Oratory in Madagascar

I was listening to the BBC World Service program The Word (it's "A look at novels plus reports on theatre, poetry, journalism, biography, history and anthropology") and heard an interesting story. The subject was kabary (pronounced kabar) - the national form of oratory performed in Madagascar and always given in the language Malagasy. At family, political, religious, and other formal functions, a qualified person called a mpikabary discusses an issue, using complex word play, proverbs,and idioms, in a stylized and formal version of the language, all without ever directly mentioning the topic. It's like a formal address completely formed by inference. If you'd like to learn more about it, here's a site that describes it.