From Colonialism to Conservation

By: Marcelina Bergstrom, Leah Feldman, Maya Littman, and Helen Tiffin (Spring 2026)

Images sourced via Canva.com: “Local market gathering in Bekopaka, Madagascar” © DAVE PRIMOV via Canva.com”Red rice” © Tung-Tong via Canva.com“Traditional Canoe Ride in Madagascar’s Tropical Waters” © Loyola Alberthola via Canva.com“Farmers Working in Rice Fields of Madagascar” © Roberto Castano via Canva.com“Baobab Avenue, Madagascar” © guenterguni via Canva.com“Madagascar” © mihtiander via Canva.com“Untitled” © SLPix via Canva.com“Breathtaking scenery of rice fields near green hills with house” © Quang Nguyen Vinh via Canva.com“Cassava Root Crops in Close-Up Photography” © Daniel Dan via Canva.com

The Malagasy people of Madagascar have a long history of cultural interaction predating French colonization. Beginning with early Austronesian and African settlers, Madagascar has been shaped by diverse exchanges in cuisine, agricultural practices, trade, and cultural beliefs for centuries. While much existing literature focuses on southern Madagascar because of the severity of recent droughts, we chose to examine food sovereignty across multiple regions of the island in order to foreground Malagasy-led responses to food insecurity, conservation, and struggles over land and subsistence.

There are three main factors that intertwine to exacerbate famine and reflect the impacts of French colonialism: climate, conservation, and food insecurity. French colonialism upended existing food systems in Madagascar, contributing to shifts away from many local subsistence and agricultural practices toward export-oriented farming and non-drought-resistant crops. The famine in Madagascar has often been referred to as the “world’s first climate-change famine” due to the four-year drought that has impacted the area, though critics argue this framing can divert attention away from the longer colonial and political histories shaping food insecurity. The effects are exacerbated by logging, destructive agricultural practices, and monoculture plantations that damage arable lands. Many Malagasy communities continue to struggle with the legacies of colonial transformations to food systems, especially regarding colonial white versus native red rice. In an effort to conserve hotspots of biodiversity, conservation efforts have at times inadvertently exacerbated the difficulties some Indigenous communities face in coping with famine, especially through restrictions on protected areas.

Our goal is to research the impact of French colonialism and conservation practices on Malagasy food systems and highlight the ways Indigenous communities are reclaiming and reshaping food systems to maintain food sovereignty.

Sharing Food & Discussion

We cooked or purchased foods related to our individual research interests and shared them with the class, then discussed the key tensions associated with them. In many cultures, sharing food is a way of bringing people together, which we tried to emulate. To discuss the impacts of French colonialism, Leah brought chocolate marketed as ethically sourced from Madagascar and black coffee made in a French press. At her table, classmates discussed whether they trusted companies promoting ethical sourcing claims, compared these exports to more traditional foods, and examined ethical dilemmas surrounding cash crops and their cultivation. Many participants were skeptical of these ethical claims, while others viewed them as meaningful improvements over more exploitative systems.

In Malagasy culture, rice is eaten up to three times a day and defines what counts as a “real” meal. Red rice varieties once widely consumed in Madagascar, however, have been devalued over time. White rice became associated with French colonial rule and, consequently, with status and modernity. This shaped the country’s imports and exports, while also shifting taste and identity into an everyday bowl. This nutritional and cultural distinction is one factor connected to present-day malnutrition rates. Red rice contains more nutrients than white rice, as it is richer in fiber, protein, iron, and antioxidants. White rice is heavily milled and less nutrient-dense. This widespread transition toward white rice partly explains current nutritional disparities, with over half of children under five experiencing chronic malnutrition. Efforts to reintroduce red rice or diversify agriculture often ignore Malagasy knowledge systems and history, while political instability and climate shocks make both forms of rice inaccessible to many people who need them most. Simply replacing white rice with traditional varieties does not necessarily constitute a resurgence if there is little community involvement or access.

