Malagasy Embrace the Truth

In October 1955, following the “Triumphant Kingdom” Assembly in Paris, two special pioneers from France arrived in Tananarive via the coastal town of Toamasina. Getting off the train, they stood for a while in front of the station. They looked around and saw the “horseshoe” with thousands of houses perched on the hillside as if they were on shelves on a wall. Adam Lisiak, a former coal miner of Polish descent, said to his partner, Edouard Marlot: “Look, Edouard, this is all our territory!” Edouard responded: “Adam, what are we to do here? People here are educated; we are not. What can we do, Adam?” Yet, they accomplished much good on this island.

At that time Madagascar was a French colony. Since The Watchtower was banned in France and the French territories, they offered the French Awake!, which was available only on a subscription basis. In the first six months, 1,047 subscriptions were obtained. Brother Lisiak used to tell how after they repeatedly used the same copy of Awake! as a sample, the magazine became just a bundle of paper, no longer legible. Still, subscriptions were obtained just by showing this paper bundle.

Brothers Lisiak and Marlot did not waste time. They worked the territory and conducted home Bible studies. Soon a primary school gave the Witnesses free use of its classroom to hold their meetings. The benches were wooden, and everything was meant for young children—not so comfortable for adults. Still, no one complained.

Right to the end of his special service in Madagascar, Brother Lisiak’s territory was Antananarivo. He had calls and studies everywhere. To many people he was known as that vazaha (white person) who has no hair. Often householders would just touch their own head, and you could tell that Adam had been there. Rasaona Gervais, a brother in a French-speaking congregation in Antananarivo, recalls: “Brother Adam was very patient but firm. When I was studying, I would ask others to tell him that I was not at home, but Adam would come back again. Right from the beginning, he invited me to attend the meetings, which I did. He was faithful to Jehovah’s organization and taught me to cultivate the same spirit.”

In 1970, Brothers Lisiak and Marlot were reassigned to the nearby French island of Réunion. Brother Lisiak later returned to France, where he died in Marseilles in January 1988.

(4) Adam Lisiak,