Vy Vato Sakelika was a nationalist secret society formed in Madagascar in 1913 by Hova Merina elites to inspire rebellion against French colonial rule on the island.
[1] Shortly after these pieces were published, in July 1913 seven students at the medical school in Antananarivo[2] founded Madagascar's first nationalist organization, the secret society Vy Vato Sakelika (VVS, "Iron, Stone, Network").
[3] The group soon attracted diverse and large membership among the professional class, including Merina office workers, shop employees and primary school teachers.
[3] Although the group occasionally presented itself as a cultural organization,[4] it used the national press to call on the populace to sacrifice themselves for the freedom and dignity of the tanindrazana (land of their ancestors).
Some were sent to prison on Nosy Lava, a small island off the southwest coast; others were dismissed from government positions or sentenced to hard labor.