A red wooden post driven into the earth on the edge of Ambohidava village is easy to miss. Yet for the 500 people who live here, it signals a future that could upend generations of rural life.
On a quiet Thursday afternoon, the sounds are familiar: crowing cockerels, a motorbike sputtering past red-soil homes. But if plans proceed, this calm settlement east of Madagascar’s capital, Antananarivo, may disappear within two years, replaced by a two-lane toll highway linking the capital to Toamasina, the country’s main port and second city. The road represents speed, trade and growth for Madagascar’s the government. While to villagers like Neny Fara, it threatens the land that has sustained her family for decades.
Now 70, Neny Fara has lived in Ambohidava all her life. She began working the rice paddies and pineapple fields at the age of four, following a lineage of farmers stretching back generations. Small in stature and quick to smile, she welcomes visitors into her modest home, serving chicken and rice prepared the Malagasy way. Farming, she says, has paid for everything like food, shelter and care for her family, including a son unable to work because of mental health challenges. But the planned route cuts directly through her fields. “It hurts me. I feel like I’ve been stabbed in the back. This land has always been ours. No one has come to explain what will happen”. she says, standing at the edge of her rice paddy.
Her fear is shared across the area. Farmers say they have not been consulted and that no compensation packages have been clearly outlined. Authorities insist compensation will be paid within a year of construction, but uncertainty has left families anxious about where they will live and how they will earn a living if their land is taken.
The project was commissioned by former president Andry Rajoelina, who inaugurated the first eight kilometres of the highway during a regional summit in August. He was later removed from office in a coup, but the new government has pledged to continue the project, framing it as central to national development.
Built by Egyptian firm Sancrete, the highway is expected to stretch 260km, with tolls of about $4 for cars and $5 for lorries. Around 20% of the estimated $1bn cost will be funded by the state, with the rest coming from international partners, including the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa.
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