Menalamba RebellionMadagascar · 1895–1897“Draw near — the atlas keeps this thread, and tonight the fire lends it a voice.”France took Antananarivo in 1895 with one battle; holding Madagascar proved another matter. The Menalamba — the red shawls, for the russet earth that stained their dress — rose within months, striking at the conquest and at everything tied to it: garrisons, mission stations, the converted court itself.