Marcelina deep fried mofo baolina, a common street food in Madagascar with multiple variations in cooking methods and ingredients. Ingredients such as coconut and plantains tie into Madagascar’s trade history, from the arrival of early settlers between AD 100–500 to more recent multicultural interactions, including the influence of 20th-century Indian traders. The variety of ingredients was discussed during the session, along with the importance of mobile foods and cultural exchange. One major limitation was the availability of ingredients that are common in Madagascar but less accessible in the United States, such as wild yams and French five-spice.

Engagement itself became a surprising lesson for us; some classmates were more accepting of familiar foods, like coffee and chocolate, and were less willing to try unfamiliar foods. Relatively few participants tried the rice, even after discussing its cultural and nutritional significance. Many of the flavors and textures present in our foods are less common in American cuisine, which made some students hesitant to try them. However, most students engaged in thoughtful discussion surrounding the research questions.

Key Topics

During the lean season (November – April), when there are depleted food stocks, some Malagasy communities turn to wild and foraged foods such as via, tavolo, and wild yams for sustenance. Certain Malagasy communities maintained foraging-based livelihoods that were later disrupted through colonial agricultural policies and environmental transformations, increasing dependence on cash crops and precarious farming systems. A study by the Université de Toliara analyzed the difference in food security between the Mikea hunter-gatherers and the Masikoro farmers. They found that Mikea foragers had less anxiety about not having enough food because foraging is available all year, while the Masikoro had high anxiety because they are dependent upon a few harvests per year. Additionally, there is a great deal of traditional ecological knowledge surrounding foraged foods, especially regarding how they can be safely prepared, which is being lost as some Indigenous communities shift toward farming for sustenance. A major conflict occurring in Madagascar is between Indigenous communities and conservation organizations over whether foraging should be allowed in protected areas, which were created to “preserve biodiversity.” Both Indigenous and international activists have advocated for community-based conservation models that recognize Indigenous stewardship and territorial rights.

Madagascar’s history of settler and immigrant interactions prior to French colonization contains many multicultural influences on Malagasy cuisine, crops, agricultural practices, and cultural beliefs. Its location made the island accessible for trade with other communities along the Indian Ocean, especially regarding foods, their uses, and their effects on Malagasy cuisine and practices. Sailors from these regions influenced the demand for export crops from Madagascar, such as rice and portable sea-travel foods. These visitors also introduced new crops and animals like zebu, influenced agricultural practices such as irrigated rice paddies, and attempted to create settlements before French colonization. Alongside these multicultural influences, Malagasy people developed fady, or taboos, surrounding attitudes toward food consumption and cooking methods. This is visible through aversions to certain crops associated with disease, reflecting efforts to protect health through cultural practices, as Malagasy people often reinforced these ideas through proverbs rather than direct health and safety regulations. Cultural norms are also visible in the acceptance of different cooking methods designated for specific purposes, such as fireside cooking and village cooking. Food consumption, exportation, and traders’ demands were all impacted by sailors stopping at Madagascar’s ports, and in turn these visitors influenced Malagasy practices, crops, and cuisine. This history of multicultural interaction continues during and after French colonization and remains visible in present-day foods and practices.

Research Windows

Paths Through The Literature

• Tucker, B., Tsimitamby, Humber, F., Benbow, S., & Iida, T. (2010). Foraging for Development: A Comparison of Food Insecurity, Production, and Risk among Farmers, Forest Foragers, and Marine Foragers in Southwestern Madagascar. Human Organization, 69(4), 375–386.
  
  Colonial and scientific discourses have often positioned hunting and foraging as inferior to sedentary agriculture, reinforcing racial hierarchies that shaped many 19th-century colonial and assimilationist policies. Environmental conservationists have also restricted foraging in natural areas under the argument that foraging can hinder conservation goals. This study, conducted in conjunction with the Université de Toliara, interviewed Masikoro farmers, Mikea hunter-gatherers, and Vezo coastal fishermen-gatherers. Using this data, the authors evaluated anxiety surrounding food insecurity, the productivity of foraging and farming, and economic benefits. They found that wild foods often have higher prices than cultivated foods, farmers face greater production risks than foragers, and farmers experience higher anxiety about food supply because they must wait many months for harvests. The authors suggest that allowing foragers and fishermen to continue their subsistence lifestyles may contribute to regional food security. Similar to the article “Finding Food in the Hunger Season…,” the study highlights tensions between conservation efforts and Mikea foraging practices. Proposed forest management plans would restrict the Mikea to limited zones, leading many to leave the forest and shift toward farming because of uncertainty over whether they will continue to be allowed to forage. The article also raises questions about broader social and developmental pressures encouraging shifts from foraging toward agriculture.

