Fear of the Dark: Urban Insecurity and the Legacies of Slavery in Antananarivo, Madagascar

Over the last few years, many inhabitants of Madagascar’s capital city Antananarivo have started to perceive an increase in insecurity, crime, and violence. By the evening, people lock themselves in their houses out of fear of robbery and assault. Many urban dwellers blame this insecurity on organized criminal groups coming from the poorest neighborhoods of the capital—neighborhoods inhabited mainly by migrants from other regions of the island and by slave descendants. By investigating the local dynamics of economic and social marginalization that slave descendants and migrants experience and by exploring the growing “fear of the dark” perceived by people belonging to different status groups, this paper demonstrates how memories of slavery are still deeply inscribed in the social geography of Antananarivo. It traces how the legacies of slavery are reshaped in an urban context where social divisions between status groups still permeate local representations of poverty and insecurity.