Speaker
Description
The "Madagascar Sous les étoiles" (Madagascar Under the Stars - MUSE) festival, coordinated by Haikintana astronomy association, is the first national astronomy festival in Madagascar, designed as a replicable model for developing scientific culture in low-resource African settings. Initially launched in 2023 as "Majunga sous les étoiles," the initiative progressively scaled its ambition, transitioning its name to MUSE as it expanded to a simultaneous multi-city program. This major expansion reached audiences in Mahajanga, Antananarivo, Antsirabe, and Antsiranana, successfully demonstrating a method for overcoming large geographical barriers that commonly restrict public engagement across the African continent.
The festival’s structure is built on strong Pan-African and international partnerships, including the African Initiative for Planetary and Space Sciences (AFIPS) and the Société Astronomique de France (SAF). Crucially, MUSE relies heavily on robust local collaborations: flagship events like 'Astromania' are co-produced with the Institut Français de Madagascar (IFM) and the national network of Alliances Françaises, ensuring cultural relevance and broad accessibility by leveraging established national infrastructure.
Over three days, the program combines public observing sessions, youth workshops, community-focused debates, and high-level scientific talks featuring intervenants from France and various African nations. The model is focused on reducing inequality by providing free, direct access to telescopes and scientific information for families from peri-urban and rural environments. By successfully executing a large-scale, high-impact astronomy event across multiple distant sites through local partnerships and shared resources, MUSE offers concrete lessons for launching and sustaining similar outreach initiatives elsewhere in Africa. We present the festival’s operational framework and partnership strategy, sharing successful practices for continental astronomy development.
| Stream | Education, Development and Outreach |
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