Page 183 - LD215 History of the Church in Africa A4 final

Nineteenth-Century Challenges and Progress

to introduce Christianity to Madagascar, but without enduring success”
(quoted in Latourette 1970, 302). By the early 1800s, shortly after the
French Revolution, Roman Catholics left the island. Meanwhile, the
Merina rulers began to dominate most of the island, “imposing on it a
political as well as a linguistic unity” (Neill, 199).

In 1817, the Merina king signed a treaty with Great Britain, and shortly
thereafter the London Missionary Society sent the first Protestant
missionaries to the island. They were successful in opening schools and
influencing many Malagasy families. According to Isichei,

Some Malagasy were sent abroad for education, and the missionaries
were a welcome source of new technology, including the making of
unfired bricks, soap, and sulphur. Before the end of 1820, there were
23 local schools with 2,300 pupils, a third of them girls. (151)

The Bible was translated into Malagasy and published in 1835. About
this time, under Queen Ranavalona, a period of brutal persecution broke
out against Christians. The Queen showed disdain for them and declared:

They hold assemblies in the night and deliver speeches without
permission from the Queen. The Christians are exhorted to serve
Jehovah, the first King of the English, and then Jesus Christ, the
second. These meetings are carried on by slaves. (Isichei, 151)

Paas traces the evolution of repression that eventually led to the
death penalty:

Eventually she forbade missionaries to preach, and then banned
the baptism of soldiers and children. Finally in March 1835 the
Queen decreed that anyone would be put to death “who practices
the new religion.” (104)

During the long night of suffering, courageous martyrs among the Malagasy
paid the ultimate price for their faith. Some were burned to death; others
were flogged or enslaved. A historian writes of their Christian dedication:

Those about to be burned sang “hod izahah Zanahary,” “Going
home are we to God.” They were fastened to stakes a little above

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