  • How has the USDA food insecurity Likert scale been modified to reflect hunter-gatherer lifestyles?
  • Is there a way to combine foraging and agricultural lifestyles to stimulate the export economy while also providing food security?
  • What are some common foraged foods? Are there risks associated with collecting them?

  “-allowing the over five million terrestrial foragers and many millions of fishermen to remain in their subsistence mode rather than encouraging them to move into farming may be more beneficial to regional food security”

• Moore, M., Alpaugh, M., Razafindrina, K., Trubek, A. B., & Niles, M. T. (2022, September 22). “Finding food in the hunger season: A mixed methods approach to understanding wild plant foods in relation to food security and dietary diversity in southeastern Madagascar.” Frontiers.

  Wild plants are consumed as part of Malagasy diets, especially during the famine season, but many dominant hunger indexes do not account for them as significant nutritional foods. The main plants the authors studied are tavolo and via, which grow naturally in Madagascar and are rich in micronutrients. The collection and consumption of wild plants involve traditional ecological knowledge that is not always being passed down to younger generations; implementing sustainable food systems may require sustaining this knowledge. However, wild plant populations outside of protected areas have decreased in recent years, and collection is often not allowed on protected lands, which raises a key tension. The authors posit that wild foods should be more fully integrated into FSN policies and recognized as playing an important role in Indigenous foodways. They also argue that restrictions on collecting wild plants from protected lands should be community-designed and self-governed. The main tension presented in this article surrounds the collection of wild plants from protected areas; similar to Enns & Bersaglio, the authors suggest that certain conservation restrictions can sometimes negatively affect local food security. At the same time, protected areas do help maintain plant diversity in a country where export-oriented agriculture has transformed large areas of land. Additionally, the article highlights tensions between how “nutritious foods” are classified in dominant food indexes and how nourishment and food value may be understood within Malagasy communities. The main coping strategy discussed for times of famine is day labor, as many Malagasy families only own small parcels of land and struggle to grow enough food for domestic consumption. The article also notes differing perspectives within Malagasy communities regarding the consumption of wild foods, which some associate with shame or poverty, potentially reflecting longer colonial and social histories.

  • How can land be redistributed to promote the growth of small farmers and revitalize traditional foods?

  • How can biodiversity in Madagascar be protected while still allowing for the collection of wild foods during famine?

  • What are some ways that traditional ecological knowledge surrounding wild foods can continue to be passed down?

  “-western assumptions on what constitutes everyday diets have colored the research and analysis on food acquisition and consumption”

• Hooper, Jane. “Feasts and Violence.” In Feeding Globalization : Madagascar and the Provisioning Trade, 1600/1800. Ohio University Press, 2017.

  The author, Jane Hooper, is a university professor whose work focuses on the historical slave trade. Her scholarship is reflected in this first chapter, which examines the perspectives of European sailors and colonists settled in regions of southern Africa with low land fertility, as well as how Madagascar became a center for global trading networks in the Indian Ocean before and during the mid-eighteenth century. Populations across the Indian Ocean interacted with Madagascar in ways that influenced Malagasy ancestry, language, farming techniques, and religious beliefs.

  “That the island became a center of provisioning was due as much to the island’s geographical advantages and the unique demands of European maritime trade as to the availability of food on the island’s shores” (7). Among Europeans’ developing demands were slaves and luxury goods, neither of which Madagascar could provide in large quantities. Instead, Europeans traveled to the Atlantic with these goods and stopped in Madagascar primarily for food provisions, competing with African and Asian groups for trade access.

