Networks of Solidarity among Former Marxist Activists in the bas quartiers of Antananarivo

Networks of solidarity and reciprocity based on kinship, religious or political affiliations are often crucial for survival in the poorest neighbourhoods of the capital of Madagascar, but they are not the only social relationships that people can activate. Quite often, more informal networks based on friendship, the shared experience of living in the same neighbourhood, and generational links are an indispensable asset for navigating the social and economic marginality that characterises the everyday life of neighbourhoods in the bas quartiers. This paper explores how relationships of solidarity are developed, contested and renegotiated by elderly people of the bas quartiers whose friendship was forged during the demonstrations that in 1972 contributed to the fall of the First Republic. Their networks of solidarity show how notions and practices of mutual aid need to be actively constructed by individuals, not in abstract terms, but through a constant interweaving of social relationships that were the by-product of structural forces reproducing social and economic inequalities, particular historical events that marked the shared experience of a given generation and the practical and everyday efforts of people to navigate their marginality.