Iko Iko - Linguistic Origins

Linguistic Origins

Linguists and historians have proposed a variety of origins for the seemingly nonsensical chorus, suggesting that the words may come from a melange of cultures.

In George Washington Cable's 1889 novel Strange True Stories of Louisiana a New Orleans planter's daughter is on a riverboat trip. Upon seeing a gathering of "natives" on the riverbank she "replied to their signs and called with all of the force in her lungs every Indian word that ...she had learned: "Chacounam finnan! O Choctaw! Conno Poposso!" And the Indians clapped their hands, laughing with pleasure..."

According to linguist Geoffrey D. Kimball, the lyrics of the song are derived in part from Mobilian Jargon, an extinct Native American trade language consisting mostly of Choctaw and Chickasaw words and once used by Southeastern Indians, African Americans, and European settlers and their descendants in the Gulf Coast Region. In Mobilian Jargon, čokəma fehna (interpreted as "jockomo feeno") was a commonly used phrase, meaning "very good."

Louisiana creole lingua specialists believe now that the words originated as:

Ena! Ena!
Akout, Akout an deye
Chaque amoor fi nou wa na né
Chaque amoor fi na né

In English, this equates to:

Hey now! Hey now!
Listen, listen at the back
All the love made our king be born
All the love made it happen.

In a 2009 Offbeat article, however, the Ghanaian social linguist Dr. Evershed Amuzu said the chorus was "definitely West African," reflecting West African tonal patterns. The article also notes that the phrase ayeko—often doubled as ayeko, ayeko—is a popular chant meaning "well done, or congratulations" among the Akan and Ewe people in modern-day Togo, Ghana, and Benin. Both groups were heavily traded during the slave trade, often to Haiti, which served as a way station for Louisiana. (Ewes in particular are credited with bringing West African cultural influences like Voudou rites from West Africa to Haiti and on to New Orleans.)

Musicologist Ned Sublette has backed the idea that the chorus might have roots in Haitian slave culture, considering that the rhythms of Mardi Gras Indians are nearly indistinguishable from the Haitian Kata rhythm. Yaquimo, he has also noted, was a common name among Taino people, who inhabited Haiti in the early years of the slave trade. "Jakamo Fi Na Ye" is also, whether coincidentally or not, the phrase "The black cat is here" in Bambara, a West African Mandingo language.

In a 1991 lecture to the New Orleans Social Science History Association, Dr. Sybil Kein proposed the following translation from Yoruba and Creole:

Code language!
God is watching
Jacouman causes it; we will be emancipated
Jacouman urges it; we will wait.

The origin of the words being African would make the most sense because Voodoo practitioners would recognize the song as being about spirit possession. The practitioner (the horse) would wave a flag representing a certain god to literally flag down that god into himself or herself. Setting a flag on fire would likely be a way of cursing someone else, which would make sense in the context of the song. The song also mentions a man dressed in green who either has a change in personality or is in some way not what he seems to be. That would recognized in Voodoo as a person being possessed by a god who has a preference for green clothes and has love magic or fertility as among his or her tell-tale characteristics (probably a spirit from the peaceful Rada realm). The man in the song who is dressed in red, and who is being sent after someone to kill them (another references to curses), would likely be a person possessed by a god who has a preference for red clothing and who has revenge or some other destructive quality among his or her characteristics (probably a spirit from the vengeful Petwo realm). This is most likely why this song was played in the movie The Skeleton Key, whose plot revolves around the practice of Hoodoo (folk magic).