Crazy Madagascar adopted by the king killed half of its people
She is Queen Rana Valona I, who ruled her country with iron and fire. Historians describe her reign as black in the history of the people of Madagascar, which spanned 33 years between 1828-1861 AD.
Rana Valona I was born in the year 1788 AD to a very poor family living near the “Antananarivo” region in Madagascar. An accident happened to this poor family that completely changed the balance of their lives.
During Rana Valona's childhood, her father managed to save the king's life by warning him of an assassination attempt being hatched against him. Thanks to this action, the king escaped death, so he decided to reward this poor family. What did he do then?
The king decided to adopt their daughter Rana Valona and include her in the royal family. Days passed while she lived in the confines of the royal family. After the death of the king, his son Radma I inherited the throne and married Rana Valona. Rana Valona became the wife of King Radma I and one of the twelve wives of Radma.
After the death of Radma I in the year 1828 AD at the age of about 35 years, there was no heir to the throne because Radma I did not have children, and it was assumed that Radma’s nephew would take over the throne, but Rana Valona did not allow this to happen and decided to seize power with the support of a band of the army and succeeded in that and ascended the throne of Madagascar and rose By killing everyone who disputed her over the throne from the royal family!!
“The period of Rana Valona’s first rule” lasted thirty-three years, and during her reign, Rana Valona I went to a brutal and barbaric way that caused the death of a huge number of the inhabitants of the island of Madagascar, and this method is called “Tangina” in relation to a poisonous tree known in Madagascar since ancient times, where this method was used The tree in grievances and knowing the oppressor from the oppressed. Rana Valona used this method to judge her people, as she also used it to ensure the loyalty of her people.
One of Ranavalona's main measures was the conduct of trials by means of the tangena test; To maintain order in the kingdom, the accused would take poison extracted from the seeds of the tanjia bush, and then the result would determine whether he was innocent or guilty.
In the event that the nobles and the free were subjected to this test, the poison was first given to a dog and a rooster as substitutes, and it was not given to the accused unless the dog and your parents died from the effect of the poison. As for the slave class, the test required them to take the poison themselves immediately.
The accused was given poison added to three pieces of chicken skin, and if he vomited the three pieces, his innocence appeared, but if he died or failed to vomit the three pieces, that was a sign of his conviction.
According to the 19th century Malagasy historian Raumbana, most people believed that the tanjina test represented a kind of divine justice in which they believed so completely that they accepted the guilty verdict in the case of innocence as a just judgment but an undisclosed divine secret.
The mandatory Tangina test was used to adjudicate in Madagascar accusing each other of various crimes such as theft and conversion to Christianity, especially witchcraft, and an average of 20 to 50 percent of those who underwent the test were estimated to have died.
The tangena test caused about 1,000 deaths per year from 1820 to 1829, and the average number of deaths increased to about 3,000 per year between 1828 and 1861.
The number of deaths in Imerina due to the Tangina Test in 1838 has been estimated at up to 100,000 people, about 20 percent of the population.
The tangena test continued to be practiced secretly in Imerina and openly in other parts of the island, although it was decriminalized in 1863.
Brutal methods were also used during the application of the death penalty to the defendants, and ranged from cutting off the limbs, splitting the bodies of the accused into two halves, and boiling in hot water.
The first Rana Valona, during her rule, launched military campaigns on the remote areas of the country to subjugate them. She also fought the spread of Christianity and said, “I do not recognize a religion except the religion of my fathers and grandfathers.” She took harsh measures against Christians, and on one occasion she ordered a number of Christians to be hanged on the highest cliff and threw them on the rocks. Pointed took their lives.
It also forced its people to work with forced labor in state projects to improve the country's infrastructure and reject foreign interference, which resulted in the death of large numbers of workers due to the harsh climate and difficult conditions.
The country was also exposed to many epidemics and famines due to mismanagement and mismanagement, and as a result of all this, the population of Madagascar declined from five million in 1833 AD to only two and a half million people by 1839 AD.
The death of the first Rana Valona” On the sixteenth of August 1861 AD, Rana Valona passed away at the age of 83, after spending 33 years in the reign, during which she caused the death of millions of her people, and it was one of the harshest periods that the island of Madagascar went through.
In conclusion.. that queen was one of the worst rulers who caused the death of their people as a result of their foolishness, indiscretion, and adherence to power.