09523367%2E2011%2E592757

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The International Journal of the History of Sport

Vol. 28, No. 12, August 2011, 1647–1672

The Catholic Mission, Sport and Renewal of Elites: St Michel de Tananarive Jesuit College (1906–1975)

The emblem of Jesuit ambition was St. Michel College, built in the heart of the capital in ‘fortress’ style proclaiming the educational plan for training the country’s elites. Our intention here is to show how, within the specific framework of this Catholic establishment, the disciplinary, associative and identitary functions of gymnastics and sports played their part from the 1920s in the training and renewal of Malagasy elites, and accompanied the process of decolonisation. Over seven decades, the establishment developed evolving, pragmatic and even opportunistic strategies which were above all adaptations of policy with a view to consolidating its position in Malagasy society. Thus, in order to reinforce its opposition to the Protestant missions, the establishment initially relied on help from the coloniser. From 1906, in a political context sustained by anti-clericalism and the promotion of secular education, the Catholic missions took deeper root in Malagasy demands.

Keywords: Catholic Mission; St. Michel de Tananarive Jesuit College; sport; education of elites; decolonisation

The Catholics sought to establish themselves in Madagascar at a time when their Protestant counterparts had already been present for several decades. There were multiple di culties to be overcome, but as the missionary Adrien Boudou rightly observes, the rivalry must be taken into account before undertaking any historical analysis of Madagascar: ‘They (the Catholics) were not surprised to clash with Protestantism there. For them it was a more redoubtable adversary than Malagasy paganism.’1

The Jesuits enjoyed a remarkable position within Catholic congregations. Despite vicissitudes and setbacks, the Society of Jesus gained a foothold in Antananarivo in June 1855 thanks to the obstinacy of Father Finaz,2 thus paving the way for Catholicism on the island. The Society owed its expansion essentially to educational work, which was instrumental in propagating French influence after the colonial conquest in 1896. The emblem of Jesuit ambition was St Michel College [Colle`ge St Michel], built in the heart of the capital in ‘fortress’3 style proclaiming the educational plan for training the country’s elites. Already in the early twentieth century it was recognised as a leading educational establishment. From its inception during the reign of Queen Ranavalona III at the end of the nineteenth century, its long history is wedded to the country’s social, cultural and political developments. The College was successively marked by French colonisation, struggles for independence and its achievement in 1960, the political and socio-economic

ISSN 0952-3367 print/ISSN 1743-9035 online2011 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/09523367.2011.592757 http://www.informaworld.com

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movements of the contemporary period, with the advent of the Second Republic in 1975. As former Rector Father de Torquat points out:

It is also true that the College had its share in the history of Madagascar. Part of the intellectual elite was educated at St Michel. While a Jesuit education is not the mould that some would have it to be, it does nonetheless often leave an imprint on the minds of those trained in its school. Even those who subsequently reject it testify to its reality.4

The Jesuits, with their emphasis on the total dimension of the human being, body, heart, mind and soul – mens sana in corpore sano – have always promoted bodily training through gymnastics first, then through sport by giving it a leading part in their pedagogy. A response to the advances of the Reformation5 and founded by Ignatius of Loyola in 1541, the Jesuit Order of preachers and missionaries spread throughout the world, largely relying on works of teaching, notably the ‘Roman College’,6 a model of organisational and instructional rigour. Boarding school life provided the framework for the integration of moral and social values, in which physical activities, games and sports played an essential regulatory role. In preparing an elite destined to exercise active functions, the Jesuits placed their pedagogy within the overall pursuit of the ‘excellence of man’7 through progress. In seeking to harmonise nature and reason, this system of education did not forget that human nature8 is not disembodied and that the culture of the body requires that it should be neither sacrificed nor divinified. Teaching content sought to develop the aptitude to confer, advocated by Montaigne. Mastery of written and spoken language formed the core of the syllabus, which was broadly based on the di erent communication techniques, primarily theatre. Curiosity was awakened and nurtured by the development of scientific experimentation.

