Albert Rakoto Ratsimamanga

Albert Rakoto Ratsimamanga is considered one of Madagascar's most renowned scholars. A commemorative stamp was issued in his memory in 2002, and the Institut de France minted a coin tribute to Ratsimamanga.

Ratsimamanga died on 16 September 2001, aged 93, in Antananarivo, Madagascar. A state funeral was held for him.

Ratsimamanga is considered one of Madagascar's most renowned scholars and was bestowed upon him the highest orders of merit from Madagascar, Germany, France, Senegal, Congo - Brazzaville, and the Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences. He was Madagascar's Man of the Century in 1999.

Ratsimamanga was awarded the Grand Cross of the Malagasy National Order, First Class Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor of France, Grand Officer of the National Order of Scientific Merit of France, National Order of the Lion of Senegal, Commander of the Ordre des Palmes académiques, Commander of the Order of Merit of Congo - Brazzaville, Commander of the Ordre national du Mérite of France, and Grand Prize from the Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences. He was elected Man of the Century for Madagascar (1999).

Ratsimamanga was married to Suzanne Urverg-Ratsimamanga. She was a French Ashkenazi Jewish biochemist, a Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (1989), and the African Academy of Sciences (1987), and IMRA’s Chair and Albert's closest collaborator who co-founded IMRA with him.

Ratsimamanga was the head of Malagasy National Academy, and a Professor Emeritus of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Antananarivo. He was one of the founders of The World Academy of Sciences in 1983, and the African Academy of Sciences in 1985. He was a member of the Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences, Institut de France (1966), and the Académie Nationale de Médecine (1967).

Ratsimamanga was a Founder Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (FTWAS) in 1983, and the African Academy of Sciences in 1985 (FAAS). He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Cheikh Anta Diop University in 1973.

Ratsimamanga was a member of the delegation that negotiated Madagascar's independence from France. 77% of Malagasy voted for independence in the 1958 referendum, and after the independence, Ratsimamanga was appointed the Malagasy Republic ambassador to France from 1960 to 1972. After the 1972 Coup d'état, and in January 1973, he was appointed the first Ambassador of the Malagasy Republic to China. He later established embassies in West Germany, the Soviet Union, North Korea, and Sierra Leone.

After a short research stint in France, where he pioneered modern nutraceuticals, Ratsimamanga returned to Madagascar and shaped the republic's traditional pharmacopoeia research by founding the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research (IMRA), with his wife Suzanne Urverg-Ratsimamanga, in 1957. IMRA provided alternative medicines against diabetes, malaria, leprosy, and other common condition. He was one of the founders of The World Academy of Sciences (1983) and the African Academy of Sciences (1985).

Ratsimamanga was the founding director of the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research (IMRA) in 1957. IMRA was focused on Phytotherapy to use local plants and traditional practices to cure diseases, i.e., traditional pharmacopoeia. IMRA succeeded in using the Syzygium cumini tree as an anti-diabetic agent, and creating alternative medicines against malaria, leprosy, asthma, lithiasis, blood pressure, hepatitis and other common conditions. This has established IMRA as a research centre; however, IMRA’s reputation was all but ruined due to the Covid-Organics controversy.

On 26 August 1948, Ratsimamanga represented Madagascar at the World Congress of Intellectuals in Defence of Peace which took place between the 25 to 28 August 1948 of August at Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Poland, and playing a role in the framing of the communist powers as supporters of peace, and on the opposite side, portraying the West as a threat to peace.

While in France, Ratsimamanga co-founded the Democratic Movement for Malagasy Renovation (MDRM) in 1946 and led protests against the repression of the Malagasy Uprising in 1947. He was a member of the delegation that negotiated Madagascar's independence in 1958, and the republic's first ambassador to France (1960–1972). He helped shape the Malagasy Republic's foreign affairs by creating embassies in China, West Germany, the Soviet Union, North Korea, and Sierra Léon, and representing the Malagasy Republic at UNESCO and FAO.

Ratsimamanga was an ardent pacifist and politically active and during his years of study, he forged close relationships with French intellectual and political circles. While in France, he co-founded the association of Malagasy Students in France and the Democratic Movement for Malagasy Renovation (MDRM) in 1946 with Jacques Rabemananjara, Joseph Raseta and Joseph Ravoahangy Andrianavalona. MDRM led the protests against the bloody repression of the Malagasy Uprising of 1947. However, MDRM was known to be dominated by Hova elites, who had been politically prominent in the former Merina royal court and wanted to regain the political dominance of the Merina upon independence. Jacques Rabemananjara, Joseph Raseta and Joseph Ravoahangy Andrianavalona were later sentenced to life in prison but were granted amnesty in 1958. Ratsimamanga claimed that he was unaware of the uprising and, thus, was not involved. Later in 1949, Ratsimamanga created the Malagasy National Council, a Government in exile. It was a failure.

Ratsimamanga started working at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in 1945 after he was approached by Frédéric Joliot-Curie, CNRS's research director and Nobel prize literature in Chemistry (1935). where he pioneered the study of Human blood group systems, and treatments for leprosy and tuberculosis.

He received his early education at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Antananarivo until he became a doctor for the Indigenous Medical in 1924. Ratsimamanga was a member of the 1930 Colonial Exhibition in Paris, during which he decided to join the University of Paris to become a Doctor of Science (MS) and a Doctor of Medicine (MD). He also graduated from the Institute of Exotic Medicine and the Pasteur Institut, and founded the association of Malagasy Students in France.

Albert Rakoto Ratsimamanga (28 December 1907 – 16 September 2001) was a Malagasy physician, biochemist and diplomat.

Albert Rakoto Ratsimamanga was born on the 28th of December 1907, in Antananarivo, Madagascar, to Razanadrakoto Ratsimamanga and Lala Ralisoa. He was the grandson of Prince Ratsimamanga, uncle and advisor to Queen Ranavalona III, who was executed in 1897 at the beginning of the French colonisation of Madagascar. When he was only eleven years old, his father died in 1918 from drinking heavily.