  While this book effectively demonstrates the extent of cultural interactions with Madagascar prior to colonization, it also relies heavily on European ship records tracking provisions. These ship logs document interactions between merchants and Malagasy communities during the late eighteenth century before formal colonization. The use of European records dominates in part because of the limited availability of Malagasy written sources from this period. These logs also primarily reflect Malagasy communities located near ports and directly interacting with Europeans. Information about the broader food production process, from rice cultivation to transportation and trade, remains less explored. There is also limited discussion of how Malagasy peoples’ food practices and everyday lives were shaped by these cultural interactions. In an attempt to counter this predominantly European perspective, Feeding Globalization’s third and fourth chapters incorporate oral traditions from communities along the west and east coasts of Madagascar. Also notable is chapter nine, which explores modern-day poverty and food insecurity in Madagascar, a striking contrast to the historically abundant country described earlier in the book.

• Ravelomanana, Mialy. “The Success of Early 20th Century Malagasy Painters.” Medium, Nov 5, 2025. https://medium.com/@mialyandria/the-success-of-early-20th-century-malagasy-painters-49c5c94703de.  

  The timeline of Mialy Ravelomanana’s collection of watercolor and oil paintings spans from pre-colonial times through the colonial period of Madagascar. The author notes the importance of this and compares her collection to other sources from the time, such as photography, which was expensive and primarily used by colonials and elites. These paintings act as a visual record of Malagasy traditional practices, including dress, agricultural techniques, landscapes, and human interactions.

  Proverbs are often tied to many of the artworks. For example, some were created with the intention of visually depicting a specific proverb, showing the persistence of cultural knowledge during colonial rule. Other paintings display communal gatherings by the fireside, while others show respect for agricultural labor and people’s relationship with nature, land, and ancestry.

  These art pieces are all representational, meaning they allow for a clear understanding of the scenes they depict. Notably, during this period of European colonization, “By painting Malagasy landscapes, artists asserted claims to territory. Depicting traditional practices preserved threatened knowledge and culture. Showing Malagasy people with dignity countered colonial stereotypes. And emphasizing community values resisted European individualism.” This developing subject matter and artistic style reinforced Indigenous perseverance and cultural preservation under colonial rule.

  The author also discusses how Malagasy painters made a living from their artwork, such as through commissions for colonials, churches, and elites, and how these artists eventually created groups that participated in institutions and exhibitions. Regarding modern Malagasy artwork, these traditional themes and techniques are combined with certain Western techniques, each contributing to the creation of modern Malagasy identity within the arts.

  Ravelomanana’s article lacks a larger number of photographs from her collection. Of the few photographs she includes, there are multiple portraits and one painting of takariva amorom-patana, or a traditional practice of communal gathering by the fireside. More images of similar practices, as well as landscapes, would provide helpful visual aids alongside Ravelomanana’s discussion of Malagasy style and cultural perseverance.

• Jarosz, Lucy. “Defining and Explaining Tropical Deforestation: Shifting Cultivation and Population Growth in Colonial Madagascar (1896-1940).” Economic Geography, vol. 69, no. 4, 1993, pp. 366–79. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/143595. Accessed 9 Apr. 2026. 

  Author Jarosz aims to demonstrate that population growth and cultivation shifting, also known as tavy or slash-and-burn, were not the central causes of deforestation in Madagascar as previously stated by French colonialists. Jarosz also explains the significance of criminalizing tavy for Malagasy culture. Deforestation in Madagascar resulted from colonial policies that promoted industrial development, crop exportation, and resource extraction. With the beginning of French colonial rule and the new dependence on cash crops in Madagascar, came a rice shortage, uneven economic development, and increased isolation. Jarosz states that “deforestation in Madagascar is directly related to the introduction of coffee cash cropping. As the most fertile areas were devoted to export crop production, cultivators cleared forested slopes for subsistence” (pg. 372). Rice cultivation using tavy, a culturally significant technique, was discouraged by the French government through bans and economic dependence on exportation. By making tavy illegal, Malagasy farmers were isolated from each other, as well as from their ancestors who passed this knowledge down.

