They Pick Me Up When I’m Feeling Blue, Now How About You?

(written 6/26/08; posted by MOM)

One of the 3 goals of Peace Corps is to share American culture with your host country. Well, I am not sure if what I shared was a universal American culture, but it was certainly a part of my personal culture...Maybe we should start from the beginning, and you be the judge.

Today is Madagascar’s Independence Day. They celebrate in a similar style to our Independence Day but since Madagascar achieved independence more recently, in 1960, the Malagasy are more enthusiastic about it. There are people here who remember life under colonization still. They held a parade in town, with each school’s students marching behind a banner. They had a flag-raising ceremony, sang the national anthem, and the many local dignitaries gave speeches. Then the American and Malagasy Independence Day similarities took a hiatus. Because it was time for the singing competition.

Yes, there was a singing competition, and it was pretty serious, complete with tryouts and winners. In between the formal competitors, who sang Malagasy pop songs, there were other groups with more fun entries. These included school groups with songs and dance routines, some joke songs written just for this occasion, and me. You read that correctly. After much cajoling, I gave in to an on-the-spot request to sing something. I eventually convinced everyone that I did not know any Malagasy songs, and they said: “Sing an American song!” Well, alright, I am not one to pass up an opportunity to be a ridiculous spectacle, am I?

I decided a good representation of American classic rock was needed, so I went to an old faithful that I knew well: Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Sweet Home Alabama. So the music man put on a generic “rock and roll” beat on the synthesizer, which sounded like 1950’s era rock, and I took the mic in front of my soon-to-be adoring fans. But before I began, I told the crowd they had to help me: after each line in the chorus, they had to all sing “Bama bama bama who!” This was a direct nod to H. Tom, the London 8 ballers, and the Greater 523 S. St. Joe’s family. You know who you are. (I decided not to add the lines “they are so blue” and “here I come-a, Alabama” to keep it simple for an audience that spoke no English) And it worked, the crowd enjoyed my scratchy singing, and enthusiastically yelled their pert after every line in the chorus—by the end, after very line in the verse too. Now, I know what you are thinking: where is the video? Well, fear not, for I took a poor-quality, brief video with my digital camera. It is shaky, since I took it with my left hand and quickly before I finished, but it is proof that I led some Malagasy people in a heartfelt rendition of Sweet Home Alabama. This fall I plan to mail home a camera card to post photos online, and hopefully we can get the video up then too. It was a fun experience, even if now I will likely hear “Bama bama bama who!” yelled at me everywhere I go. But then, that is not such a bad thing, and it will be a nice reminder of home.

So that is my tale of Independence Day cultural exchange. Next year I will maybe learn and sing a Malagasy song, since I have to one-up myself on the embarrassment scales, right? I think so. The Malagasy celebrate in style, and I contributed a bit of southern rock. This proves that, even without Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum, Independence Day can be a fun-filled extravaganza.

--Random Madagascar fact—During World War II, Britain launched its first ever large-scale combined air, sea and land operation to capture the strategic Madagascar port Diego-Suarez from Vichy France. This was to prevent Japanese takeover, and to provide British mastery of the seas. This mastery would thwart one major plan of Nazi Germany. Since the late 1930’s, the Nazi’s planned to deport European Jews to Madagascar. The plan was to either make Madagascar a vast “reservation” for Jews, or to make it the site of the final solution’s atrocities since it is so remote. Until 1941, this plan was Nazi doctrine, when the continued superiority of the British Navy proved it impractical. Both these stories were excerpted from my Bradt Madagascar guidebook, which it turn, takes them from a cool sounding book: The Forgotten Invasion: The Story of Britain’s First Large-Scale Combined Operation, the Invasion of Madagascar, 1942, by John Grehan. Hope you liked this first Random Fact, I’ll try to include more in the future!