BIOGRAPHY by Aase Vig Berget, 17 March 2006 (translated by Alvar Berget, 2007)

Lars Vig was born on June the 20th 1845 at Åkra, by Hardangerfjord in Sunnhordland at the west coast of Norway. Åkra is a green plain, hemmed in by tall mountains that on either side go all the way to the sea. At this time one could only get there by boat. People lived of fishing and goat herding. A small church with heavy white walls lay at the centre of the scattered settlement. Lars Tørressen, Lars Vig's father loved books. So much in fact, that he had to leave his property at Brekke and later at Vika. He ended up as a travelling book-salesman in Stavanger, where Lars spent his youth. After two years at Fjellberg, a teachers college, he found his vocation to become a missionary. As a Lutheran minister he was sent out by the Norwegian Missionary Society. Along with two friends from Sunnhordland, Arne Valen and Knud Lindoe of the third group of missionaries, he came to Madagascar in 1874.

On the voyage out, with the sailing ship Elieser, he suffered a cardiac arrest, indicating that he didn't take well to a hot climate. For this reason, the NMS placed him at a mission in the highlands, where the climate is cooler than on the coast. In 1875 then, he arrived at Masinandraina where he stayed up to 1902, with the exception of a stay in Norway (1889-1893) In addition to being a minister he worked in teaching and founded a teachers college in 1878.

As was the custom, his fiancée, Laura Walle arrived two years after him, and they married in 1876. She was born on March 17th 1845, of a bourgeois family. Like him she had decided to give her life to the mission, wanting to help the Malagasy people. At Masinandraina, her work consisted in taking care of the women in the parish, and the wives of the students at the teachers college. Like other missionary wives she was given the task of teaching women how to read and write, as well as knitting, embroidery and the making of lace. (At the market in Antananarivo, one can still find embroidery called "Hardanger"). In pictures of her we can see her with her knitting. As her husband was often out, travelling to the parishes in the district, Laura was a stable point at the mission. In order to do his work to the full, Lars Vig needed someone to take care of the day to day run of the mission; receive guests and deal with problems such as theft and illness.

In the beautiful garden at Masinandraina one finds a corner with graves. In one of these lies "Little" Lars, their son. Lars and Laura had another son and three daughters. At school age the children had to travel to Norway where they lived at Solbakken, a boarding school for missionaries' children. In his private letters Lars Vig expresses concern for his children. Anna the eldest daughter suffered so by being separated from her parents, that she returned to Madagascar to help them at the mission. Three years later, in 1897, she married the missionary Fredrik Bjertnes. Like her parents Anna also had to bury a child in the garden at Masinandraina. Gunvor, her daughter at three (1906-1908), was poisoned by the cook. The cook had accused Fredrik Bjertnes of having killed his own grandfather, incarnated in the form of a snake, hanging from a branch in the garden. An episode such as this, illustrates well the need to really try and understand the beliefs of the Natives; to live among them, to understand them, rather than condemning them. To this end Lars Vig was actually at that time writing about Malagasy ideas of substitution in sacrifice. According to these beliefs one may punish a wrongdoer by killing a relative of "lesser value," or an animal belonging to him. As an ethnographer-missionary, he went to a great length to better learn to know the people that he tried to win over to Christianity. To aid him in his research, he built up a network of personal contacts. The extensive information which he acquired, he presented by giving talks to his missionary colleagues in Madagascar, as well as "mission supporters" in Norway. In additions to this he published articles in Scandinavia.

One might describe his personality through two opposing characteristics used by his missionary colleagues: "Father Vig", describing a friendly diplomatic type, with a sense of humour, talkative, a faithful friend, understanding and caring. The other side was the "Old brother in arms", serious, decisive and professional, when it came to deal with disputed questions at missionaries conferences, economic corruption in Malagasy society at the time, demands for Christian values in the parishes and the requirement of a scientific method in his own research.

Towards the end of his life, as he was preparing his journey home to Norway, broken down, overworked and ill, Lars Vig grieved over having to leave Madagascar. He so wanted to stay there until he died. Like many other missionaries, he felt that Madagascar was where he belonged.