Quand nos Aïeux brisèrent leurs entraves
The song Quand nos Aïeux brisèrent leurs entraves ("When our ancestors shook off their chains") fulfilled the function of a Haitian national anthem from 1893 to 1903, although it was not officially designated as one. However, the song is still in use today as a Haitian presidential salute in the style of the US Hail to the Chief .
The text is from Oswald Durand. The melody and the use of the text as the national anthem was born out of necessity when a German warship docked on a visit to the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince in 1893 and the then non-existent Haitian national anthem had to be played for protocol reasons. The patriotic poem was set to music by Occide Jeanty one night and played as scheduled the next morning.
The song lost its function as a national anthem at the end of 1903, when the song La Dessalinienne was officially declared the national anthem on the centenary of Haitian independence on January 1, 1904 .
The “yellows” mentioned in the lyrics next to the blacks are the lighter-skinned mulattos , one of the population groups of Haiti.
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- http://justima.blogspot.com/2007/01/justimablogspot-open-university-haitis.html
- http://www.nationalanthems.info/ht-03.htm
- http://www.nationalanthems.us/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1098392106
- http://www.erdkunde-wissen.de/hymnen/nord Amerika/haiti.htm