Thirty years in Madagascar

by Thomas T. Matthews

Of the state of the village schools (1873–1875) little can be said, and the less the better. Poor at best, they had been allowed to drift to ruin, and all my former toil and trouble over them seemed wasted. And yet there were signs of a growing interest in elementary education on the part of the people, which had only to be laid hold of, and directed into proper channels, to be made serviceable. Schools would not rise of themselves in Madagascar, any more than anywhere else. That they could be raised and kept up was afterwards proved. I had the honour and satisfaction—no small satisfaction to me—of doing what had never before been done, and has never been done since, namely, of raising forty-four new schools during seven months, and gathering two thousand four hundred children into them! It was certainly about the hardest seven months’ work I have ever done, and perhaps I know what hard work means; but it was well worth doing. These schools were kept up for five years, until we were driven home on furlough, after being again and again prostrated by malarial fever. Instead of some hundred and fifty, old and young, whom we found able to read the Word of God, when we settled in the district in 1871, we left three thousand able to do so, and in possession of the Book—no bad ten years’ work of itself, even if we had done nothing else.

While detained in the capital through the illness of my wife and children in 1874, I had a hint from a friend at court that the queen was about to issue a proclamation with regard to education, to the effect that all children must attend some school. And so, as soon after our return to our station as I could, I set to work to get the children of the district gathered into schools connected with our village churches. It was the dry season, and I went galloping all over my district, visiting the churches, and getting them roused to take action along with me. I attended the local markets and fairs, where I appealed to the people to send their children to school. I called on the chiefs, petty chiefs, and head men to come to my help in the interests of the education of the rising generation. I got them, the pastors, and the local preachers formed into village school-boards on a small scale, and made them responsible for the attendance of the children of their neighbourhood at school. Three, four, and even five days a week for some seven months I devoted to this, with the result already mentioned.

It was very exhausting work, and I often came home at night so tired that I could hardly come off my horse. My wife and children would be waiting for my return from these expeditions, and she often told me, with tears in her eyes, that I was killing myself. This work was worth much, however, and had to be done then, if done at all, and the children were to be saved. When the royal proclamation came out, I had the names of two thousand four hundred children in the schools under my care ready to hand in to the government. Neither priest nor prelate could interfere with them, nor could any of these children be removed without Her Majesty’s orders.

Of our school work, Dr. Mullens wrote in 1875: ‘We are greatly struck with your educational success; however have you managed to gather so many village schools, and fill them with so many scholars? I suppose you have managed to impart some of your own enthusiasm to the people! Well, it is a good work, and I trust God will bless it abundantly.’ And again in 1876: ‘You have sent us two capital accounts both of the general work and of the examination of the schools. We have been much struck by the development of education in your district.’

Whatever may be the views adopted by some supporters of missions, as to the wisdom of devoting missionary energy and funds to educational work in other mission fields, in Madagascar such work has always been regarded as of the greatest importance. Unless the first missionaries had established schools, the people must have grown up ignorant, and the translation of the Scriptures would have been utterly useless, as none would have been able to read them. School work has therefore been carried on at all our stations, and in connexion with almost all our village churches, and some of the best work that has been done in the mission has been done in the schools, where the minds and memories of the children have been charged with Gospel truth, which was able to make them wise unto salvation.

Distinctions have been drawn—sometimes absurdly enough—between what are called evangelistic and mere educational work. It is true there is a sense in which distinctions may be drawn; but all educational work in the mission field ought to sustain a vital relation to evangelization. The same may be said of literary and medical mission work. In some fields, medical missionary work constitutes an absolutely essential factor. Still, all these instrumentalities are but means to an end. The value of educational, literary, medical, and all other forms of missionary activity must be measured by the extent to which they prepare the way for the Gospel, and promote its acceptance by the natives. They should manifest its spirit, and multiply the points of contact with the life of the people, and thus increase the efficiency of those who preach the Gospel. ‘The test of every religious, political, or educational system is the man who is formed.’ ‘Ignorance the mother of devotion’ has never been the watchword of Protestantism at home or abroad. It expresses the policy of a very different order of religious teachers.

Having got my forty-four new village schools raised, and two thousand four hundred children gathered into them, the next thing was to get teachers. Where was I to find them? It had been difficult enough to provide for the few schools of former years. ‘Take what you have and you’ll never want,’ ‘God helps those who help themselves,’ are good old sayings. On these I acted. There were a few old soldiers in the district who knew the alphabet and understood discipline. I appointed a number of them village schoolmasters at the enormous salary of one shilling a month! That was poor pay, but then it was poor teaching; the pay and the teaching were about equal. But my soldier-schoolmasters earned their one shilling a month, and as they got no pay as soldiers they were glad to get even one shilling a month; and I could have got a hundred of them at that figure if I had wanted them. As I have said, they earned their money; for they taught the alphabet well, and they maintained discipline in the schools. This was of the greatest importance, as it is utterly neglected in Malagasy families. I have seen boys even in Britain whom I could have wished to place under my soldier-schoolmasters for six months. They would have taught them what discipline meant, and how to behave themselves.

ANALAKELY: CHURCH AND MARKET-PLACE.

THE PIAZZA, ANDOHALO.