Ambanivolo: Glimpse Into Madagascar's Rural Ways Of Life

Word Of The Day: Ambanivolo - a place to enjoy freedom, fresh air, and organic food ‍

Our contributor, Vero Hanitra, describes the beauty and draw of Madagascar’s rural countryside. ‍

If you have ever experienced the Malagasy countryside, you would know the nostalgic feeling for our ambanivolo: a place that gathers the story, the life, and the heirs of our ancestors. This place conveys the simple way of life of rural Malagasy people and reminds the value of Madagascar, particularly when you are abroad, far from home.

The landscape that are typically Malagasy:  

- The mountains, the green rice fields, with a river alongside, which looks like a painting  

- The houses:  we can see on the mountains, three houses aside, and a range of houses made of mud or clay, doors and windows open on the west side; all of them having the same Malagasy architecture.

- Childhood games played by rural children: these games arouse interests unlike the video games or tv show, they are played collectively to reinforce friendship and practice good sportsmanship.

- Fanenjika "the Malagasy tag game": a game in which a child, considered as “boka” meaning “leper” is designed to catch the others running away from him. Once he catches a person, he taps on his back. The first to be caught becomes the “boka” and has to catch the others.  

We seldom find this game on urban places, where the area is less spacious.

- The “tantara vato” or rock story, most of the time played by girls, is a game that gathers the girls: one of which is the narrator, she plays a story often taken from daily lives by tapping with stones. The others listen to her with enthusiasm.

The delicious rural foods

Certain foods can only be found in the countryside:

- Soup made with cassava or taro with beans, with or without meat = very delicious

- The green corn taken from the fields, cooked or grilled, you can enjoy the taste of the sweet corn under the tree.  

- The most fascinating moment is the evening family moments around the fireplace: gathering on the mat, sharing each other’s day, laughing together, or listening to the “Angano” a tale told by the grand -parents.

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We'll end this with an awesome music video by Black Nadia with her hit "Ambanivolo d'orginine" or your original home! Mazotoa!

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