Abstract
This Introduction frames the broader project of investigating how successive groups in Mahajanga have transformed the material world to realize power over land, and over people, and to define conceptions of belonging, from the mid-seventeenth century to the mid-twentieth century. It introduces the relationships between key protagonists of this history—Sakalava royal monarchs, highland Merina officials, Indian traders, Comorian migrants, and French colonizers—and provides a broad historical context for Mahajanga's founding and expansion. This chapter posits buildings as oft-overlooked, but crucial sites of historical evidence that, taken together with written works, texts, images, oral histories, and ethnographic accounts, offer insights into the ways in which competing groups built their presence into the city, forged affective ties, and harnessed authority through particular material regimes. Critical attention is given to the shifting role of the more-than-human world, which profoundly influenced the architectural possibilities across the city's unfolding.