Our intention here is to show how, within the specific framework of this Catholic establishment, the disciplinary, associative and identitary functions of gymnastics and sports played their part from the 1920s in the training and renewal of Malagasy elites, and accompanied the process of decolonisation. Over seven decades, the establishment developed evolving, pragmatic and even opportunistic strategies which were above all adaptations of policy with a view to consolidating its position in Malagasy society. Thus, in order to reinforce its opposition to the Protestant missions, the establishment initially relied on help from the coloniser. From 1906, in a political context sustained by anti-clericalism and the promotion of secular education, the Catholic missions took deeper root in Malagasy demands.

After reviewing the conditions in which the College was opened in 1888, the first part of this study focuses on the period 1906–1934, characterised by primary-level education aimed at Malagasy pupils only. It emphasises the role played by gymnastics and associations from the founding of the establishment.

The second part of the study, concerning the period 1934–1947, marked by the rise of nationalism, seeks to highlight the steady eviction of Malagasy schooling and the decline in associative activity to the advantage of European education. Between 1940 and 1942, the College showed total allegiance to the choices made by the Vichy regime and served the systems set up for indoctrinating the young.

With the gradual reunification of the College (1948–1956/1960), the years following the uprising of 1947 witnessed the involvement of a certain number of ‘progressive Jesuits’ at the side of nationalists from the capital and the High Plateaus. Sport and associations were used in the training of a new generation of Catholic elites9 as instruments for the conquest of power at independence.

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The final part covers the years 1960 to 1975, when the Catholics arbitrated the revenge of the Merina notables committed to the more radical process of decolonisation emerging in the late 1960s. As a symbol of excellence, sport became a visible element of success. Associative activity enabled the system to develop into a network.

I. Malagasy Primary Education, Gymnastics and Associative Activity: 1906–1934

A) Birth of St Michel Jesuit College and Gymnastics Tradition (1888–1906)

St Michel College was established in Antananarivo in 1888, by which time the Catholic community had been developing in Madagascar for about 20 years. The plan to set up schools in the capital was not a new one: evangelisation requires education. With the arrival of the Fre`res des e´coles chre´tiennes [Brothers of the Christian Schools] in 1866, educational works were expanding rapidly. With the concession of several hectares of land at Ambohipo by the Malagasy government,10 the Jesuit fathers decided to open a college or teacher training school to provide the mission with catechists and schoolteachers, the government with civil servants and the French with interpreters and clerks. The Merina Government’s 1876 texts regarding educational legislation, initially inspired by the Protestant missionary, laid down three rules:11 primary schooling was compulsory for the children of free men aged eight to 16 years; the names of the pupils were to be recorded in a special register; once enrolled, the pupil could not change school until the end of his studies. Apart from these provisions, which were not concerned with educational content in itself, the schools were in the hands of the religious missions.12

The educational project defined by the Jesuits was particularly explicit:

The purpose set for this establishment is to train its young inmates in the sciences, good morals and piety. So important an aim may not be achieved without order and method. It is therefore essential to establish rules to determine what is allowed and what is not, to fix in uniform fashion the nature and succession of exercises allotted to the di erent hours of the day, and usefully to fill the course of the school year.

Every motive, religion, reason, the dearest interests of the pupils, concurs in requiring them to observe a rule imposed upon them solely with a view to ensuring their progress in letters and in virtue.13

This was the framework outlined in 1849 for the education given to the pupils of the Society of Jesus boarding school in Antananarivo.

Gymnastics lessons may only take place during the break (they provide a healthy occupation for the pupil’s free time).

The pupils are divided into di erent sections according to their abilities, but without mixing the divisions. During lessons, pupils remain in their assigned places, concern themselves only with the exercise set by the master, and use only the instruments necessary for the exercise. When the signal is given for the end of the lesson, instruments are returned to their place and pupils leave the room and go back to the community.

Other improving activities pursued included fencing and swimming.

Strongly encouraged from the outset of colonisation in order to limit the development of Anglican Protestant schools, the action of the Catholic missions regarding education was intensified. With its reliance on the teaching of the French

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language, school became an important part of a political project14 based on the principle of assimilation.

Now it should not be overlooked that assimilation of an annexed people is achieved far less by the law imposed by force in the aftermath of victory than by customs and practices, which are a matter of time and persuasion. What this means is that progress does not usually take place in bursts, and that one of our most important duties is not to rush, but rather to pay close attention to the state of mind of the populations and to look to the needs of the country in order to be able to adopt the most suitable measures at any given moment for easing the march towards constantly improving institutions . . .

