I was talking with some other volunteers about the tendency, as some people see it, for the Malagasy people to lie. And it’s true, when you are talking to people, very often they will lie. But only in a certain sense. As is the case in some other cultures, I think it’s ruder here to give an unpleasing answer or to say you don’t know than it is to just make something up: aka to lie.
In fact, I would argue that it is often a sort of respectful thing to lie instead of giving an answer that would make you unhappy. For example, the answer to “how far is (blank)?” is invariably “not far. It’s just over there.” Yes, sometimes you are close, but more often than not, it’s still a considerable distance away.
When leaving a situation, if you just leave because you don’t want to be there anymore, that is pretty rude. But if you make up some bizarre reason you have to get going, it is completely legitimized. And rice is always a good reason. Pounding, winnowing, cooking, or eating it are all great reasons to leave a situation.
The same rule of bizarre excuses goes for getting out of invitations: “Elsie, are you coming to the rice fields with us today?” “Oh no, sorry I can’t. I still have to sweep my house. Next time!” Yes, it’s true, sweeping my house could be done in under two minutes and I just swept ten minutes ago, but they now have a reason I’m not going. It’s sort of a way for everyone involved to save face. “Where is Elsie?” “Oh she’s not coming. She has to sweep.”
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This wasn’t a lie at all but a funny example of a legitimate excuse, just one that would not fly with some people: my neighbor’s 21 year old son had, for no apparent reason, put a ladder up to the roof of the house and was sitting there, just hanging out. His mom, who was down managing a controlled burn in the rice fields (read: actually doing real, important work) calls up to him, “come help me down here!” His response: “I can’t. I’m sitting on the roof.” She didn’t argue but called for his younger brother to go help her, and left him to his undisturbed roof-sitting.
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This one was a blatant lie: the same roof-sitter and I went to the local blacksmith to order a machete for me. We were sitting at his fire talking with him (kind of painful, to be honest. He is quite deaf from all the pounding and is therefore always yelling), and my friend clearly was getting bored. So he says “ok, well we have to leave because Elsie is a vazaha and therefor is always in a hurry. She’ll be mad if we don’t get going.” Well, I was in no hurry whatsoever, but couldn’t very well argue in front of him, so we left. On the way home I told him he was a liar and shouldn’t say that because people will think I’m unfriendly. He just smiled and said he needed a reason because he wanted to leave. Fair enough.
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