Translation: Back To Africa

Original: Back to Africa 

By: Louise Bennett 

Back to Africa, Miss Mattie? 

Yuh no know what yuh dah seh? 

Yuh haffi come from somewhe fus 

Before yuh go back deh! 

Me know seh dat yuh great great great 

Granma was African, 

But Mattie, doan yuh great great great 

Granpa was Englishman? 

Den yuh great granmodder fader 

By yuh fader side was jew? 

An yuh granpa by yuh modder side 

Was Frenchie parlez-vous? 

But de balanca a yuh family, 

Yuh whole generation, 

Oonoo all bawn dung a Bung Grung - 

Oonoo all is Jamaican! 

Den is weh yuh gwine, Miss Mattie? 

'Ow yuh view de countenance, 

An between yuh an de Africans 

Is great resemblance! 

Ascorden to dat, 

all dem blue-yeye white American 

Who-for great granpa was Englishman 

Mus go back to Englan! 

What a debil of a dump-an-bore, 

Rig-jig an palam-pam 

Ef de whole worl start fi go back 

Whe dem great granpa come from! 

Ef a hard time yuh dah run from 

Teck yuh chance! But Mattie, do, 

Sure a weh yuh come from 

so yuh got somewhe fi come back to! 

Go a foreign, seek yuh fortune, 

But no tell nobody seh 

Yuh dah go fi seek yuh homelan, 

For a right deh so yuh deh! 

Translation: 

Back to Africa Ms. Mattie? 

you know not what you speak! 

you'd have to have been there first 

before returning from whence you seek. 

I know your great-great-

great-grandmother was African, 

but Mattie, wasn't your great-great-

great-grandfather an Englishman? 

your great-grandmother's father 

on your father's side, Jew? 

and the grandfather of your mother

a Frenchman too? 

The majority of your family, 

that entire generation 

was born in Jamaica... 

they are all Jamaican. 

So where are you going Ms. Mattie? 

Why is your reasoning such? 

Apart from the fact 

that you and the Africans resemble much! 

As a matter of fact, 

a blue-eyed white American 

whose great-grandfather was an Englishman, 

should go back to England? 

What chaos it would be, 

utter chaos I imagine, 

if the entire world decided 

to return to their great-grandfathers' origin. 

If you are trying to escape hard times, 

take your chance, go ahead. 

But Mattie, be sure where you started 

so you can return whence you fled. 

Travel, seek your fortune, 

but tell no one here 

that you are going to seek your homeland, 

because you are already there.