At the present time, the still primitive social state of the island, mainly in the rural areas, as well as the still considerable material requirements of the European settlers and the natives themselves, imply that for a probably long time to come it will be necessary to place the emphasis on practical and vocational instruction in schools of all levels . . .

Only later will we be able to contemplate the possibility of a new transformation of the Malagasy people, who will then be called on to rise from the practice of mere crafts to that of arts, then of letters and sciences, which are higher and more speculative manifestations of human thought.15

Thanks to the accommodating attitude of General Gallieni (1896–1905),16 St Michel College soon became the capital’s best primary school. Despite this apparent cooperation, the Jesuits showed some unwillingness to apply o cial directives, as is shown by the following letter17 from the Governor-General, dated 25 April 1898:

The Jesuits do indeed continue to be what they have always been. They are intransigent, mount veiled opposition to us by encouraging the natives not to fulfil their tasks and I can say that at the moment my circulars regarding the study of French are more thoroughly applied in the English schools than in the Catholic ones.

By virtue of the French laws on the secularisation18 of public education and their application in the colonies, Governor-General Victor Augagneur19 regulated the operation of private Catholic establishments by promulgating the decree of 23 November 1906. It formally banned schools common to Malagasy and Europeans. In April 1907, his prizegiving speech in front of the pupils of the o cial European schools announced the creation20 the following year of a senior primary school, providing extra classes in classical languages. A simple announcement in the O cial Gazette of 4 January 1908 made o cial the opening of a college for boys and a secondary school for girls, eagerly awaited by his Freemason allies. Obliged in this way to lower their ambitions, the Jesuits opted for a primary-level Malagasy college. With the appointment of Monsignor de Saune21 as coadjutor bishop to Monsignor Cazet, a course was set for several years’ latent confrontation between the Catholic church and the colonial political power.

B) Malagasy Primary Schooling, Gymnastics and Associative Activity (1906–1934)

The Jesuits responded to the hostility of the political authorities22 by more extensive entrenchment in Malagasy society. They intensified their teaching, in which gymnastics now held a respectable place. Borrowing from the model spread by the army, they followed in the line of the 1880 Republican directives requiring ‘motor literacy for the young’.23 The inclusion of gymnastics in school syllabuses took on particular significance in the Republicans’ political and educational project. Beyond

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physical education for the purposes of conscription, gymnastics ensured the e ectiveness of overall acculturation. In a colonial context, this physical activity became a means of assimilating local populations through the promotion of French patriotic and civic values.

In St Michel College, collective gymnastics organised in age groups was administered by young NCOs supplied by the army. Regularly, on religious and civil holidays, gymnastic parades and displays disrupted the everyday schedule. The year 1912 saw the creation of St Michel College’s first gymnastics club, L’Etoile SaintMichel [St Michel Star]. To the sound of bugles, the uniformed youngsters performed agile routines in strict military order.

The pupils at St Michel College acquire a valiant soul, and many of them forge muscles of steel as well . . . After undergoing long, arduous and exacting exercises during their break and walks, the gymnasts recently took the initiative of putting on a major sports display in front of a vast crowd and a select European audience. Thus on 9th June, at half past one, the small battalion emerged on to the field to the sound of bugles and drums: wearing white breeches, white tops and pink and blue berets, they paraded to the tune of Sambre et Meuse.

Soon a succession of multiple feats was laid on: stretching exercises, boxing attacks, stick fantasias; then jumping and running competitions; races with and without hurdles, springboard vaulting, with and without poles; finally, fixed or ‘flying’ pyramids, with startling structures and graceful hoops.

