The Fifohazana: Madagascar’s Indigenous Christian Movement By Cy ...

Community Life

Rainisoalambo understood that his work was not to start a way of worshipping alone but, rather, to found a way of living. Thus, the life of the whole community was indigenized through this work. Three aspects of this indigenization will be highlighted here: the life within the toby, that is, the camps of the movement; the clothing worn by movement members; and the cooperative labor.

Rainisoalambo’s first followers were a group of twelve men whom he referred to as iraka, or apostles. As their life together continued, it became obvious that the revival was attracting others and growing fast. So, the iraka sought, together in prayer and study, to develop guidelines for community life. The following seven commitments are understood to have been finalized on June 9, 1895, a day still celebrated by people in the revival.¹⁸

1. Learning to read and to write in order to read the Bible.

2. Learning to count and to calculate (to read numbers) in order to look for verses in the Bible.

3. Women must correctly comb their hair, and men must cut theirs. Thus, they will present a good image of Christians.

4. Regularly cleaning the house so that it may be worthy of being a house of prayer; also, cleaning the yard and the garden, building a kitchen, and separating the animals’ house (henhouse, etc.) from the Christians’ house.

5. Growing vegetables and rice and planting fruit trees in order to produce food. There must always be enough food at home.

6. Starting any task or activity with prayer in order to receive God’s blessings.

7. When there is a death among Christians, wrapping the dead in a clean sheet.¹⁹ The dead should be buried where he or she died.²⁰