Ivohibe

Ivohibe lies in the southern highlands of Madagascar, where hills and valleys join the grazing country of the Bara with the farmland of the river valleys. Cattle held great social and economic value alongside cultivation, and herds were moved between the grazing grounds and the villages according to the seasons. Rice, maize and cassava were grown where the land allowed.

In the early modern period Madagascar contained competing kingdoms and regional powers. Coastal trade brought imported goods and firearms into wider circulation, affecting relationships in the interior as well as at the ports. In the early nineteenth century Merina expansion altered the island's political balance, and the southern peoples, the Bara among them, resisted the advance and paid tribute where they could not resist.