It was a brilliant lesson in disciplined courage: the living expression of the forming of souls.24

As a school of collective discipline and control of movement, gymnastics strengthened the will and taught a sense of e ort through repetition. In such displays, gymnastics became a physical feat, and brought into play the risk-taking and disciplined daring of the young pupils. With its tight structure, the activity makes the group aware of its value in true unity. Thus, beyond the gymnastics group, the matter of creating an association in the College was soon seen as a necessity both for teachers and former pupils. Teachers saw this as a means of inculcating a mindset and values perpetuating the institution and the service of God: stamping and leaving an imprint. For the pupils, the association constituted a network of solidarity and exchanges. It o ered responsibilities, initiatives, constructiveness with a common purpose. The oldest teachers still remembered their experience with the Union catholique25 for boys and the Enfants de Marie26 [Children of Mary] for girls, which provided vital bonding and support between Catholics after the missionaries had returned home with the outbreak of the colonial wars between 1883 and 1895. These associations nurtured most of the men who played a part in the ‘lay church’ or Catholic education, such as Brother Raphae¨l-Louis Rafiringa, the first Malagasy member of the Order of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, Gabriel Razanamahery, Pierre Ratsimba, Benoıˆt Rakotonavalona, Franc¸ois Xavier Ranaivo, who operated in the Betsileo territory, and others.

But in a colonial context, the regulations governing associations were drastic. Madagascar was subject to the provisions of Decree 25 March 1852.27 The General Governorship feared political interference and was highly punctilious regarding the article on Malagasy groups, especially Franco-Malagasy associations. The first attempt at an association in the College was initiated by Father-Rector Charel in 1910.28 His intention was to establish continuity by o ering work and leisure facilities to alumni. The o cial applications filed with the Governor-General were

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turned down. The police learned of the matter and investigated the meetings, which continued nevertheless under cover of cultural or cinematographic activities.

It was in this context that the VVS29 (Vy: Iron, Vato: Stone, Sakelika: Ramification) a air, the first expression of Malagasy nationalism, broke out in 1913. The political involvement of Malagasy was controlled by the colonial administration and so manifested itself in indirect ways. ‘Sermons in Protestant and Catholic churches . . . engagement and wedding speeches within the family sometimes gave veiled expression to national feeling that colonisation sought to reduce to silence.’30

The personalities charged in the VVS a air were essentially clerics: Protestant ministers31 and members of the Catholic clergy. Father Venance Manifatra, a Jesuit, and Brothers of the Christian Schools Raphae¨l and Julien all three o ciated at St Michel College. Father Ve´nance Manifatra32 was arrested on 24 December. By that time he had over 30 years’ experience of teaching on the island. He had entered the Jesuit noviciate on 18 August 1881, and was one of the first Malagasy Jesuits to teach at the College since its opening in 1888. Under the guidance of Monsignor Cazet,33 he had in 1886 already directed a French class made up of 120 pupils aged 17 to 28 years, mostly Protestants. Arguing that he was a Frenchman, as a native of Nosy Be,34 he challenged the competence of a Malagasy law court to try him. With Brothers Raphae¨l and Julien he obtained testimony in his favour from Monsignor de Saune, the Apostolic Vicar of Madagascar, who concluded in the impossibility of his being a member of VVS. They were acquitted in February 191635 and went back to the establishment. As Faranirina Rajaonah36 points out, even if these presumed leaders were not members of the organisation, they were of such influence that they played a real part in raising consciousness in the younger generation. The initiation ceremony and entry in the society were reminiscent of baptism. Detailed study of lists of those charged and imprisoned shows they were mostly Christians, with a majority of Protestants as against one quarter of Catholics. The a air sharply reinforced the Governor-General’s distrust of native teaching in religious establishments.

It was not for another 10 years and Decree 25 July 1921 that the statutes of the St Michel Association des Anciens37 [Alumni Association] were o cially authorised by Governor-General Garbit. He was particularly conciliatory towards the College, allowing ‘native’ alumni employed by the Administration to join the association.

However, taking account of the fact that this association will operate under the guidance and with the cooperation of the European sta of St Michel College, the administrative surveillance exercised over native associations could in practical terms be greatly attenuated in the case of the St Michel Association, and I would be quite inclined when the time comes to give instructions to the relevant Chief of Province that it should be reduced as much as possible, by exempting you from prior authorisation of meetings and its attendant formalities: the presence in meetings of an administrative o cer and the submission after each meeting of its minutes.38

On 16 October 1921, around a hundred alumni met at the College under Father Delom, who had become the Superior General of the Catholic Mission. On Sunday 23 October the committee was elected and the board constituted. The ASM was an association for spiritual and bodily solidarity.

