Mahaleo
Mahaleo is a folk-pop band from Madagascar that is widely viewed as the most popular Malagasy group of all time. The band was founded by Dama with six of his classmates after first performing together during the rotaka student protests at their high school on 13 May 1972. Mahaleo's lyrics draw upon the indirect language of traditional hainteny and ohabolana to expose contemporary political and social issues and invite listeners to identify their own solutions.
Mahaleo performs a genre they pioneered, called tsentsigat, that draws from the acoustic folk and protest song genres as well as the diverse musical traditions of Madagascar. Each of the band members sings, and all but one also play acoustic guitar. In addition, the band makes use of traditional instruments like the kabosy guitar and sodina flute. While the band is acclaimed for its large catalog of hits, with over 300 songs composed since 1972, its members are also admired for their commitment to live the message of solidarity for national development that features in most of their music. Each band member has gone on to cultivate a primary career in addition to his participation in Mahaleo in areas ranging from medical care and sociology to farming and politics. The band has collectively launched two development initiatives, in addition to numerous other activities managed by individual members of the group.
Over forty years after its formation, the band continues to regularly attract large audiences to its live performances and enjoys popularity across three generations. Their music is considered emblematic of Malagasy identity. The band has toured frequently across Madagascar and internationally to countries including France, Canada and the United States. Mahaleo was the first Malagasy band to be invited to perform at the historic Olympia venue in Paris. The band has been the subject of two books and one feature-length documentary film. The oldest member of the group, Raoul, died in 2010. In 2014, the second oldest member Nono died. In October 2019 Fafah died, followed by Dadah in November at the same year. Charle died in August 2021.
History
Origins
Many of the band members grew up together: Dama, Dadah and Bekoto were playmates and attended the same primary school; during their secondary school studies, Dadah's older brother Nono likewise became a close friend of Raoul, the older brother of Dama. The high school offered a music program in which Dadah, Nono, Charle, Bekoto and Fafah participated together, with Fafah as a vocalist and Bekoto as a pianist. Beginning in 1970, Raoul became enamored with the acoustic guitar. He met frequently with Dadah and Nono to play together using guitars he constructed from wood and bicycle brake cables available at a workshop attached to a center for the deaf and blind where his father worked; the trio began performing at school parties and events. As teens, the trio often listened to a radio show hosted by popular Malagasy journalist and ethnomusicologist Latimer Rangers, who recorded, broadcast and promoted contemporary and traditional music from villages across Madagascar. Rangers also broadcast foreign artists who were relatively unknown to the Malagasy public, such as Bob Dylan, described the meaning and history of the protest song and other foreign genres, and drew connections between Malagasy musical styles and American Blues music, South African music and other genres.A student and farmer protest movement, termed the rotaka, had been gaining momentum across the country since April 1971. These protests expressed popular rejection of the policies and repression of president Philibert Tsiranana's neo-colonial administration. On 24 April 1972, secondary school students in the capital of Antananarivo protested in solidarity with the city's medical university students to support revisions of the colonial era curriculum and the dismissal of teachers from France. Secondary school students in other major cities organized similar protests at their local high schools, and those with musical, poetic or theatrical talent spontaneously entertained their classmates at the gatherings. On the first day of the protests in Antsirabe, Dama and Raoul performed a song they called "Matoa 'Zahay Manao Girevy" which Dama had composed shortly before. As they entertained protesters at their high school, they were joined by the other members of the group to compose and perform new songs with diverse themes ranging from politics to love. Dama and Dadah were the first to compose songs and perform them; Raoul was the next to begin composing songs for the protest, followed by Bekoto. The first song the group performed together, entitled "Ianao", was written by Dama. Among the first songs the group performed together was a piece entitled "Aleloia". The first song with a political theme was entitled "Tsindry Hazo Lena" and was composed by Raoul, the oldest group member. In the protests' spirit of embracing the Malagasy identity, Dadah was the first group member to write song lyrics in Malagasy, a language that had been rejected as old-fashioned under the French; once the group joined, other members soon followed his example.
