ZWAM (''Zatovo Western Andevo Malagasy''
or ''Zatovo Western Amical Malagasy''
) was a youth movement which emerged in
Antananarivo
Antananarivo (Malagasy language, Malagasy: ; French language, French: ''Tananarive'', ), also known by its colonial shorthand form Tana (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Madagascar. The administrative area of the city, known ...
,
Madagascar
Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...
(the Malagasy Republic) in 1972 to support the student protests against the rule of
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
*'' Præsident ...
Philibert Tsiranana
Philibert Tsiranana (18 October 1912 – 16 April 1978) was a Malagasy politician and leader who served as the seventh prime minister of Madagascar from 1958 to 1959, and then later the first president of Madagascar from 1959 to 1972.
Duri ...
. The name has various interpretations, including "Malagasy Western Slave Youth" and "Zatovo Warriors' Association of Malagasy".
[ The term "Western" in the title comes from the fact that members of the group were fans of ]Spaghetti Western
The spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's filmmaking style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...
s and dressed in cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the ''vaquero'' ...
hats. According to Lesley Sharp the "cowboys" of ZWAM "assumed a style of dress reminiscent of Clint Eastwood
Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western (genre), Western TV series ''Rawhide (TV series), Rawhide'', Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Ma ...
, a loner recognized as the 'champion of real justice' over 'the venal guardians of formal law'".[
The movement drew its membership from the poor, "black" quarters of the capital, traditionally inhabited by the descendants of ]slave
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
s. ZWAM were the first slave descendants to form an organisation in Madagascar and they campaigned against discrimination against slave descendants in education and employment.[
]
References
Sources
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*{{cite book, first=Lesley A. , last=Sharp , title=The Sacrificed Generation: Youth, History, and the Colonized Mind in Madagascar , publisher=University of California Press , year=2002 , isbn=0-520-22951-7 , oclc=59471111 , location=Berkeley
1972 in Madagascar
Youth movements