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having shared the same meals and had the same Christian education, we wished to come together in an association in order not to forget one another, and above all not to allow the seeds sown in us by our Christian education to be lost . . .

It is like a seed cast on the ground: the soil is fertile, the seed is good; carefully tended, it will sprout, and we hope the day will come when our little plants become trees.39

So wrote Joseph Rajoelina,40 the first physician41 to come from the College. A pupil at Ambohipo from 1888, he embarked on a medical career in 1895. A general practitioner at Anosy Hospital in the heart of Antananarivo, he specialised to become the first Malagasy dentist. Beyond the reputation conferred by the medical profession, Rajoelina was a figure of the Antananarivo bourgeoisie. The metaphor used in the declaration is suggestive and full of promise. It was directly inspired by the vibrant, ambiguous speech by Father Delom, which according to the alumni contained a rallying cry and a programme.

My dear Friends, I am happy to see you because I wanted to tell you what great hopes we are placing in you for the church. You are a light and you are a strength. A light because your intellectual training has been outstanding. Nobody more than you has received that religious instruction which enlightens the spirit and arms the will. Nobody more than you is able to spread it. . . I must say moreover that you are a force, because the moral education you have received is su cient to make of each one of you a Christian value. . .

My ardent wish is that each alumnus of the College should be, for many Malagasy, the instrument of salvation.42

The ASM expanded gradually43 throughout the 1920s. Its members were now recruited all over the island. Its activities became more diverse: theatricals, the publication of brief works of ‘piety or controversy’, the organisation of lectures and exhibitions, the regular publication of a newsletter. The alumni accorded significant attention to the gymnastics group:

One of the finest flowers of our association is the gymnastics group . . . Work of this type requires much discipline and abnegation. It is no surprise when perfection is not attained at the first attempt. We are therefore glad to learn that the youngsters, far from being discouraged, intend to continue the work on a more modest basis; it would be a great shame to give up and leave so many young energies inactive, when their union could do so much for the good of all.44

The ASM, in keeping with the French Catholic Youth movements, wished its members to join the ‘brave elite troop of the TKFG’.45 On 26 May 1923 a decree was signed authorising the creation of the Association of the Scouts of France46 in Antananarivo. The ‘First Antananarivo’ was founded by Jesuit Father du Mas de Peysac,47 parish priest of Andohalo. Close to the developers of the Scout movement in France, notably the Jesuit Jacques Sevin, his friend and fellow-student, Father du Mas contacted Canon Cornette48 in order to initiate Scouting in Madagascar. His mixed troop was made up of youngsters49 from his parish and pupils from the nearby Lyce´e Gallieni, essentially French. The first camp was held at Manjakandriana on 18 September 1925 on the property of Mr de Heaulme and was set up with the help of equipment lent by the military Supply Corps. The beginnings of the Scout movement were marked by the involvement of whole families: the Carloz family, whose father kept the accounts, the Douye`re family or the Maıˆtre family.50 The ‘Second Antananarivo’ came into existence a few years later. Made up of young

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Malagasy recruited from the pupils of the Andohalo Brothers of the Christian Schools, it struggled to operate for lack of leadership. The members of the ASM sought to bring about a resumption of its activities. The Scout troop set up its new recruiting o ce in the College.

At the end of the 1920s, published texts such as speeches or poems had an increasingly ‘patriotic’ tone, indicating the spirit of conquest that possessed the alumni. The greater part of the newsletter was now written in Malagasy:

That is approximately four times the number that we should be, or 1,200 at least instead of 353. What a legion we should then be under the banner of St Michel! . . . As we can see, there are many St Michel alumni who are not yet enrolled in its militia.51

But this enthusiasm waned in the early 1930s with the appointment of Father de Gevigney as Rector. In his unbridled competition with the secular Lyce´e Gallieni,52 the Father-Rector set the priority of raising the level of instruction in order to open a secondary school. He was not especially concerned by the progress achieved in Malagasy primary schooling. Associative activity showed a loss of vitality which reflected the weakening of the Malagasy primary college. His appointment coincided with the intention of the General Governorship53 to defuse an associative movement which might by political contagion join the ranks of communist-inspired nationalists.

