In a previous post we introduced Francilia, a young woman who sang 96 songs for Alan and Elizabeth Lomax in 1937, during their fieldwork in Haiti. The newly married Lomaxes employed Francilia, ostensibly as a domestic servant, but really, as Alan wrote, “because she was a delightful singer.”
Francilia’s employment within the household allowed Alan to learn about Haitian culture simply by observing her daily activities. For example, at one point in his notebook he wrote:
“Francilia bumped into the key in the door as she passed. She then turned and bit the key, as she explained to return the injury because a key can give you a mavuaise maladie de poitrine, such a bad cough so that no one will visit you.”
More importantly for the recordings, Francilia seems to have developed an easy and friendly rapport with the Lomaxes, and the relaxed atmosphere and domestic situation allowed for recordings in an environment conducive to both good singing and good recordings.
As I mentioned in the previoius post, we aren’t sure of Francilia’s last name. There is one entry in the Lomaxes’ notebook seeming to refer to “Francillia Pierre,” and Francilia did sometimes sing with Antonio and Baptiste Pierre, suggesting the possibility that they were related. But until we know for sure, it’s less ambiguous to refer to her by her first name.
Francilia sang a wide variety of songs, including lullabies and love songs, children’s ditties and songs about current events. She was known in the local community as a rèn chante (queen of song), a title given to women who were song leaders for Vodou worship ceremonies. She fulfilled this role for the Sosyete Dereyal, a local Vodou worship group, and you can hear some recordings with them in our previous post on Francilia. In this post, we’ll present a few more songs, and discuss Francilia’s influence today.
AFS 1230 A3: “Dodo Dodo, Krab Nans Kalalou”
This recording preserves Francilia’s version of the most common and beloved Haitian lullabies. “Dodo” is French baby talk for “dors” (“go to sleep”), similar to English “go bye-bye.” This usage was adopted for addressing children in most French-based creole languages.
Lyrics
Dodo Dodo, Krab Nans Kalalou
Dodo dodo
Manman ou pa la
Manman ou ale nan mache
Papa ou ale peche krab
Dodo dodo
Dodo dodo
Krab nan kalalou
Dodo mafi
Manman ou pa la
Papa ou ale peche krab
Manman ou ale nan mache
Dodo dodo
Dodo mafi
Krab nan kalalou
Dodo bebe
Krab nan kalalou
Dodo tifi
Krab nan kalalou
Bravo pou ti bebe ya!
Bravo pou bebe!
Translation
Sleep, Sleep, Crab in Okra Stew
Sleep sleep
Your mother is not home
Your mother went to the market
Your father went to fish for crab
Sleep sleep
Sleep sleep
Crab in okra stew
Sleep my daughter
Crab in okra stew
Sleep baby
Crab in okra stew
Sleep little girl
Crab in okra stew
Bravo for the little baby!
Bravo for baby!
AFS 1232 A2 “Kite l ale tribinal”
This song, whose title translates to “Let Her Go to Court,” seems to be about a case of domestic violence. It’s unclear whether it’s based on a real incident. Its structure is quite similar to that of English-language murder ballads in which the murder of a young woman is recounted from the point of view of her killer. In this case, however, she survives the attack and the narrator/ assailant asks her forgiveness.
Lyrics
Voye l ale
Voye I ale, tande
Kite y ale
Kite y qle
Kite l ale tribinal
Jodi mekredi ya
M kale l nan gou-m tande
Kite l ale
Kite l ale
Kite I ale tribinal
Jodi mekredi ya
M kale w nan gou m tande
Anba Bodme m desann,
Makak manke touye I
Anba Bodme m desann,
Makak manke touye l
Angeliz mache
M mande w padon, tande
Kite male
Kite male
Kite m al tribinal
Kite y ale
Kite y ale
Kite y ale tribinal
Jodi mekredi m kale I nan gou-m tande
Anba Bodme m desann
Makak manke touye l
Anba Bodme m desann
Makak manke touye l
Angeliz mache
M mande w padon tande!
Translation
Let her go
Listen, let her go
Let them go
Let them go
Let her go to court
Today, on this Wednesday
Listen, I may get her involved in this battle
Let her go
Let her go
Today, this Wednesday
Listen, I beat you up as I wished
I went to the waterfront
She was clubbed near death
I went to the waterfront
She was clubbed near death
My dear Angelise
Listen, I am asking your pardon
Let me go
Let me go
Let me go to Court
Let them go
Let them go
Let them go to Court
Today, on this Wednesday
I went down to the waterfront
She was clubbed near death
I went down to the waterfront
She was clubbed near death
My dear Angelise
Listen, I am asking your pardon
AFS 1232 A3 “Nou tout se moun”
This song is inspired by a popular Haitian proverb, “tout moun se moun,” which appears as a line of the song. According to Gage Averill, the proverb, which means “everybody is a person,” and by extension “everyone should be treated as equal,” is an expression of the egalitarian ideal at the heart of the Haitian revolution. It also has analogs in other countries, including English proverbs like “a man’s a man” and “people are people,” which have also famously been incorporated into songs.
