1938-02: (ABOBO and BOBOBO — Comhaire-Sylvain Beginning with “ABOBO” the Expression of Agreement Affirmation and Invocation Heard During Vodou Dances and Cer…

1938-02: (ABOBO and BOBOBO — Comhaire-Sylvain Beginning with “ABOBO” the Expression of Agreement Affirmation and Invocation Heard During Vodou Dances and Ceremonies, Explaining That When Saying “ABOBO” Certain Individuals Tap Their Mouth with Two Fingers at the Same Time, Matching the Haitian “ABOBO” with the Dahomean Expression “BOBOBO” a Noise Made When Tapping an Open Mouth with Two Fingers — Drawing Linguistic Parallels Between Haiti and Dahomey and Engaging Readers in a Lesson About Haiti’s African Past Revealing the Continuity of Linguistic Technologies and Meanings Between the Cultures): After a brief introduction to the four-page spread, Comhaire-Sylvain begins with “ABOBO” — the expression of agreement, affirmation, and invocation heard during Vodou dances and ceremonies. She explains that when saying “ABOBO,” certain individuals tap their mouth with two fingers at the same time. She then matches the Haitian “ABOBO” with the Dahomean expression “BOBOBO,” a noise that one makes when tapping an open mouth with two fingers. Drawing linguistic parallels between Haiti and Dahomey, she engaged her readers in a lesson about Haiti’s African past, revealing the continuity of linguistic technologies and meanings between the cultures — the gesture of tapping two fingers on the mouth had survived the Middle Passage, survived slavery, survived the revolution, survived the occupation, and now it appeared in the pages of a feminist newspaper as evidence that Haiti’s African inheritance was not a mark of shame but a living archive.