Enrique's War Song

Jean Fouchard's Langue et littérature des aborigènes d'Ayti

Although it is difficult to research, we are currently obsessed with the story of a song said to come from the time of Enrique's rebellion in Hispaniola. According to Emile Nau, writers at the court of Henri Christophe wrote the song based on oral traditions and a refrain (Aya bombe). Nau is skeptical that the song is authentic yet he also implausibly believed the chica, djouba and carabinier dances of Haiti were of Amerindian origin. Unfortunately, Nau did not reproduce the song of Enrique and we have yet to find any written evidence of it from the time of Henri Christophe's kingdom. However, Henri Christophe was compared to the famous cacique and the song was likely composed by the literati of his kingdom. Whether or not it is based on any "authentic" tradition is difficult to say. Nonetheless, the refrain of Aya bombe, which sounds very African, is repeated multiple times. African words in a song celebrating Enrique are not too surprising when one considers that he had African followers or supporters. 

According to Jean Fouchard, Frederic Marcelin was the first person to publish the complete song of Henry, in 1905. Marcelin wrote that he first heard the song from an old man in the North of Haiti. This old man supposedly had worked on the construction of the famous Citadel. The elder also told Marcelin about the corpses or skeletal remains of Indians around the island. This led to the old man, who claimed to have heard the song from a grandfather of Indian blood, to recite it in a language Marcelin could understand (presumably French or Creole) instead of the original Indian language. This story is repeated in Marcelin's Au gré du souvenir, published in 1913. However, he first heard the song in the 1890s. If true, Marcelin's informant was probably someone born in the early 1800s or late 1700s. His grandfather, who was supposedly Indian and from the most powerful tribe on the island (Xaragua?), could have been someone of indigenous descent who heard something of the traditions of Enrique. Is it possible that there were people of indigenous descent, perhaps related to those from Boya, who were in Guarico (Cap-Haitien) or the northern part of Haiti, sharing an oral tradition that reached the court of Henry Christophe? Indeed, Moreau de Saint-Mery reported the presence of descendants of Enrique's community living in Banica, near Hincha. Hinche, in modern-day Haiti, would have been near Christophe's kingdom. In addition, there was a movement of people from the Cibao and other parts of the Spanish part of the island into the north. According to Johnhenry Gonzalez's Maroon Nation, captives from the 1805 campaign in the East were brought to the Haitian side. These examples show that there could have theoretically been a group of people in the northern part of the Haiti with some degree of oral traditions pertinent to Enrique. Indeed, some of these people may have been of partial descent from the band of Enrique while others, including Haitians, would have celebrated the figure of Enrique and his heroic resistance from Bahoruco. The Aya bombe refrain was perhaps just added due to the strong African influences on Haitian oral traditions and songs.

The other interesting part of the song's history is Edgar la Selve's reproduction of Caonabo's war song. Supposedly chanted right before he destroyed La Navidad, Caonabo delivered a lengthy war chant that includes some of the same imagery as Enrique's song. While Edgar de la Selve's work, a history of Haitian literature, was published in 1875, he does not clearly indicate his source for Caonabo's war song. Thus, Fouchard is inclined to think that the French author made some major changes to the text. Is it possible that Caonabo's song was based on the song for Enrique that was written in the court of Henri Christophe? It is difficult to say, but Edgar de la Selve or whoever wrote Caonabo's song was evidently familiar with the several important words and concepts to the Taino and Kalinago languages and cultures. Caonabo's song references several Kalinago spirits, words, and even claims he was from the island of Ayay, in the Lesser Antilles. Oviedo also believed Caonabo was a "Carib" but if this song is authentic, then Caonabo was probably from the Lesser Antilles instead of the Bahamas. However, was Caonabo's song, which spoke of using European skulls as drinking dishes just a riff on the song of Enrique pledging to use the skin of Europeans for hammocks? It is difficult to say, but the more explicitly Kalinago words and allusions in the text lead us to think that it is perhaps less authentic. Although it is possible that, since other learned Haitians of the time sometimes saw the Taino as being very similar to the Lesser Antilles Indians, they merely copied names of spirits or words like karbet into a Taino context? 

Overall, we are inclined to believe that the Song of Enrique, though definitely "edited" and transmogrified over time and space, may represent an authentic tradition or song. It also features undeniable African influences in the refrain, and we lack anything like a Spanish or Taino text to work with. Yet the song could have been based on a popular tradition that appealed to Haitians who celebrated the maroon ideal represented by Enrique and the Africans in Bahoruco. And free people of color, especially people from the Spanish-speaking part of the island, may have found a common hero who they already possessed oral traditions for. Indeed, Christophe's court even included a Cibao native, Jose Campos Tavarez, a mulatto former slave who could have shared traditions of Enrique that were current in his region. In addition, we have the testimony of Marcelin's informant, an old man who claimed his grandfather knew the song in another language, presumably an Indian tongue. If the song was around before the rise of Christophe's kingdom, in some form at least, then it could potentially be a remnant of an areito. An areito, nonetheless, already creolized over the centuries and including African elements. And, as indicated by Nau, probably set to European-styled music by Henri Christophe's court.