The word fady roughtly translates to western language as ‘A taboo’. Fady’s in Madagascar are almost law. People take them very seriously, and they’ve shown up quite a bit during our travels in this country.

What is fady or taboo in Madagascar?

Shining a light in someone’s face
This is the only fady that I actually like. Nobody likes it when they get blasted by someone’s flashlight (or torch as they say anywhere outside North America). The reason for this fady is that it is believed that evil spirits, drawn by the light, will now follow your face around. Whatever you want to believe, it’s rude to shine your light in someone’s face so I’m all for this one.

Chameleons and Snakes
Both of these are fady in Madagascar which in incredible to me since chameleons are one of two reasons why people come to visit Madagascar, the second reason being lemurs. Again, chameleons and snakes are thought to harbor evil spirits, sometimes the village’s own ancestors, and are treated disdainfully. We quickly learned biby lava which, directly translated means long animal, or snake. The locals fear snake and any screech or squeal heard on camp made by the locals is nine times out of ten because they spotted a snake.

Laundry on Tuesdays
This one I find extra hilarious. Growing up, mom would always have us throw laundry downstairs on Tuesdays so she could start the laundry. Here, no touchy the laundry on Tuesdays. Why? Evidently some queen long ago mandated, on a whim, that there will be no laundry done on Tuesdays and it stuck.

Dogs
This is the saddest fady of them all. There are stray dogs all over Hellville. Some are missing fur, others are broken or burned, all are incredibly, sickeningly skinny. There are no vets. Dogs are not native to Madagascar and when the French came over in the 1800’s, their pets came with them. The problem was, the dogs would go into caves, and areas where bodies were left or buried, and dig up old bones. The villagers didn’t take too kindly to this, as ancestors are deeply respected, and so dogs became fady.
There are some locals who do keep the dogs as pets, though they are not well cared for. The neighbors next to camp have two dogs that are actually in fairly good health. One looks like it has the beginning of mange, but at least you can’t count their ribs. We were petting one of them on the beach the other day, and Nick picked up a stick to throw for the dog. The pooch understood the stick under a different context, however, and immediately shrank away from Nick and his toy-turned-weapon. It was heartbreaking to watch. As soon as Nick threw the stick, the dog came a bit closer to Nick, but didn’t break his submissive posture until Nick pet him again.

Before we got to camp, we were staying at a hotel in Hellville called Home Sakalava. They have two dogs. I thought, as pets, they would at least be well cared for. The owner and his wife, though from Madagascar, have lived outside the country for a few years in Mayotte and France, and I thought maybe they’d curate some respect for the animals.
I was wrong. Both dogs had mange. One was horribly, horribly bad. Her fur was all but gone. She had sores all over from itching herself. After a few days, we had to do something. So we looked up a few at home remedies online, and found that apple cider vinegar is supposed to help. After procuring some (a bit more difficult than back at home), we gave both dogs baths and then rubbed them down with the vinegar. Both dogs seemed so grateful. They were hesitant of the bath, but they were so trusting, even after how crappy people had been to them, and so happy to actually be receiving attention. All they wanted was human attention.
We kept applying the vinegar a couple of times a day before we checked out, and then we left the bottle behind with instructions. I sincerely doubt the instructions were followed, and I’m sure the dogs still have mange. It’s frustrating to see ignorance playing such a huge, destructive part in a community, and not being able to do hardly anything about it. Those baths were only way to assuage our conscience even the slightest bit.