  While largely unethical overall, banning tavy was seen as a loss of independence, destruction of ancestral knowledge, and pressure to do wage work; wage work was often looked at as equivalent to enslavement by the Malagasy people. Similar to the justification for land dispossession, to justify exportation, colonial rule blamed Malagasy practices and population growth; however, these factors are proven in the article not to align temporally with these accusations. If tavy was not the cause of rapid deforestation in Madagascar, did French colonial rule have any plans to modify its methods? Was short-term economic growth, despite worsening conditions, deemed more important?

• AFP News Agency. “Madagascar’s World-Class Cocoa, a Bitter Sweet Cash Crop.” YouTube, AFP, 24 Dec. 2016, youtu.be/vYFjgf9NOC8?si=unqBxA7kr6xpTIsu.   

  The video briefly examines Madagascar’s production and exportation of the cash crop cocoa, introduced by the French during colonial rule. Cocoa is presented as more profitable because it can be grown year-round; however, Malagasy farmers are currently exploited by large companies, as reflected in the major price discrepancies discussed in the video. The system established through French colonialism prevents many Malagasy farmers from producing their own chocolate, instead forcing them to sell cocoa to European companies. As a result, many Malagasy people are unable to buy chocolate themselves. This problem exemplifies the long-term impacts of French colonial rule on Malagasy people and the economy, as the video includes interviews with Malagasy farmers discussing how this cash crop, which the French pushed into mass exportation, negatively impacts their livelihoods while also creating economic dependency. As stated by Malagasy cocoa producer Remi Jaofeno, “we’re still exploited by the whites, and we’re aware of our fate. The price that collectors pay now, it’s not the true price” (0:54).

  Regarding the voice of the video, AFP, a French news agency, spends little time discussing the historical role of France in shaping Madagascar’s cocoa economy. Considering that French colonial rule pushed Madagascar into export-oriented cocoa production, contributing to long-term economic inequalities, this absence creates a significant gap in the discussion. Because of this history, a French news agency acting as the primary “voice” mediating Malagasy farmers’ experiences raises important ethical questions. The video is also limited by its short length, at roughly two minutes long, and includes only two brief interviews with Malagasy farmers. More in-depth interviews with Malagasy farmers discussing their views on cash-crop farming and economic dependency would help address the lack of personal input.

Leaving The Case Open

Despite independence, the structural legacies of colonialism continue to shape land use, food systems, and environmental governance in Madagascar, while climate change places additional pressure on an already fragile system. Resource extraction persists through logging, mining, and cash-crop production tied to unequal global markets. At the same time, conservation frameworks aimed at protecting biodiversity often struggle to reconcile environmental goals with Malagasy subsistence practices and local forms of land stewardship.

Through mixed-media sources, we explored Malagasy agriculture, colonization, and food sovereignty primarily through Malagasy and Indigenous-centered perspectives. Preparing and sharing traditional foods ourselves helped us better understand the labor involved in food preparation, differences in accessibility, and the social dimensions of food practices in ways that extended beyond academic literature alone. Because Indigenous-authored scholarship on Madagascar remains limited in many academic databases, we also had to think critically about how colonial perspectives continue to shape available sources and representations.

Madagascar’s status as a biodiversity hotspot has attracted significant international conservation efforts, many of which have historically framed Malagasy land-use practices as threats to environmental preservation. For example, protected areas often restrict access to lands used for foraging, farming, and subsistence activities. Conservationists frequently point to the environmental impacts of tavy, a form of slash-and-burn cultivation, while critics argue that colonial agricultural policies, export economies, and land dispossession also played major roles in environmental degradation and food insecurity. These tensions reveal the difficulty of separating conservation from the longer histories of colonial governance and economic dependency that continue to shape the island today.

Community-led conservation approaches that engage Malagasy ecological knowledge and local governance systems may offer possibilities for balancing biodiversity protection with food security and subsistence needs. While such approaches are not simple solutions, they could expand local control over food systems and land management in ways that support broader struggles for food sovereignty.

Sources