Aménagement et occupation de l'espace dans la ville moyenne d'Antananarivo pendant la colonisation. (L'exemple du quaiter d'Ankadifotsy)

Spatial layout and occupation in Antananarivo mid-town during the colonial period. (The case of Ankadifotsy neighbourhood.).- Through the history of a neighbourhood, the study of the urbanization process in Antananarivo offers an example of the planning problems in a city with a hilly landscape and an ancient tradition of spatial organization patterned upon that of Merina villages. From an initial nucleus centred around the Rova (the royal palaces on Antananarivo's highest hill), the city eventually came to incorporate the suburban villages such as Ankadifotsy. Insofar as the town is not a colonial creation, its past history has been a determinant factor in preventing racial segregation, even if some European colonists advocated it by putting forward the dangers of promiscuity in anarchically overbuilt and overpopulated quarters. Independently from general considerations (bureaucratic red tape, shortage of public fonds), decision-makers and entrepreneurs took but a marginal interest in a neighbourhood such as Ankadifotsy, located as it was on a rather outlying hill. Its plots mainly belong to, and are chiefly occupied by members of the Malagasy lower middle class and petty bourgeoisie, while the Europeans and the Malagasy upper middle class prefer to live in more favoured districts.