Her story is one of difficult contradictions. In the attempted defence of her homeland, she expelled missionaries, executed rivals and implemented policies so draconian they’re estimated to have halved Madagascar’s population.

“She is remembered as quite a huge villain, including amongst her people,” says historian and journalist Paula Akpan, author of When We Ruled, speaking on the HistoryExtra podcast. “[She was] very anti-Christian, anti-European imperialism… [and] ended up halving her population.”

Like many powerful women in history, Ranavalona’s legacy is entangled in the gender politics of her era and shaped by the colonial narratives that followed. As Akpan establishes, her story asks: how far is too far when defending sovereignty against destructive colonialism?

The queen who battled empires

Ranavalona ascended the throne in 1828, following the death of her husband King Radama I, who had embraced European-style reforms and missionary activity. Ranavalona reversed his policies swiftly and dramatically. She was 33 years old at her coronation, and quickly took firm control of a society already grappling with foreign pressure.

At the time, Madagascar’s centralised Merina monarchy was expanding its influence across the island, and European powers were increasingly interested in securing trade and religious conversion opportunities – opening the door to outright imperial colonisation. While the island remained officially independent, foreign influence was steadily growing, particularly through British and French envoys and Christian missionaries.

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But Ranavalona had no intention of ceding ground. From the outset of her reign, she launched a campaign to purge all foreign influence. Christian missionaries were expelled, worship was banned and converts were persecuted. European technologies and customs were restricted and trade with Britain and France became tightly controlled.

“She was so preoccupied with preserving her kingdom and preserving their way of life against the French and British colonisers who really sought to claim [Madagascar] as their own, she was willing to essentially purge the island of any hint of foreign influence, including Christianity,” Akpan says.

To European observers, her intense and violent isolationism made her a deeply unsettling figure. Many Victorian-era accounts cast her as barbaric, while ignoring the context of imperial aggression she was reacting to.

A reign of purges and paranoia

Akpan explains that Ranavalona’s rule was marked by mass purges, executions, forced labour, and pervasive state surveillance. Her resistance to foreign powers came at a steep internal cost.

Under her rule, trials by ordeal – including the famed ‘tangena ordeal’ – were revived and widely used. A person accused of a crime would be forced to drink an aconite-based poison to determine whether they were guilty. They were only considered innocent if they showed no adverse reactions to the poison over the following day. Thousands are believed to have died as a result of such trials.

Ranavalona also expanded the fanompoana system of state labour, forcing citizens to work on royal projects and military campaigns.

Some historians estimate that Madagascar’s population fell by as much as 50 per cent under her rule. Those accused of disloyalty or foreign sympathy risked imprisonment, enslavement or execution. Loyalty to the queen became a matter of life and death.

One particularly chilling story has become emblematic of her ruthlessness. Accounts describe how she attempted to manufacture a pair of massive scissors to “cut her enemies in half”, Akpan explains. Ranavalona’s idea was simple: she would use the scissors to literally chop incoming Europeans in two. Though the plan never materialised, the intention speaks volumes.

Ranavalona I’s place in history

Ranavalona’s use of violence is undisputed, but how we understand her actions is complicated by the sources that survive. Many written records were created by missionaries, colonial officials, or other foreign observers with their own biases and agendas.

This Eurocentric lens has shaped how Ranavalona is remembered. While European rulers of the same era engaged in brutal colonial conquests, their violence was often framed as civilising or strategic. The pain inflicted by Ranavalona, by contrast, was maximised rather than minimalised.

But, equally, as Akpan cautions, “The fact that she is an African woman doesn’t inherently make her good.”

How do we view Ranavalona now?

Queen Ranavalona’s methods were undoubtedly unjustifiably brutal, wreaking havoc upon her own people.

However, her basic instincts to preserve her kingdom’s independence against incoming European colonisation were, some would argue, understandable given what would follow in countries that pushed back against colonialism less ardently.

Elsewhere in Africa, colonialism’s advance brought horrors at an unfathomable scale. In the Congo, decades after Ranavalona’s death, Belgian ruler King Leopold II presided over one of the most appalling regimes in modern history. Under his control, millions were enslaved, mutilated or killed in the pursuit of rubber profits. Historians estimate that up to 10 million people died under Leopold’s rule.

Seen in this context, Ranavalona’s fierce isolationism might be viewed as a pre-emptive defence against a form of colonialism that unleashed devastating horrors wherever it took hold.

However, ultimately, she would only delay Madagascar’s colonisation by decades. “I guess the sad fact is that Madagascar was colonised anyway, despite her really dogged commitment to self-sufficiency; to repelling these Western forces,” Akpan reflects.

“Would she regret the harms [she caused]? How she went about trying to preserve sovereignty – would she do it again knowing that Madagascar was colonised anyway? What would [that knowledge] have done to her?”

What is certain is that Ranavalona I remains one of the most striking, and terrifying, figures in the history of African resistance to empire.

Paula Akpan was speaking to Danny Bird on the HistoryExtra podcast. Listen to the full conversation.