Southern nationalist who joined the revolutionary front, then walked out over fraudulent elections
Denouncing the rigged vote, he declared "the Malagasy people had not elected Ratsiraka for the next seven years."
A Malagasy nationalist politician from the Antandroy people of the south. After organizing the secret Jiny society and surviving imprisonment for his role in the 1947 uprising, he founded MONIMA in 1958 to champion Madagascar's poor southern peasants against Tsiranana's pro-French regime, leading the 1971-72 rotaka protests that drove him from power. Joining Ratsiraka's revolutionary front, he later denounced the 1977 elections as fraudulent and withdrew, becoming the Second Republic's foremost opposition leader.
Career timeline
1943organized the secret society Jiny
1946–1950imprisoned by the colonial administration for Jiny affiliation
1958founded MONIMA (Madagascar for the Malagasy)
1959–1961mayor of Toliara
1971–1972led the rotaka protests that drove President Tsiranana from power
1976–1977joined the FNDR (December 1976), then denounced the 1977 elections as fraudulent and withdrew in June
1982ran against Ratsiraka, denounced fraud, placed under house arrest
1989–1992leading figure in the protests that forced Ratsiraka's resignation and multiparty elections
Accepting power from General Ramanantsoa, he declared, "Tsy hiambaho adidy aho, mon général!" ("I will not shirk my duty, my general!").
A Malagasy officer and politician who, as interior minister after 1972, promoted reorganization through traditional fokonolona communities. He became head of state in February 1975 and was assassinated soon afterward. His proposals should be distinguished from Ratsiraka’s later state planning.
Career timeline
1959Lieutenant in the French army, posted to the 12th Marine Infantry Battalion at Fianarantsoa
1969Commander of the National Gendarmerie, the first Malagasy officer to hold the post
1972Minister of the Interior under General Ramanantsoa's military government
1975.02Head of state and government, Minister of State for National Defense and Planning
“The socialist revolution is the only choice possible for us in order to achieve rapid economic and cultural development in an autonomous, humane, and harmonious manner.”
Madagascar’s leader from 1975. His socialist charter and Second Republic promoted nationalization, planned investment and economic decolonization. Debt and weak production led to market-oriented adjustments in the 1980s amid political opposition.
Career timeline
1962Graduated from the French naval academy; commissioned as a naval officer
1972–1975Foreign minister under Ramanantsoa; renegotiated Franco-Malagasy agreements, left the CFA franc zone
1975Became head of state as chair of the Supreme Revolutionary Council
1975Elected president by referendum; established the Second Republic
1976Founded the ruling party AREMA; became its secretary-general
1982Re-elected president
1989Re-elected president
1991Signed the Panorama Convention, ceding most powers while remaining president
1993Lost the multiparty election to Albert Zafy; left office
1997Re-elected president; returned to office
2002Fled into exile in July after the disputed election
2003Sentenced in absentia to ten years' hard labor for embezzlement
Founder of the MFM, the left party of the 1972 student-revolution generation
As the MFM was at last admitted to the front, Ratsiraka declared, 'There is no longer any reason to exclude the MFM.'
A sociology professor at Madagascar's agricultural college, Rakotonirina entered politics through Monja Jaona's MONIMA and helped organize the May 1972 protests that brought down the Tsiranana regime. In December 1972 he founded the Maoist left party MFM (Militants for Power to the Little People), which championed the poor, peasants and slave-descendants; after Ratsiraka dissolved the party and placed him under house arrest in 1976, he brought the MFM into the FNDR the following year and as head of the CSR's economic commission managed the nationalized enterprises. He later turned to liberalism, led the 1991 pro-democracy movement, and in 2009 was arrested as the prime minister named by the exiled president.
Career timeline
1966Joined MONIMA
1968Head of MONIMA's Antananarivo section
1972Founded the MFM (27 December)
1977–1989CSR member, head of the economic commission
1989Second in presidential election (~20%)
1991–1993Co-president of the transitional recovery committee
1993–1998Member of the National Assembly (Manandriana)
Malagasy feminist socialist leader of the 1972 student movement
From 24 April 1972 she advanced abolition of the 1960 Cooperation Agreement and Malgachisation as a 'second independence', which the 1972-1975 military government did not implement. Ranjanoro calls it a 'third independence', and the FAEM general secretaryship is disputed.
A feminist socialist born and raised in Madagascar, from a petit bourgeois family in which politics was considered a man's preserve. The Student Christian Movement (SCM-MPIKRIMA) exposed her to socialist ideas and politicised her. In 1972, a third-year student of Malagasy literature and language, she led the nationwide movement that began on 24 April as general secretary of the FAEM student federation, demanding abolition of the 1960 Cooperation Agreement and Malgachisation as a 'second independence'; on the night of 12 May she was arrested and detained on Nosy Lava. In Nairobi she led the WSCF 'Liberation' programme; in 1975 family life took her first to Geneva, and she returned to Nairobi in 1978 before moving to Canada after her husband's arrest and release. From 1991 in the UK, she headed UNIFEM's Africa section and retired in 2010.
Career timeline
1972Third-year student of Malagasy literature and language; FAEM general secretary and strike committee member
1972Arrested on the night of 12 May and detained on Nosy Lava
after 1972Programme officer at the WSCF Regional Office for Africa in Nairobi leading the 'Liberation' programme; commissioner of the World Council of Churches Programme to Combat Racism; founder and West Africa portfolio head at the Agency for Cooperation and Research for Development
1975–1991Via Geneva to Nairobi again in 1978; women's studies and French teaching in Canada before moving to the UK
2010Retired as Head of the Africa section at UNIFEM; since then an independent expert consultant
