Political Oratory and Cartooning: An Ethnography of Democratic Process in Madagascar

Jackson traces the lively skirmishes between Madagascar’s political cartoonists and politicians whose cartooning and public oratory reveal an ever-shifting barometer of democracy in the island nation. 

• The first anthropological study of the role of language and rhetoric in reshaping democracy
• Maps the dynamic relationship between formalized oratory, satire, and political change in Madagascar
• A fascinating analysis of the extraordinary Ciceronian features of kabary, a style of formal public oratory long abandoned in the West
• Documents the management by United States Democrat campaign advisors of a foreign presidential bid, unprecedented in the post-colonial era