Author: Cole, Jennifer

Source: Historical Reflections, Volume 34, Number 1, Spring 2008 , pp. 26-49(24)

Abstract:

In 1999 and 2004, a debate exploded within the Malagasy expatriate community in France after Et Plus Si Affinités, a realist style documentary about arranged marriage between Malagasy women and French men, aired on local television. The series chronicled the adventures of three French bachelors who went to Madagascar to find brides. In this article, I use the reactions to Et Plus Si Affinités as a lens through which to examine changes in Malagasy sexual relations as they are inflected by relations between different ethnic groups in Madagascar, particularly how different groups have historically approached sexual and marital relationships between Malagasy women and French men. Drawing on this case study, I argue that studies of transnational arranged marriage need to attend more closely first to historical representations and the way they figure into transnational marriage, and second to how circulating representations mediate women's agency and their ability to achieve their goals.

Keywords: MADAGASCAR; TRANSNATIONAL MARRIAGE; METISSAGE; AGENCY; IMMIGRATION

DOI: 10.3167/hrrh2008.340103

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