A Survey of African Poetry in the London Times, Sunday Times, Financial Times, the Times Literary Supplement 1865-1985

I've always had a soft spot for Madagascar, if only because the people are called Malgache, which sounds as if it ought to mean a soft spot ("I was abseiling down the bergschrund when I dropped my karabiners into a malgache"), and because of the soft musicality of their language. "Tsaroako ny tsikin'ny androko omaly/Izay manjary aloka foana, indrisy!" sings J. J. Rabearivelo in Love Song, which may be rendered (courtesty K. Katzner, Languages of the World, Routledge and Kegan Paul) "I recall the joys of days gone by / They waned alas to flit away!" But when I read that an armoured division of the Malagasy Army had been called in to destroy the dojo of an intransigent karate sect which had been terrorizing peaceable tourists (or, according to others, brutally to extirpate the only democratic opposition) I thought it was time to be better informed...