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

Through these seven commitments, Rainisoalambo exhorted the twelve iraka to be models of the values of the Gospel in their calling and to conduct their lives with transparency and integrity. His knowledge of the environment in which he lived helped him to be a convincing leader. One example of this is the Malagasy traditional practice of cattle sacrifice, or lofo. The missionaries had denounced this practice without understanding it from a Malagasy perspective. Thus, they were not able to be convincing. But Rainisoalambo knew that even Christian people followed this tradition. When he began his ministry, he taught Christians that when one of them died, they should pray and have a funeral service but that lofo was a waste of wealth. He cast the practice of lofo as one of stewardship of resources given to the community by God. Thus, he was able to persuade people because he understood his environment.

As a result of the work of the iraka, new converts to Christianity appeared in several areas of Madagascar. Rainisoalambo thought that they needed someone to look after them, so, as a good organizer, he created the office of mpiandry, or shepherd, held by people who would look after the new converts, as noted by Rasolondraibe Perí.²¹ Thunem reported that for each village where the iraka had visited and where new converts lived, Rainisoalambo and the iraka appointed a trained person to encourage, teach, and comfort the new believers.²² The iraka and the mpiandry were preacher healers because, for the Malagasy, the duty of the revival was preaching, healing, and exorcising. All of them worked together. In addition, Rainisoalambo founded a place in which dysfunctional people are looked after, where healing ministry is permanent in its practice, and where the pastoral approach to life and health is realized. This place was called a toby. Rasolondraibe notes that the tobys are villages set apart, “where healing is the preoccupation of all inhabitants” and the aim is to “help dysfunctional people resume normal life in society.”²³

Pierrot Men, a noted author and photographer, calls Soatanàna “a white village” because all of the people staying there wore white robes and clothes.²⁴ The first issue about these white clothes arose from Rainisoalambo’s teachings about cleanliness.²⁵ The main point, however, was not the color but the style of the clothing worn among the revivalists.