The Scramble for Madagascar
Madagascar was among the prizes of Europe’s ruthless African land grab. When a US diplomat made plans for his own colony, he found that the French had other ideas.
In March 1894, John Lewis Waller, an African American former United States consul to Madagascar, wrote to the prominent Black statesman John Mercer Langston with exciting news. Queen Ranavalona III, ruler of Madagascar, had approved a contract allowing Waller to lease nearly 225 square miles of valuable land on the Great Island. Waller was enthusiastic, informing Langston that ‘these lands are covered with valuable rubber, the finest of timbers, plenty water & grass for grazing purposes’, suspecting also that the concession offered the promise of mineral wealth, including gold, silver, lead, iron and copper. In the letter, Waller outlined his plans for capitalising on this windfall. He would recruit labourers from the neighbouring island of Mauritius and then supposedly encourage African Americans to settle on the territory which would be known as ‘Wallerland’.
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