6. A Reign of Terror That Engulfed Madagascar
Ranavalona showed her brutal side at the very start of her reign: she “unalived” every member of the royal family she could get her hands on. It was taboo to spill royal blood, so she had them strangled, or locked in a cell and starved to death. Her throne was secured against domestic challengers, she turned her attention to encroachments from European colonial powers, and exterminated or expelled nearly all foreigners. She nullified all treaties with Britain and France and banned Christianity. She also isolated Madagascar from the outside world, and turned it into a hermit kingdom. Domestically, in lieu of a legal system, she introduced trial by ordeal: the accused were fed poison and three pieces of chicken skin. If they vomited all three pieces of skin, they were innocent. If they did not, they were not and were accordingly executed.
Ranavalona introduced widespread forced labor, whereby Madagascar’s poor – the majority of the population – performed labor in lieu of high taxes they could not afford to pay. These de facto slaves were used to build houses and palaces, clear lands and maintain roads, carry nobles and royal dependents in litters, serve in Ranavalona’s army, and carry any other tasks set them by the queen. They were unpaid, poorly fed, if at all, and died in droves. In the meantime, the British and French were unhappy with being shut out of Madagascar, where they had been welcomed by previous rulers. So they mounted joint punitive expeditions, but the attempts ended in failure. When the Europeans retreated, Ranavalona beheaded the corpses of their dead, put the heads on stakes, and lined them up on Madagascar’s beaches, facing the ocean.
