JAMAICA, OUIDAH AND THE HAïTIEN LANGUAGE

 

Bénin in relation with Haïti (with Jamaica just south of Cuba.)

The real city of Ouidah never was (and still isn't) a seaport,

as shown erroneously in the movie ''The Woman King''.

West African nations are at the sources of many populations living presently in the Caribean region, through the unfortunates slaves who were brought there in colonial times.

It is the case in the island of Jamaica, according to an interesting article (below), especially with Ashanti and Yoruba peoples, among others. It is also the case in the ancient French colony of Saint-Domingue, now the independant country of Haïti, the first black republic of the world. There, though, it was mainly Fon and Yoruba peoples, with smaller contingents.

The fongbe-speaking Fons are the powerful nation that created the Dahomey kingdom and whose language is still prevalent over much of southern Bénin. The many Yoruba-like tribes and subtribes, for their part, inhabits South-West Nigeria (and also large parts of Bénin and a small portion of Togo). The languages of the Fons and of the Yorubas, mixed with French for the basic vocabulary, provided the base for what is now known as the Haïtien language (but that was once considered a mere créole idiom).

The hybrid Haïtien language was born in a brutal and violent era, dominated by the triangular trade, between Europe, Africa and America. The slaves, mainly Fons and Yorubas, but also from other nations, who eventually found themselves on the plantations of Saint-Domingue, started as warriors for their respective nations. They were made prisonners of war in the course of the many conflicts between African kingdoms. They were brought to the capital of their captors, then were brought in single column to the coast, aptly named la Côte des esclaves.. It must be said that the diverse portions of the West African shore were then named from the goods that was available there (la Côte d'ivoire, la Côte de l'or, etc.).

The Fons prisoners of war were brought by the Yorubas to the coast, in what is now Nigeria. As for the Yorubas prisoners of war, they were brought under escort by the kingdom pf Dahomey, usually in Ouidah, but also in other trading stations, in what is now Bénin. There, they were sold, often against weapons to make war (and capture more prisoners). The buyers were European merchants acting usually under the protection of European forts. The slaves were then sent down to the shore, for embarkment on sailing ships bound for Saint-Domingue.

Once there, they were divided between the many plantations, according to who was their respective owners. The slaves involved, mainly Fons and Yorubas, had to decipher commands given to them in a strange, foreign tongue, that is to say French. Of course, the slaves had to be able to undestand each other, and their captors, a difficult task, given the diverse origin of the slaves, and the huge gap between French, an Indo-European language, and their own tongues, members of the many linguistinc families existing in West Africa.

Thus, modern Haïtien develop slowly as a mixture of French, Fongbe and Yoruba, more precisely of French words and West African patterns of speech. Haïtien sound a bit like stones grouding each other, as if these stones were West African consonants squeezing French vowels between them. The written form of Haïtien is difficult to decipher for francophones, since fully-recognizable or barely-recozignable French words are relatively few and far apart in the printed text.

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https://tribuneonlineng.com/jamaica-is-still-west-africa-in-america/

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PLUS:  @charles.millar3 (Twitter)