Asampy is anamulet or idol of spiritual and political importance among numerousethnic groups in Madagascar. Amulets and idols fashioned from assorted natural materials have occupied an important place among many Malagasy communities for centuries. Sampy can be classified into two categories. Those that are meant to bless and protect an entire community by serving as a deity figure, and individual amulets that people wear on their person as protection. The latter are calledOdy. The Sampy are sometimes considered autonomous beings; having their own name, their own characteristics, their own purposes, their own conditions and even their own home. Among the most famous are Ikelimaza, Rafantaka and Ramahavaly.
Ody, personal amulets believed to protect or allocate powers to the wearer, were commonplace objects possessed by anyone from slave children to kings. The namesampy was given to those amulets that, while physically indistinguishable fromody, were distinct in that their powers extended over an entire community. Thesampy were often personified - complete with a distinct personality - and offered their own house with keepers dedicated to their service.
In the sixteenth century, KingRalambo of theMerina people amassed twelve of the most reputed and powerfulsampy from neighboring communities. He furthermore transformed the nature of the relationship betweensampy and ruler: whereas previously thesampy had been seen as tools at the disposal of community leaders, under Ralambo they became divine protectors of the leader's sovereignty and the integrity of the state which would be preserved through their power on the condition that the line of sovereigns ensured thesampy were shown the respect due to them. By collecting the twelve greatestsampy (twelve being a sacred number in Merina cosmology) and transforming their nature, Ralambo strengthened the supernatural power and legitimacy of the royal line of Imerina.[1]
TheTantara ny Andriana eto Madagasikara offers an account of the idols' introduction intoImerina. According to legend, one day during Ralambo's reign a woman named Kalobe arrived in Imerina carrying a small object wrapped in banana leaves and grass. She had traveled from her village located at Isondra inBetsileo country to the south which had been destroyed by fire, walking the great distance and traveling only at night in order to deliver to the king what she calledkelimalaza ("the little famous one"), giving the impression that it was no less than the greatest treasure in the land. Ralambo took thesampy and built a house for it in a nearby village. He then selected a group of adepts who were to study under Kalobe to learn the mysteries of thekelimalaza. Oral history maintains that Kalobe was "made to disappear" after the adepts' training was completed in order to prevent her from absconding with the precious idol.[2]
Not long after, the legend continues, a group ofSakalava (or, by some accounts,Vazimba) warriors were preparing to attack a village north ofAlasora called Ambohipeno. Ralambo announced that it would be sufficient to throw a rotten egg at the warriors, andkelimalaza would take care of the rest. According to oral history, the egg was thrown and hit a warrior in the head, killing him on contact; his corpse fell onto another warrior and killed him, andthis corpse fell onto another and so forth, until the warriors had all been destroyed, forevermore confirming the power ofkelimalaza as the protector of the kingdom in the minds of the Merina populace. Similarly, at the besieged Imerina village of Ambohimanambola, invokingkelimalaza was said to have produced a massive hailstorm that wiped out the enemy warriors.[2]
The honored place that Ralambo awarded tokelimalaza encouraged others like Kalobe to bring their ownsampy to Ralambo from neighboring lands where they had long before been introduced by theAntaimoro. First afterkelimalaza wasramahavaly, said to control snakes and repel attacks. The next arrival,manjakatsiroa, protected the sovereignty of the king from rivals and became the favorite of Ralambo, who kept it always near him. Afterward camerafantaka, believed to protect against injury and death; others followed, all of Antaimoro origin with the possible exception ofmosasa, which had come from theTanala forest people to the east.[2] The propagation of similarsampy at the service of less powerful citizens consequently increased throughout Imerina under Ralambo's rule: nearly every village chief, as well as many common families, had one in their possession and claimed the powers and protection their communalsampy offered them.[3]
These lessersampy were destroyed or reduced to the status ofody (personal talismans) by the end of the reign of Ralambo's son,Andrianjaka, officially leaving only twelve truly powerfulsampy (known as thesampin'andriana: the "RoyalSampy") which were all in the possession of the king.[3] These royalsampy, includingkelimalaza, were protected by "keepers of the sampy", who were often consulted by rulers and had become considerable power brokers by the 19th century.[4] The sampy continued to be worshiped until their destruction in a bonfire by QueenRanavalona II upon her public conversion to Christianity in 1869.[5]