Anacaona
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AYITI, OUR LAND-HOUENOUHO
« Thread started on: Jan 15th, 2007, 08:52am » |
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Taken from http://www.ahadonline.org/eLibrary/creoleconnection/Number20/ayititoma.htm
by Ati Max-G. Beauvoir - Houngan
HOUENOUHO
Houénouho Mèhouèdo Gba Isé
Houénouho Mèhouèdo
Houènou Gadja Karo
Hounènouho Mèhouèdo Gba Isé
Hounènouho Mèhouèdo Gba Isé
Houèné Lomé Kabahoua Djénou dodo Houémé
O’Dan é houaso houasovi Gbodjé Godomen
Houègbongbo Ghédé Houahou Zagbomen énen
Houénouho mè Houèdo Gba Isé
Hounénou vèvè
AYITI* Djèman Djidjo Koutonou
So konoulè
Noulè houènou pran Tado
Nou Houa Tomè* AYITI* Mèhouè Tomè*
Nou Houa Tomè* AYITI* nou houè
Ilé kannou Dankmé émen.
O Danwomen to
Alladalè nou Houadjé AYITI*
AYITI* noulè nikara tshi Djangòdò
Sé dou doumen
Houénouho mè houèdo gba Isé.
E Houénouho mè Houèdo Gba Isé
Houénouho mè Houèdo
Houéna Gadja Karo
Houènénouho mè houèdo Gba Isé
Houénouho Mè Houèdo Gba Isé
AYITI* noulè yé oulè Ti Jang Ifi
Houadlo do miton mènouhé
Houadlo métshé Lègbi
Houadlo houèdo AYITI*
AYITI* Tomè* Houèmi
AYITI* To Adji’Djo
AYITI* Houamé Gabé
E Houénouho mè Houèdo Gba Isé
Houénouho mè Houèdo
AYITI* mè Houèdo
AYITI* Houlè nousé houélénou Ho Gba Isé.
Ayiti Toma :
"Our Country, Our Land, the Land that from now on belongs to us,
(Every piece of land which lays)
in the interior of the boundary lines of that Country."
The word Ayiti appears a dozen times in this text. I took the liberty to write it each time in capital letters and to put an asterisk after it, so that it can be spotted more easily by the reader. It is also worth noting that often it is accompanied by the expression "Tome" which comes here also as a happy surprise. It is a common joke in Haiti to say that Haitians are peculiar in their habits of giving names. They give their country a first name which is the official one: Haiti, and they also give it a family or last name which is Toma. The reason has never been really well understood. The translation of this text is as follows:
Houenouho or An Historical Narrative
Let me tell the story of the black race in a single song. I did not personally invent it, it was only reported to me by people who were very old. Listen. A long time ago, the black folks were quietly sitting in their home in Africa when one day, it was in the morning, a boat arrived along the coast. It was spitting fire.
The color of the skin of the people who came down from that boat was white and they started to run behind us. It became a real hunt. So, we ran away. We went hiding into the forest. They succeeded to catch many, many of us and to put us in chains. They tied us up in their boat.
And the boat was rolling from side to side, left and right, and our bellies were going up and down. Starting from our sexual organs, it was going up to our mouth. No water stayed in our bodies, we vomited and urinated, we thought we were going to die. Some of us indeed died in fact. They just took them and threw them away in the sea. Thus ended in the sea the bodies of those who died in that journey.
Finally, we disembarked. We landed in a place where there was sunshine just like home. There was the Ocean that resembled very much like the sea back home and there was also the land that looked just like home. There was everything, just like back home. It might still have been home, in reality, "Our Land" (Ayiti) ... it was still "Our Land" (Ayiti). Have we just been turning round and round on that Ocean? How did we managed to come back here again on "Our Land" (Ayiti)? Have we arrived here the two feet first (meaning dead)? Are we still alive? I wonder.
Everything seems somewhat destroyed, but it is still on "Our Land" that we are. We thank the God of the Sea, Agweta Oyo, to have preserved us and not to have allowed these people to lose us along the way. We thank again God who made these people bring us back on what is still "Our Land" (Ayiti) safely.
We are finally back home (Ayiti Tome), we are finally home again (Ayiti Tome). Everything seems a bit broken down, destroyed. But this Country is Home(Ayiti Tome), this Country is really, really Home (Ayiti Tome), everything which is in the interior of the boundary lines of our Country (Ayiti Tome).
In conclusion, and in the most unpretentious manner, I believe the word Ayiti found here must agree more with what might have been meant by our founding Fathers:
"Our Country, Our Land, the Land that from now on belongs to us"
and the meaning of the word Tome or Toma also must be more conform to their conception:
"(Every peace of Land which lays ) in the interior of the boundary lines of our Country."
Personally, I can only hear a slight difference of pronunciation between the words Tomè and Toma but, this may be totally understandable since there exist upon them the effect of centuries and many, many thousand miles ž
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