Our group’s orature is about Malagasy Wisdom Poetry, Ohabolana and Hainteny.

For Ohabolana, in Malagasy word means “wise proverbs”, expresses cultural values and guides for living. It explains life, god, death, time, man, woman, and justice by relating the beliefs with fundamental objects, which are straightforward and vivid for people to understand, remember, and transmit. For example, “death is not a condemnation, but part of a tax.” Malagasy considers death as a payment of  tax to the life, which is same as we paying tax to the government. It is compulsory, but is not punitive. It persuades people not to fear death, but to accept it indifferently.

For Hainteny, in Malagasy word, means “knowledge of the words”, involving heavy use of metaphor. It deals mostly with the idea of love. It has four parts altogether: the first two parts together describe the initial understanding of love between one couple, the third part expresses the feeling of being apart and abandonment, and the last part deals with the bitter blame for the failing relationship. We observe that there are dialogues between the couple, as one continuously asks, “How do you love me?” And the other always responds by, “I love you as I love money, rice, water etc.”, like all the essential living materials. One would not be satisfied with those answers as she/he is searching for true pure love. For example, “I love you as I love the door.” If the relationship passively needs to be pushed as door, then it is not about true love. One is only once satisfied when the other says, “I love you as I love the ruling prince.” Then, it is truly loved, as the prince’s passage inspires awe and his glance causes me shame. In other words, true love should be like the love towards ruling prince, which is invisible without physical touching.

Overall, Malagasy Wisdom Poetry is different with other group’s oratures focusing on nationalism, slavery, and freedom. I choose to compare the Malagasy’s with the English folklore, Tom Tit Tot. Considering the historical background, we see that English folktale is for the sake of preserving its traditional English culture, as other dominating cultures at that time had wiped out too many its native traditions. Then, Joseph Jacobs aimed at children’s literature by gathering and editing stories so that the younger generation could absorb and inherit their national literature, For Tom Tit Tot, the plots are fairy and gripping that attract children to develop constant interests in it. Readers are nervously guessing whether the female character correctly guesses the name or not. Among the folktale, it also shows the social background that there exists severe class structure, The rich have all they like to eat, all the gowns they like to get, and all the companies they like to keep; while the poor even care about one single piece of fried pie. The tale eventually reveals that the staying power of the ancient superstition that to know someone’s name gives you power over that person.

With different objects and focuses, our oral poetry conveys traditional knowledge and deals more with common elements in daily life. This is because of Madagascar’s distinct social and humanistic background. Despite many waves of migration, there is no cultural invasion or conflict wiping out Malagasy’s original culture. Malagasy’s inhabitants live on large island and share cultural institutions and traditions. People there all enjoy life and pursue love, even including women. Despite the particular social structure, Malagasy women are comparatively free to pursue love. Perhaps this is also why we observe the dialogues between the couple in the poetry.