About OCDIAS
An overview
The Otto Christian Dahl Institute for Austronesian Studies (OCDIAS) builds on the valuable language and other social research done by Malagasy scholars and Norwegian, English and French missionaries and academics since the nineteenth century. OCDIAS collaborates and shares with any like-minded institutions and individuals to promote research and information on aspects of the social and cultural ecologies of Madagascar and the rest of the Austronesian world. Being a particular melting pot of history and cultures, with influence from South East Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe, Madagascar has an essential contribution to make in Austronesian studies.
OCDIAS aims to inspire, support and nurture Social Research and documentation of Austronesian matters, convene and participate in seminars, workshops and conferences on relevant matters, provide a platform for exchange and facilitate opportunities for field research.
Some history
OCDIAS was born out of language research that started in 1996, looking into some apparent obstacles in communication processes around Madagascar. The guiding hypothesis that we chose for the research was, “All Malagasy people speak and understand Official Malagasy and adequately communicate through this medium in all domains of life”. The research showed that this hypothesis could not hold.
During the first decades we had to be very cautious about the way we discussed language issues in Madagascar. The fear and concern of many in leadership was that acknowledging diversity might cause division. Today the resistant attitudes seem to be softening slowly, and we do feel freer now to publish and make the work more known.
Serious language development in Madagascar started 200 years ago, with the full Bible Translation into Merina Malagasy by the London Missionary Society. Schools were started and newspapers and books published after that.
However, this was not the first attempt to write biblical texts in a Malagasy language variety. 360 years ago, some Lazarist Fathers translated their Catechism into what they called “Malagasy” in Fort Dauphin, Tanôsy territory. Fort Dauphin belonged to France at that time. The Catechism contains some portions of the Bible and is an interesting and valuable historical reference. The French governor at the time, Etienne de Flacourt, had obtained permission from St Vincent de Paul, head of the Catholic mission, to do the translation, in order to more easily reach the “indigènes” of Madagascar. He tried to convince St Vincent de Paul by pointing to the example of the Reformation, saying that “ces hérétiques” (i.e. Protestants) had successfully used Bible translation for church growth. Had the Catholic community succeeded in their linguistic efforts at that time, Madagascar’s “official language” might today have been Tanôsy Malagasy and not Merina Malagasy!
And even centuries before that, Malagasy was written using a form of Arabic script, called “sorabe”, which is still used by some today. Manuscripts from the 15th century AD have been preserved; it is known that Semitic settlers came to Madagascar many centuries before that.
Activities
As an academic umbrella to the tasks of Together in Bible Translation, OCDIAS seeks to inspire, support and nurture social research and documentation of Austronesian matters, participate in and convene seminars, workshops and conferences on relevant matters.
Activities of OCDIAS include the support of seminars and workshops for: translation, reviewing, reading, computer software training, dictionary making, “Discover your language”, social research and cross-cultural communication. OCDIAS provides assistance for graduate and postgraduate study in related disciplines and field research.
Output includes dictionary making, language documentation, papers, conference papers, language study, field study and research with appropriate write-ups and publication.
To find out more and connect with OCDIAS, head to www.ocdias.org
