Among the most explicit ideas and norms of desired, pro-social behaviours in modern Malagasy society is the rhetoric around, and longing for, ‘fihavanana’, a term that can be roughly translated as ‘solidarity’. It features therefore as a very prominent aspect of relationality in Madagascar, serving as a means of control and of conflict resolution and also as a guarantee of peace. Yet there is another, very different, dimension to fihavanana that is waiting to be uncovered, which this article aims to highlight. It is in fact a battle term, coined to negotiate issues of modernity and identity. My analysis will show that the concept of ‘Malagasy solidarity’ (‘fihavanana gasy’) has its roots not in problems of violence or war but in the experience of deep social rupture produced by confrontation with European concepts of enlightenment, rationality, Christianity and secularity during the 19th century. Fears of a consequent threat to authentic Malagasy culture led, from the first half of the 20th century onwards, to the development of a new, powerful discourse on the need to recover true Malagasy values, and ‘solidarity’ was among the most prominent of those selected. This ongoing discourse and the trend towards the institutionalisation of a concept of relatedness like Malagasy solidarity should thus be understood and reframed within an identitarian logic.

在现代马达加斯加社会中，最明确的理想、亲社会行为的理念和规范是围绕和渴望“ fihavanana ”的修辞，这个词可以粗略地翻译为“团结”。因此，它是马达加斯加关系的一个非常突出的方面，是控制和解决冲突的手段，也是和平的保证。然而， fihavanana还有另一个非常不同的维度等待被发现，本文旨在强调这一点。它实际上是一个战斗术语，创造来协商现代性和身份问题。我的分析将表明“马达加斯加团结”的概念（“ fihavanana gasy') 的根源不是暴力或战争问题，而是源于与 19 世纪欧洲启蒙、理性、基督教和世俗观念的对抗所产生的深刻社会破裂的经历。从 20 世纪上半叶开始，由于担心对马达加斯加真正的文化造成威胁，因此发展了一种新的、强有力的论述，即需要恢复真正的马达加斯加价值观，而“团结”是其中最突出的一种。选择。因此，这种正在进行的讨论以及马达加斯加团结等相关概念制度化的趋势应该在同一性逻辑中得到理解和重新构建。