Perhaps I May Become a Highwayman Again…

(Written March 16, 2010)
Bong, Bong, Bong…
I awoke with a jolt.
Bong, Bong, Bong…
Slowly, I registered in the dark that it was Sunday morning, and the ringing I heard so loudly was the church bells of the Catholic church nearby.
Bong, Bong, Bong…
I grasped for my flashlight and my watch, and using the faint beam was able to make out the time – 3:45 AM. That can’t be right…
Bong, Bong, Bong…
Sure enough, the time was right. What was going on? I had at least another half hour before the roosters woke me up. Who was responsible for this craziness? The church doesn’t start calling people to prayer until at least 7 AM…
Bong, Bong, Bong…
It could be only one thing: DAHALO!

At the time, I just waited for the ringing to stop, and went back to sleep (for a few more minutes). But later, I received the full scoop: Cattle rustlers had struck in the middle of the night, and made off with a herd of prized Omby (cattle). The Malagasy term for these criminals is “Dahalo,” which I usually translate as Cattle Thieves, Cattle rustlers, Cowboys (think Tombstone-style), or Banditos. Whatever we may call them in English, these bandits plague various parts of Madagascar. They usually only go after cattle, and rarely harm anyone. But in Madagascar, cattle signify power, prestige and wealth. This is not a matter taken lightly.
In many regions, these bandits are armed and potentially dangerous. This is mostly for show, and again as long as you are not herding cattle at night you likely will never encounter them. Here in the Alaotra Mangoro region, they apparently are not always armed… When the bells of the Catholic church rang out, a group of townspeople (a posse?) gathered quickly and set out. They chased the Dahalo, who were easy to track with a herd of cattle on the only road out of town , and when they overtook them, the unarmed Dahalo simply took to their heels and ran off. The “posse” were focused on saving the cattle, and they corralled them back to town and the owner’s home. So a mostly happy ending: the cattle were returned, but the bad guys got away.
What do Dahalo do with stolen cattle? This is a question often on my mind, as word travels fast in small towns (faster now, thanks to cell phones), and a large herd of cattle are easy to spot. I am told they usually slaughter the cattle to sell the meat; even so, arriving at market with a massive amount of fresh meat has to be a bit of a sign to an alerted community. Some may add them to other herds or sell cattle living, but I haven’t heard of this in my area. It would seem a tough crime to get away with, yet many Dahalo escape and (conceivably) prosper. Shortly before my arrival, Dahalo stole cattle from no less a personage than my town’s Mayor, and got away.
Dahalo and lawless characters are a scourge in Madagascar, but not a very threatening one. There impact on a non-cattle owner such as myself if minimal, and everyone in town jokes about it and says there is no need to be worried. Unless you are a cow…