The president of Madagascar has been ousted in a military coup after a weekslong uprising by Gen Z protesters whose outrage is being felt in countries around the world — and expressed through a common, anime-inspired symbol.
The military in the Indian Ocean nation took power Tuesday right after lawmakers voted to impeach President Andry Rajoelina, who said Monday night in a speech from an undisclosed location that he had fled the country in fear for his life after an elite military unit joined the protesters.
It’s the second government Gen Z protesters have toppled in just over a month, after the prime minister of Nepal resigned last month in the face of protests set off by outrage over a social media ban.
Young people angered by economic hardship, official corruption and perceived injustice have been central players in a recent wave of anti-government protests around the world, including in Indonesia, the Philippines, East Timor, Peru and Morocco.
Despite being scattered across oceans and continents, the protests are connected by the frequent appearance of the same emblem: a pirate flag from a globally popular Japanese anime series.
The flag, which features a grinning Jolly Roger skull and crossbones wearing a straw hat, is from the manga series “One Piece,” whose protagonists, the Straw Hat Pirates, rebel against an unjust world and defy corrupt powers.
Young protesters in Madagascar and elsewhere are reimagining the manga characters’ fight against injustice as their own, anime experts say.
They are likely to identify with anime protagonists “who are often depicted as minorities, who are marginalized, ignored and misunderstood by their societies,” said Katsuya Izumi, a senior lecturer in language and culture studies at Trinity College in Connecticut.
Frustrated by chronic power and water shortages, young people in Madagascar, an island nation off southeastern Africa, first took to the streets of the capital, Antananarivo, on Sept. 25. The protests were mobilized largely by Gen Z Madagascar, a leaderless group that is powered by social media.
The group’s official logo on its social media accounts is the “One Piece” symbol, customized for Madagascar by replacing the straw hat with the satroka bucket hat traditionally worn by the Betsileo ethnic group.
As in the protests in Nepal, Indonesia and elsewhere, the focus of the movement in Madagascar — a former French colony of about 30 million people that is one of the world’s poorest countries — broadened from a lack of basic necessities to anger over inequality, corruption and widespread political impunity.
Soon, young protesters in Madagascar, where the median age is 19, were demanding the resignation of Rajoelina, 51, who came to power in a military-backed coup in 2009.
“We just can’t take it anymore,” To Ranaivoharijao, 26, a member of Gen Z Madagascar’s communications team, said in an interview this month.
“The president is building a cable car in the capital, while most of the population is suffering from malnutrition, lack of clean water and power outages,” he said via messaging app.
Madagascar authorities responded to the protests with force, with witnesses reporting widespread use of tear gas, rubber bullets and even firearms.
According to the United Nations, at least 22 people have been killed in the Madagascar protests, a figure the government has disputed.
Local protesters say they have been inspired by youth-driven movements against ruling elites in Nepal and elsewhere.
The protests’ global spread has been aided by the pirate flag from “One Piece,” whose popularity has made its ideas about resistance accessible across languages and cultures.
According to Guinness World Records, the “One Piece” series, which was started in 1997 by Japanese manga author Eiichiro Oda, holds the record for most published copies of the same single-author comic book series, at more than half a billion.
It has been translated into 40 languages and turned into animated series, feature films, a card game, video games and a Netflix live-action version, creating a “shared subcultural language,” said Rayna Denison, a professor of film and digital arts at the University of Bristol in Britain.
The series’ main protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy, is a “symbol of freedom,” she said. “This makes the use of his Jolly Roger an emphatic endorsement of values.”
Those values may be challenged under Madagascar’s new military government, which has suspended the constitution and says a referendum will be held in two years.
Ranaivoharijao said Wednesday that Gen Z and student protesters were “relieved” by the change in government, while civil society “remains skeptical and doubtful.”
“But that’s a minority. Young people are rejoicing,” he said via messaging app.
Ranaivoharijao said they would “remain vigilant and engaged in discussion.”
“We hope everything will go well,” he said, adding that no one could do worse than “what Rajoelina did.”
