Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo. Madagascar (1901-1937).

Rabierivelo's poetry reflects the tragic life he lead in the early years of French colonial rule in Madagascar. He received a limited education in Catholic schools, but his knowledge and understanding of the French language came from his insatiable reading of French literature. Unlike Senghor or David Diop, Rabeiarivelo was born too early to benefit from French colonial beneficence programs. Where Senghor and Diop were able to confront the African struggle against colonialism from French soil, Ravearivelo was isolated in Madagascar. His early work was published in local literary magazines, but the oppressive colonial government did not allow him to develop his work by traveling to France. He was forced to work as a proof-reader at a local publishing house to survive.

In 1937 Rabearivelo finally saw his opportunity to go to France under a French program to represent the colony. However, despite his growing prestige on the island, the colonial administration decided to send a group of Malagasy basket-weavers instead. Crushed by the loss of what he saw as his one opportunity to fulfill his life's ambition, Ravearivelo committed suicide. His five existing volumes of work reflect his passion for French poetry as seen in his symbolist, surrealist, and romanticist borrowings, and his deep-felt understanding of Malagasy culture, but they also reflect his struggle against a severe colonial system that cut short his work and, eventually, his life.

Surrealist influence:

Cactus, lines 13-20

Here,
when the flanks of the city were made as green
as moonbeams glancing through the forests,
when still they cooled the hillsides of Iarive
crouched like bulls after food,
upon these rocks, too steep for goats,
they drew apart to guard their springs.
Lepers in finery of flowers.

Romantacism (France, 19th Cent.) influence:

Pomegranate, lines 9-13

Its taste will be sweeter,
   because it was pregnant with desire
And with fearful love and scented blossoms -
Pregnant by the love sun.

Three daybreaks, Part III, lines 1-10 (of III parts)

All the stars are melted together
in the crucible of time,
then cooled in the sea
and turned into a many-faceted stone-block.
A dying lapidist, the Night,
setting to work with all her heart
and all her grief to see her mills
crumbling, crumbling,
like ashes in the wind,
cuts with what living care the prism.

A Reflection on Merina (Ethnic Group) Culture:

Two Old Merina Songs, excerpt from Part II (of II parts)

... my cousin, I have scarcely any lovers for my lovers are
no more than seven; the first is the lover that cuts my nails;
the second is the lover who takes the place of the one with
us in the house, when I am away from home; the third
takes her place in an emergency; the fourth is the lover who
follows me with her eyes when I go away; the fifth is the
lover who comes to meet me when I return; the sixth is
the lover sustains my life like rice; the seventh is the
lover who does not mix with the crowd and even when she
happens to be amongst them always knows how to make
herself distinguished.

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