Joseph Raseta

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Joseph-Delphin Raseta (December 9, 1886 – October 5, 1979) was a Malagasy doctor, politician, and thinker who helped lead Madagascar’s movement for independence. Born in Marovoay to a prominent Hova family, he trained as a physician in Antananarivo, finishing medical school in 1908. He worked as a medical officer and later ran a private practice, while becoming active in nationalist circles and journalism. In the 1930s and 1940s he wrote for anti-colonial papers and helped found the Democratic Movement for Malagasy Renewal (MDRM), serving as its first president after the party was established. Raseta was elected to the French Constituent Assembly in 1945 and again in 1946, pushing for Madagascar to become a free state within the French Union and for greater self-government. After the Malagasy Insurrection of 1947, he was accused of involvement, his parliamentary immunity was lifted, and he was sentenced to death in 1948; the sentence was commuted to lifelong exile in 1949. He spent time in the Comoros and France, was released in 1955, and returned to Madagascar in 1960. He joined the AKFM and won a seat in Madagascar’s National Assembly in 1961, later leaving AKFM in 1963 to form the Malagasy National Union (FIPIMA). He ran for president in 1965, receiving a small share of the vote. Later honored as a hero of the Malagasy Revolution, Raseta was named Grand Officer of the Order of Combatants of the Malagasy Revolution. He died in 1979 at age 92.