I took the photo on 18 May 2018, on “the 8th continent”, as Madagascar is nicknamed.
Ambalavao is the southernmost substantial town in Madagascar’s central highlands; its weekly cattle market is the nation’s biggest.
All the cattle are Zebu – an originally-Indian breed, which became emblematically “Madagascan”; this has been so for rather more than a millennium.
Culturally/religiously, Zebu are enormously important; Madagascans revere them, some men test/display their “virility” in highly-ritualised (generally, non-lethal) fights with them.
Zebu beef is the most highly-prized animal protein.
There has long been a tradition (also highly-ritualised) of Zebu-rustling.
The traditional form of cattle-theft did not involve murder, armed intimidation, internationally-linked organised crime, and wholesale corruption.
In 21st century Madagascar all of the aforementioned are signature features of the so-called “Zebu War”.
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