But on this point, as in the face of the Communist menace, the great moderating power is the church . . . As a result, should one not conclude that there is a need for close collaboration between the ‘two forces’: the church and civil authority?54

In an atmosphere charged with nationalism, the idea of a union between church and administration as a basis for colonial policy took hold among many missionaries.

II. Predominance of the European Secondary School, Reinforcement of Physical Training, Disappearance or Clandestinity of Associative Activity? (1934–1947)

On 1 August 1933 the Father General of the Jesuits appointed Father de Gevigney Rector of St Michel College. Wounded in the First World War,55 brave and tenacious, the Father-Rector imposed respect by his stature, his look and his bearing. With the encouragement of some parents, he judged it opportune to bypass the colonial regulations in order to favour the Christian education of the sons of civil servants, who with the children of settlers and of naturalised French Malagasy would prepare the rise of ‘a generation of committed and more fraternal citizens’.56 The man laid the groundwork for an entirely new project, one which was more aligned with the requirements of part of the European colonial elite. A wind of change blew over the establishment, which embarked on building work and completed the chapel in 1937. The Father-Rector gradually organised the enlargement of the establishment in order eventually to accommodate new arrivals: the young Europeans. But the colonial government remained formally opposed to secondary education aimed simultaneously at Europeans and Malagasy, while petitions were circulating among European families: settlers, civil servants and the military.

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Mothers of families who find yourselves faced with the choice of keeping your children on the island without giving them the education you wish for them, or sending them to France at the risk of seeing them detach themselves from you; and all of you who have settled in Madagascar and do not wish to send them to France, sign this petition.57

Disguised under the name of ‘Little Seminary’ for European or assimilated children, and taking in an increasing number of Europeans (25 in 1934), the project was accepted by the Governor-General58 in September 1934. A number of di culties arose out of the coexistence of the two colleges, open to specific pupil intakes and having di erent academic levels, rules, school year,59 and teaching sta . At the end of the 1930s, dominated by liberalisation of the press and political life,60 the separation between Europeans and Malagasy decreed by colonial legislation was the cause of violent polemics. Le Petit Tananarivien,61 in an article entitled ‘Whites and Blacks’, expressed its indignation:

As for the Amparibe secondary school, it has been confirmed to us that Malagasy pupils, whatever their political status, are systematically rejected. That is the unpleasant truth: the aim is to distance the Malagasy race.

Father de Gevigney did not slacken. Infused with the ideal of excellence and convinced that assimilation was justified, he intended to prepare the pupils of the European college more directly for national diplomas: the French Certificat d’e´tudes and Brevet e´le´mentaire [Primary and Secondary Leaving Certificates]. To satisfy the requirements of elitism, he was even prepared to entrust the ‘Malagasy’ primary school to the Brothers of the Christian Schools.62

Associative activity reflected the decline of the Malagasy college. Membership fell, and with the loss of their premises, requisitioned by the Father-Rector for the Europeans, the alumni resented a situation which they perceived as discriminatory. This disenchanted remark by the Father-Rector, noted in his o cial diary, provides confirmation of their state of mind:

But the alumni come so rarely that it is a pity to immobilize one of the best rooms in the College for them. I advised them to build a room on a site we would willingly make over to them, but I strongly doubt they will do so.63

The association newsletter, written essentially in Malagasy until August 1933, ceased to appear. The unity of ASM’s administrative board, presided over by Joseph Rabetrano, began to waver. Conflicts and tensions within the committee multiplied. The president found himself in a minority on 2 August 1936 against Jean Rajaona in an election contested by many. The association saw splits along lines which went far beyond a school context. The oldest backed the first president, Dr Rajoelina, by boycotting the General Meetings. The group experienced a resurgence following the resignation of President Rajaona and managed to bring together 59 participants in the Extraordinary General Meeting of 5 March 1938.64 But attendance at meetings dwindled and only the news of the appointment of Father Ignace Ramarosandratana, Director general of the ASM, as bishop of the new diocese of Miarinarivo65 mobilised the alumni. The son of a family won over to Catholicism from the outset – his father was a schoolteacher at the Catholic mission – Ignace entered the College in 1905 and the seminary in 1910. His model career,66 in the course of which he held