Children ask a lot of questions, sometimes to their parents' chagrin. When parents ask me how to deal with their child's seemingly endless questions, I always suggest that they turn it back around on their child: "what do you think?" This buys a parent a few extra moments to gather their thoughts, while also encouraging … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Book of Questions
-Abhay K. Ibonia is an epic poem of Madagascar dating back centuries which tells the tale of conception, birth, betrothal, struggle and death of its hero Ibonia (Iboniamasiboniamanoro or "he of the clear and captivating glance"). The tale begins with the conception of Ibonia by his mother with the help of divine intervention. Ibonia starts talking … Continue reading Ibonia: The Ramayana of Madagascar
-Abhay K. I have been in Madagascar close to three years. During this time I have interacted with a number of young Malagasy poets while hosting the monthly literary programme LaLitTana which I started in April 2019. I present a selection of poems of some of these poets in English translation here. Most of the … Continue reading #MadagascarLitMonth: Contemporary Poetry of Madagascar
By Mialy Andriamananjara Elie Rajaonarison was a Malagasy poet, for whom Malagasy literature was above all an oral literature. He was born on November 15, 1951 in Ambatondrazaka, a town in the central highlands of Madagascar known for its rice and tobacco production. He was a “poète engagé” who “served as Secretary General to the … Continue reading #MadagascarLitMonth: The Poetry of Elie Rajaonarison
Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo (JJR) is generally acknowledged as the greatest twentieth-century poet of Madagascar and the first modern poet of Africa. He was born in 1901 in an impoverished but noble family in the capital city, Antananarivo, to an unwed mother. His birth name was Joseph-Casimir Rabearivelo, which he changed later to Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo. He worked … Continue reading The Immortal Poetry of Madagascar’s Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo
Book Review La Magie de Madagascar | The Magic of Madagascar by Abhay K. Bilingual edition, Translated into French by Prof. Madhuri Mukherjee and Katia Novet Saint-Lôt, Éditions L’Harmattan, Paris, 2021, Pages. 144 ISBN: 978-2343235929 By Arefa Tehsin Much before Madagascar was made famous by, well, “Madagascar”, my naturalist father had told me about the … Continue reading Feel The Magic of Madagascar
Hainteny is the traditional poetry of Madagascar. Hainteny means ‘knowledge of words’ in Malagasy language. It is part of traditional oral literature of Madagascar, which is mostly in the form of a dialogue between a female and a male, and strongly reminds me of poems of Tamil Sangam literature and Gatha Saptasati of India. Leonard … Continue reading Hainteny: Traditional Poetry of Madagascar
A Journey of Malagasy Script by Mose Njo First of all, let’s go back to 1817, more than 200 years ago. Something happened on the 26th of March. And that sealed the fate of the Malagasy language, therefore the Madagascan literature, at least for the next two centuries and counting. That year, Radama, the King … Continue reading #MadagascarLitMonth: From Sorabe script to Latin script
In this interview translator Allison M. Charette tells Abhay K., the guest editor of Global Literature in Libraries Initiative for #MadagascarLitMonth about the books of Malagasy authors she has translated so far, why did she choose to translate them, challenges in translating the books and her future translation projects. Abhay K.- Tell us about the … Continue reading Allison M. Charette interviewed by Abhay K.
La Magie de Madagascar | The Magic of Madagascar by Abhay K. Bilingual edition, Translated into French by Prof. Madhuri Mukherjee and Katia Novet Saint-Lôt, Éditions L’Harmattan, Paris, 2021, Pages. 144 White Sifakas | Photo: Abhay K. The Magic of Madagascar -Abhay K. Madagascar is the world's fourth largest island (after Greenland, New Guinea and … Continue reading Introduction to The Magic of Madagascar
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 