Collector ?

A visit to the Ambalavao post office to buy stamps allowed me to discover these two photos (tired prints in 80 x 120), because these are two photos a little tired certainly, but so talkative to observe and decipher the colonial propaganda and the making of a “good conscience”. I imagine and understand what this message of the time when I grew up there represented to convince my parents that this presence-occupation-colonization brought progress to the Malagasy population. At the same time, the setting in scene is successful of this factor of bush which crosses the country to deliver an improbable mail, and I look at this representation of modernity which represents the Citroen van to finish convincing us! What a great story!

But it’s “fake”, because no village received mail at that time, and neither after independence, and even less 60 years after this one … This staging is worthy of Hollywood, but in “Vazaha” version ”
Propaganda! It is an image of “propaganda” to make believe that colonization brings “to all” comfort which exists only for the whites.
I love the postman’s airy elegance and countless looks.

A tribute to the colonial photographer who knew what he was doing (he knew very well how to read the images and their meaning), why he was doing it and for whom he was doing it (he was paid, of course). I hope he was paid for this pretty disgusting job when you think about it.
I see this in the two photos that I propose to study to understand this country and this people, in the history that we are offered …