Malagasy mythology
Overview
 
Malagasy
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...

 mythology
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...

is rooted in oral history
Oral history
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...

 and has been transmitted by storytelling
Storytelling
Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, images and sounds, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and in order to instill moral values...

 (angano "story"), notably the Andriambahoaka epic, including the Ibonia
Ibonia
The Ibonia is an epic poem that has been told in various forms across the island of Madagascar for at least several hundred years. The Ibonia predates the introduction of the printing press in Madagascar in the early part of the 19th century and as such has long been part of the poetic and...

 cycle.

The Malagasy traditionally believe in a creator god denoted by the word Zanahary. Division of heaven and earth between the Creator and Andrianerinerina
Andrianerinerina
According to one of several competing origin myths of the Merina people of Imerina in the central Highlands of Madagascar, Andrianerinerina is the incarnation of the son of God from which the line of Merina rulers is said to have descended....

, a rebellious culture hero
Culture hero
A culture hero is a mythological hero specific to some group who changes the world through invention or discovery...

, is a frequent theme of myths outside Imerina. In Madagascar, numerous creation myths explain the origins of particular ethnic groups, such as the tale that traces the lineage of Merina
Merina
The Merina are an ethnic group from Madagascar. The Merina are concentrated in the Highlands and speak the official dialect of the Malagasy language, which is a branch of the Malayo-Polynesian language group derived from the Barito languages, spoken in southern Borneo. Their ancestors, the...

 kings back to Andrianerinerina
Andrianerinerina
According to one of several competing origin myths of the Merina people of Imerina in the central Highlands of Madagascar, Andrianerinerina is the incarnation of the son of God from which the line of Merina rulers is said to have descended....

, said to be the son of God incarnate.
Quotations

I go through life thinking it's all going to end tomorrow.

I don't believe in self-promotion, really I can't be arsed.

I always wanted to be an actor. I had the arrogance to believe I couldn't be anything else.

As far as I'm concerned, I want to be nowhere else. It's difficult in film because everybody wants to make a safe bet with roles. But if you are going to do stuff then you should be getting strong reactions. I don't want audiences to be going, "Yeah, that's all right."

It's something else. I'm speechless. I've just got to step up to the plate and deal with it. I had a confidence about it but then that's because of the people around me who made me feel good about it. I knew positively on Monday. I was in Baltimore when I took the call. My first reaction was I needed a drink.

I hate handguns. Handguns are used to shoot people and as long as they are around, people will shoot each other. That's a simple fact. I've seen a bullet wound and it was a mess. It was on a shoot and it scared me. Bullets have a nasty habit of finding their target and that's what's scary about them.

If I went onto the Internet and started looking at what some people were saying about me - which, sadly, I have done - it would drive me insane.

Interview with Entertainment Weekly magazine.

 
x
OK