Lyrics
Medanm pran ka mwen
Katalye yo pran ka mwen
Medam yo pran ka mwen
Mesye pran ka mwen
Tout moun se moun o
Bondye nan syel banmwen rezon mwen
Ile ile ile e ile e ile
Ile ile ile ye eye
Translation
Ladies, take care of me
Drummers, take care of me
Ladies, take care of me
Gentlemen, take care of me
Oh! Everyone is a person
My reasoning comes straight from God in Heaven
Ile ile ile e ile e ile
Ile ile ile ye e ye
Francilia’s Influence in the 21st Century
For a long time, the Lomax Haiti recordings were among his most neglected collections. Twenty-five years ago, our own Matthew Barton, then working for the Lomax archive, was one of the first people to listen to them, and remarked:
“For over seventy years, these recordings have lain in obscurity. I doubt if even a single scholar has listened to them all. They are not the only field recordings to have languished for decades, but I wonder if any field trip of this scope and importance ever sat on the shelf for so long.”
To remedy this, the recordings were transfered to digital format in 2000, the audio was enhanced with the best available tools, and the recordings were prepared for repatriation to Haiti and for presentation in a box set (now out of print). They eventually went online in the Lomax Digital Archive from the Association for Cultural Equity. ACE took the lead on this work, but we at AFC were partners in it, and (most importantly) ethnomusicologist Gage Averill provided his wisdom and expertise to the project. You can learn much more about this important work by watching Gage Averill’s lecture at this link.
Through this work, Haitian musicians as well as listeners the world over have been able to hear the recordings, and it’s not surprising that Francilia’s songs have inspired some modern interpretations. In one example, the Haitian American singer Claudia Zanes listened to Francilia’s lullaby presented above and used it to inspire an arrangement of her mother’s somewhat different text of the same song, which she recorded with her Grammy-winning husband, Dan Zanes. You can find that version in the exhibit at this link–just follow the menu at the right to “Do Do Do.” Claudia and Dan have also recorded a video version of the song, which you can find here.
In perhaps our favorite example, Gage Averill worked with the Haitian band Lakou Mizik, who chose to interpret “Nou tout se moun.” They recorded an official video for the song, which they released under the title “Pran Ka Mwen.” It’s a beautiful short film put together by the band with the Cine Institute, the only film school in Haiti. You can find that version here.
We were very lucky to have Lakou Mizik perform the song in our 2020 Archive Challenge at Folk Alliance International in New Orleans. They were in town working on their groundbreaking project HaitiaNola, which explores the connections between Haitian and New Orleans culture by teaming the band with such guests as the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Leyla McCalla. They were kind enough to open the Archive Challenge with “Pran ka mwen,” their version of “Ne tout se moun.” Find that video in the player below!
Since then Lakou Mizik has revisited Francilia’s song several times. They’ve recorded an ambient house version with Joseph Ray which is also very moving. Find that take on the song here. Finally, they’ve put together an extended dance remix of the Joseph Ray collaboration, which you can hear here.
We don’t know exactly what’s next for the Francilia recordings or the rest of the Haiti materials, but things seem promising. As of this April, there’s a new record label called “Lomax Archive” which shares management with the old Harte Records, the label that released the Haiti Box Set years ago. Word is they’re working on a new, digital version of the set featuring updated notes. In the meantime, all the recordings themselves are available online from the Association for Cultural Equity. As with all our recordings, we hope the Francilia discs and all the other recordings in the Lomaxes’ Haiti collection have the chance to inspire new music and new interpretations. If you have ideas about how to use them, or if you just want to listen, you can find all the Francilia recordings at this link, while the entirety of the Haiti collection can be found at this link. Finally, you can find Alan Lomax’s notes and manuscripts from the Haiti trip at this link.
Note: For the transcriptions and translations, I relied heavily on Gage Averill’s booklet notes for these recordings contained in the out of print “Haiti Box” from Harte records, which featured many of these recordings. However, I did edit the transcriptions in some cases, and I lengthened them where they had been shortened for inclusion in the book. I am responsible for any errors introduced in that process.