When a television reporter covering the students' strike in Antsirabe asked the boys to share the name of their group, they did not yet consider themselves a musical act and had not chosen a name. One of them spontaneously replied "Mahaleo". The name is most commonly translated as meaning "free" or "independent", but with nuance more precisely meaning "to have enough power to win/resist/endure/accomplish". In addition to being part of Dama's family name, the word appealed to the group as the embodiment of their purpose to empower the disenfranchised masses and exalt Malagasy values and culture in the post-colonial era. Together they created and performed songs that affirmed the Malagasy identity and gave voice to the concerns of the rural communities and youth.
On 13 May, security forces shot student protesters in Antananarivo. Although Bekoto had initially been reluctant to take sides because he was a largely apolitical adolescent and dating the daughter of the Prime Minister, this event galvanized the group members and led to the intensification of student protests across the island. Within days, Tsiranana announced his resignation and a transitional government was put in place under General Gabriel Ramanantsoa. Dama participated in community meetings where potential policy reforms were developed. As the protest movement ended, the group traveled to Antananarivo to perform at an event in support of the transition organized on the University of Antananarivo campus. This was their first performance before a large audience and despite an inadequate sound system that prevented most audience members from hearing them, they enjoyed a strongly positive reception. Following this success, the group members returned to Antsirabe to complete their high school studies. Raoul and Nono completed the baccalaureat exam in 1973 and moved into the student dormitory in Antananarivo to continue their studies at the national university.
Early years
The band's popularity continued to grow over the coming years. As the younger band members completed their high school studies, they performed frequent concerts in Antananarivo, staying overnight in the student dorms with Raoul and Nono. Fafah moved to Antananarivo shortly afterward to live with his parents, and the band often gathered at his family's home, where they composed many of their early songs. As each of the younger boys passed their baccalaureat, they moved to Antananarivo to continue their studies at the university, which they paid through a combination of state subsidies and the profits from their concerts. Political party representatives often approached band members to request them to become official supporters and party members, but the band preferred to remain politically independent. Another young and emerging group, Lolo sy ny Tariny, was recruited by the political party MFM, who attempted to pit the two groups against each other. Although there were occasional arguments between Bekoto and members of Lolo sy ny Tariny that garnered publicity, the band remained largely above political disputes.Mahaleo recorded their first album in 1973 upon the invitation of Raklio, leader of the group Rahona. He had heard their single "Adin-tsaina" and suggested the band record it at the Comarmond studio in the Antanimena neighborhood of Antananarivo; "Raosy Vony" was also recorded as the album's B-side. Latimer Rangers began playing "Adin-tsaina" on his radio show, and the band enjoyed their first major hit. The band was invited to perform live on Rangers' show, enabling listeners to discover a larger repertoire of the band's compositions. The national radio received hundreds of fan letters for the group, leading the national television station to invite Mahaleo to film a short set performance for national broadcast. The band recorded the first ever LP record by a Malagasy artist or band in 1976. Entitled Mahaleo Madagascar, the album was recorded live inside a record shop and was produced by popular singer Bessa. Shortly afterward, the national television channel RadioTelevision Malgache shot a black and white film of the band over the course of fifteen days in Antsirabe. Although the film generated strong acclaim from RTM viewers, all copies of the original recording have been lost. When the band performed a concert organized by the Alliance Francaise of Antananarivo in 1977, the demand for tickets greatly exceeded capacity of the venue, prompting the group to play the same concert twice in one evening to enable all their waiting fans to enjoy the performance.
Tsiranana's ouster ushered in the socialist Second Republic under Admiral Didier Ratsiraka in 1975, but the ineffectiveness of the regime's philosophy soon fomented popular disillusionment. Persistent in their exposure of political problems like corruption and abuse of power under Ratsiraka, Mahaleo repeatedly saw their songs banned from the radio. The band successfully countered efforts at censorship by encouraging their fans to produce and distribute bootlegged recordings of their concerts. They continued to gain in popularity, regularly performing live shows across Madagascar and launching frequent tours to play for the Malagasy diaspora in major French population centers like Paris, Toulouse and Marseille.