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Introducing Antananarivo to Toamasina
Antananarivo is a bustling place with activity on every corner. Here people flood the streets, walking down the middle lanes between traffic, knocking on taxi windows, selling everything you can imagine – fruit, sunglasses, flowers, cell phones, calculators, bamboo, even live animals. Pollution from all the automobiles is nearly unbearable, and you’re bound to have an itch in your throat before too long. Motorcycles whizz by, slicing through the seemingly endless sea of cars and bodies, moving in every direction. Stalls selling every kind of goods imaginable line the thoroughfares, their wares squeezed into the tiniest nooks and crannies and sometimes spilling out into traffic. You can find everything: fresh produce, raw meat, embroidered linen, electronics, tin matchbox-style replicas of taxis and rickshaws, leather goods and handicrafts.
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At first glance Madagascar’s capital city resembles a Mediterranean hill town, with its highest point 2643m above sea level. But most of Antananarivo, also known as ‘Tana’, sits at around 1400m. Regardless of the altitude, walking here can be a leg-burner. Exploring the rich cultural, historical and architectural sites by foot is easy, providing you’re willing to climb hundreds of ancient stone steps and mingle into the city’s fray. Most people only spend a couple of days in Tana, getting over jetlag before they travel on to other regions. But before you decide on where to go next, give at least three days to experience this crumbling hillside capital city like none other. You won’t be disappointed.
History
The area that is now Antananarivo was originally known as Analamanga (Blue Forest), and is believed to have been populated by the Vazimba, mysterious ancestors of today’s Malagasy. In 1610 a Merina king named Andrianjaka conquered the region, stationed a garrison of 1000 men to defend his new settlement, and renamed it Antananarivo, ‘Place of 1000 Warriors’.
In the late 18th century, Andrianampoinimerina, the warrior king, moved his capital from Ambohimanga to Antananarivo, which became the most powerful of all the Merina kingdoms. For the next century, Antananarivo was the capital of the Merina monarchs and the base from which they carried out their conquest of the rest of Madagascar.
Tana remained the seat of government during the colonial era, and it was the French who gave the city centre its present form, building two great staircases and draining swamps and paddy fields to create present-day Analakely. In May 1929, the city was the site of the first major demonstration against the colonialists.
Today Antananarivo province is Madagascar’s political and economic centre, and has a total population of about four million. Madagascar’s president, Marc Ravalomanana, hails from Tana and served as the city’s mayor before his presidency.
Last updated: Feb 17, 2009
