Roots Archives Forum

Hey,

Who is "Ababa John I?"
Various reggae artists refer to him, like Don Carlos obviously, but also others like Buju Banton, Errol Anderson and Fantan Mojah.

So who is he?

ababa jan hoi, is our father
ababa jan hoi known as rastafari
over there in ethiopia,
everyone there is so aware,
of the orator and the, the creator yes well,
he is god and he is king.

words by dennis brown

hi survival. must get some more lyrics up for you soon.

i.k.

Hi ital k. Yeah you should

So it's just another name for Haile Selassie?

girmawi kedamawi ababa jan hoi, it probably is amharic. i really dont know. one of the rasta bredrin might shed some light on it. but it must represent H.I.M. if dennis brown sings those lyrics. sorry i dont have more info.

i.k.

As Ital Kay already mentioned: Dennis brown explaise it very clearly:
Ababa Jan hoi means our Father in Amharic. It can be spelled in varouis ways, because Amharic off course uses a different alphabeth. the official phonetic spelling is

Aabata chne

Hey guys, thanks to you both.

I just read on a site of an Ethiopian Church the "OUR FATHER" prayer, which goes like, in Amharic:
Abata Chin Hoy

And in another I read "Abbatachin hoy"

Kind of confusing to what is supposed to be the official spelling.. can anyone shed some light on this? An Amharic specialist

re: geuze lyrics of the church (i jah man)

hi survival. theres a few good links on the previous thread above. one or two of the members that posted on it might be able to help you.

ital.k

@ survival: read my first post. Amharic spelling, same like Arabic, Cyrrilic, Chinese, Hindi etc. is different from the Latin writing system, hence the European spelling of Amharic words is more a phonetic interpretation, than a fixed spelling. Compare: Beijing/Peking

Most of you should know about Ethiopian singer Isaac Haile Selassie and his special link with His Majesty.

Anyway, last track of his only album is called:

"Abatechion Hoye Chant" the singer being from Ethiopia makes me assume it is a pretty accurate way writing it in English

blessed !

Two different things you talk about here. "abatachen hoy" is not the same thing as "ababa janhoy".

abat(father)-achen(possessive pronoun: our) hoy (sign of respect in speech)
It means "our father" and as has been pointed out already is the beginning of the Lord's prayer in Amharic.

ababa also means father, but seems to be more a form of endearment like "dad"

janhoy means "your majesty" and was used when adressing the Emperor