamanga during numerous relocations of their capital. By the start of the seventeenth century, they had relocated to Ambohimanga in the northeast. From there, the monarch Andrianjaka marched out to conquer Analamanga, conquering the fortress and banishing the Vazimba rulers.Â
However, he opted not to live in their rova (the fortified perimeter that housed the royal palaces), preferring a slightly lower but further north site, the cardinal direction linked with political power in Imerina’s symbolic spatial structure. The defensive complex and perimeter included a moat, which separated it from Vazimba’s residence. They renamed Analamanga Antananarivo, while renaming the Andriana rova Analamasina (“in the sacred forest”)
This place name, imposed by Andrianjaka, has traditionally been translated as “town (or village) of the thousand,” meaning the settlers, but it could be a deformation of Antaninarivo, “in the land of the people,” a meaning that would be more appropriate for the purpose of the capital, which was designed in the image of the kingdom. Early in the eighteenth century, Andrianampoinime Rina, with Ambohimanga as her capital, reunified the fragmented Imerina into four kingdoms, thereby restoring Antana Narivo’s political dominance.
He also allowed free subjects to reside there. Following in the footsteps of his forefathers, Andrianampoinimerina assigned each territorial or status group a specific district within the moats or in the suburbs. Andrianampoinimerina reallocated these regions, known as tanindrazana (ancestral lands holding tombs), based on the rova, the major pillar that structured the space of the “great house” or kingdom itself.
Antananarivo held to its rocks (now known as Haute Ville [Upper City]) until the eighteenth century, when it became the capital of the Kingdom of Madagascar. Then it grew over the wind-sheltered slopes to the west and the hills to the north, eventually reaching Faravohitra, a low-esteemed suburb, until British missionaries came to favor it as a location to live.
They acquired a special status for their territory by building a memorial church on the site of Ranavalona I’s martyrdoms between 1863 and 1872, under the suggestion of James Sibree of the London Missionary Society. Their use of stone for this and other structures caused a shift in the symbolism of Imerinian architecture, which had historically distinguished between stone, the material of monuments to the dead, and vegetal stuff, used for dwelling quarters.Â
James Cameron, a Scottish craftsman and missionary who broke with Madagascan tradition and created a model for residential building that the elite would adopt, refitted the Manjakamiadana, the largest of the palaces in the rova (an ensemble nearly completely destroyed by fire in November 1995), in stone.
Even today, this style gives the city its particular look, with brick-built buildings with a sloping roof, an upper storey, a veranda, and multiple rooms, including a drawing room. Colonial-era bourgeois mansions are distinguished by their larger size, the addition of an arcade above the porch, and the installation of a tower. The colonial authority insisted on imbuing Antananarivo with a distinct “Frenchness.”
It began with infrastructure advancements such as paved roads, electric lighting, and drinking-water sewers, as well as the layout of the Ville Moyenne [Middle City] neighborhoods near the governor general’s headquarters. In 1924, Géo Cassaigne, a French architect and town planner, created the first programmatic design for the capital’s layout, growth, and embelishment.
This plan focused on automobile mobility and district specialization inside the city; it also included garden suburbs for Europeans and “villages” for locals, in a metropolis where racial segregation had hitherto been unknown. However, material and budgetary restrictions prompted the cancellation of this scheme.
The Betsimitatatra, where rice farms gave way to the Ville Basse [Lower City], primarily employed modern town planning in the Western style, featuring a park, squares, and other geometric open spaces. The buildings along this main line, particularly the Hôtel de Ville [city hall], which burned down during the May 1972 movement, formed a cohesive ensemble typical of the 1930s.
The authorities and European speculators had little interest in the city’s outskirts, which were home to the less desirable establishments. Common people established residential areas in uncleared valleys and parts of the plain, evading any planning controls. The hillsides lacked roads, but they were becoming increasingly densely populated with the homes of Madagascar’s petty and medium classes.
The suburban estates built under the 1956 city plan only partially addressed the housing issues caused by the city’s rapid growth, which had intensified during World War II. Antana narivo also expanded into the Betsimitata Tra, which became the location of massive embankment operations following the severe floods in 1959.
The plain became the site of an administrative complex, including ministries, a hospital, and educational institutions, as well as additional estates, but little was done to clear the land, and in the absence of housing or credit policies, the municipality failed to prevent either illegal occupation or spontaneous settlement.
The emergence of large suburban sprawl over the past few decades has slowed urban development. We also project that the implementation of a plan for Grand Tananarive [Greater Tananarive], which extends several kilometers from the city center, will help reduce congestion in the surrounding metropolitan area.
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