Rakotovao, Armand

Armand Rakotovao (fl. 1960-1979) was a magistrate in Madagascar and the author of at least three books on the country and its history: Ouvrages concernant Madagascar (1960?), Vocabulaire français-malagasy: mots juridiques et techniques avec des exemples (1976), and Histoire de Aristide Corroller: prince de Betanimena, gouverneur et commandant de Tamatave, secrétaire de Radama I, Généralissime de Ranavalona I (1974?). His French-Malagasy legal dictionary, created due to the requirement that legal judgements of indigenous courts be rendered in the native language rather than in French, was seen as an important work. (Denis Turcotte, La politique linguistique en Afrique francophone, p. 101) According to the Library of Congress, he was a recipient of the French National Order of Merit (chevalier de l'Ordre national) and a member of the Malagasy Academy (l'Académie malgache).

From the guide to the Rakotovao Collection of Madagascar Photographs, circa 1960?, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)