Me-go Mix: Track 6
“Manahirana” — Lola
To download using Windows “right click” and save to disk. Mac users, you know what to do.
The owner of the music store forced the employee to pose for this picture against his will. After I was finished everyone looked at the photo and made fun of him, poor guy.
The following video of “Manahirana” is a good example of the fashions worn outside of the capital. You’ll notice the skirts are similar to kangas worn in East Africa, particularly Zanzibar. Woven straw hats are popular in Madagascar and come in countless shapes and colors. I spotted the square woven hats worn by the women in this video on two people in Madagascar and liked them so much I tried to find out where to buy one, showing the sketch I drew to people around the market. I was told the hat is from Fianarantsoa, the largest town South of the capital.
I also stumbled upon the video for song #1 (I Gasikara) on the mix. It’s a great overview of Madagascar, excluding the National Parks and the hard to reach South. Lola starts out in the Northwest tip of Madagascar on an Island called Nosy Be. Most people who go on “holiday” to Madagascar stop in a National Park to see a lemur and then head up to Nosy Be. Even I wouldn’t take the bus (more of a truck, really) up there because of the awful roads. There’s now direct flights from France to Nosy Be, bypassing the capital entirely.
Next Lola pops up in Antananarivo, the capital, to dance down the main street in town in front of the train station. I bought my first copy of Lola’s music just to his left in front of the Air Mad office. This is not an area to be wandering alone at night.
He then continues down the Route National 7 South, stopping in many of the same towns I visited on my trip. He makes his way by road all the way to Tulear in the Southwest and then heads North to the beach town of Ifaty. From Tulear I headed South instead, to Anakao because it was supposed to be more deserted. The roads you see him walking down are the same I drove in for six hours at a time in a packed minibus.