The Sarimbavy (from the Malagasy words sary for image and vavy for woman) is a social role found among the Sakalava and Vezo peoples of western and northwestern Madagascar. The term refers to male-bodied individuals who adopt feminine appearance, dress, and social roles within their communities. In French colonial medical texts from the turn of the twentieth century, the term appears under variant spellings including sekrata, sekatra, and saikatra.^[1]

Among the Sakalava people, children born with male anatomy who show behaviors considered feminine are raised as girls by their families. As adults, they wear feminine hairstyles and jewelry. They do not take on jobs typically assigned to men, such as soldiering, but instead participate in ceremonial performances. These individuals are accepted within Sakalava society and are regarded as sacred and under the protection of supernatural forces.^[2]

Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted over 24 months in the Betsiboka Valley, sarimbavy are described as male-bodied persons who may be either gender-expansive or same-sex desiring. The term translates literally as "in the image of a woman."^[3]: p.2

Research among the Vezo people indicates that biological sex is understood as secondary to performed social behavior. Gender roles are established through actions, rituals, and social contributions over time rather than being fixed at birth.^[4]

Within this cultural framework, sarimbavy individuals move between masculine and feminine social spaces. They engage in tasks culturally marked as feminine, including textile work, pottery, and market trading.^{[3]: pp.64–67, 71–73}

Many sarimbavy act as spirit mediums for tromba, the spirits of deceased rulers from the Sakalava royal line. Being a medium requires dedication to preserving Malagasy historical knowledge (tantara) and ancestral customs (fombandrazana). The social networks formed through mediumship connect sarimbavy individuals across different communities in northwestern Madagascar.^{[3]: pp.29–44, 96–118}

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, French colonial doctors working in Madagascar wrote about their encounters with sarimbavy individuals. They published descriptions in medical journals based on observations made in colonial settings. These writings described sarimbavy using European sexological categories of the period, including "inversion" and "degeneracy." Colonial authorities referred to these classifications in their administration of labor, punishment, and medical care in the colony.^[1]

French colonial doctors including Rencurel (1900) and Jourdan (1903) documented sarimbavy individuals in medical journals, describing their appearance, dress, and interactions with colonial labor requirements.^[1]

Among the Vezo, a distinction exists between the biological sex a person is born with and the gendered identity they develop through action over their lifetime. This distinction between what is given at birth and what is made through behavior is central to Vezo understandings of personhood. Sarin'ampela (the Vezo term for male-bodied persons who live as women) are understood to have been born with male anatomy but to have developed a feminine gender identity through their choices and behaviors. At death, a sarin'ampela is buried according to their biological sex. Only people of the same biological sex handle the corpse, and the body is placed in the section of the tomb corresponding to their birth sex.^{[4]: pp.21–26, 33}

• Sakalava people
• Vezo people
• Third gender