Aza misy miteniteny (Don't Say Anything)
Tarika, Son Egal, 1997
(A.E.O.M.)
I was around 10 years old when this song suddenly got played a lot on the local radio for a short period of time. My dad, who really liked the jijy style of singing, got hold of a newspaper cutting where it was printed and sang it too. It was written by a group of students who went to live abroad after the student revolution against the government in 1972, commenting on the situation in Madagascar at that time.
Not long after, we stopped hearing the song, which was said to have been banned from broadcast because of its strong lyrics. Although everybody still remembered it, no one dared to sing it - it was almost taboo.
Then one day I was woken up in a friend's house, the morning after a late gig, by the entire old album made by the Association of Malagasy Students Abroad (AEOM), including Aza Misy Miteniteny. Ever since then I've wanted to make it available to the Malagasy public again. The individual writers may never be known, since they jointly copyrighted the song under the Association's name.
You'll have to judge for yourself how true the lyrics still are after all this time.
Hanitra and Noro
Don't say anything
An ox cart on a sunny day/Yesterday suffers, today moans/Pardon me, Mr Intellect/But I would like to talk about Madagascar.
An ox cart crawling slowly/It will always go without rushing/The Imperialists had problems/They are shaken and start to give up/They won't go away, they can't deal with it/They hid their prisoners/Changed their story to something else/Covered it with lies and tricks/They are still here but pretend to have left/One day they will be kicked out/They will chew the air.
An ox cart which carries its burden/At night and in daylight/The cats before have been kicked out/The people have pulled them down/The colonists have got angry/They think of robbing more/Money and wealth, rice and meat/Rats replaces those cats before/The cats before which have fled away/"We have got the independence"/"Revolution is done"/"The land is now ours, let's work on it"/But behind all that, it's "come on my friend"/To those who make all the profits/Imperialists used to get them all/Those unashamed robbers/You will see an angry people/You will chew the air.
An ox cart passing by/It will always go, you cannot stop it/There are too many colonists/France pretends to be the owner/Fights hard to hold on to its position/The Americans are like lions/They mess around with your internal affairs/Japanese are like leeches/South Africa is biting/Germans use their many hands to grab like a crab/Italy comes like a storm/All of them take advantage/Even the Israelis/Let them destroy a honey hive/One day, we will get them/They will chew the air.
An ox cart going to our village/It goes down and goes up again/France, which used to be our parents/Held the key of everything all that time/Big banks and all shops/All the big companies/Parbe, Socoa, Pesinay/Hundreds, not one/Happy to dig out for ever/The merchandise and the profit/France, France/It swallows too much like a big crocodile/It's also like a drunkard/Let it go on, it will chew chilli soon/It is mad and hasn't learned its lesson/We will meet up at the corner/And it will chew the air.
An ox cart which goes without permission/Wobbles about but does not fall/USA is said to be catcher/But it's only a fabricated, sloppy, cardboard-box tiger/They only take the good bits/Take it all and leave/All the petrol underground/It's just a toy to them/It just makes me sick/They don't stop but keep digging more/America, America/They pretend to Malagacise Imerintsiatosika/But they dwell in Diego Garcia/The result of that is only torture/One day we will hit them/They will chew the air.
An ox cart near the field/It keeps going East/Even Japanese come here/Whether it's fat or thin fish/They take them all in a boat and leave/They put them in this little tin/Sell them at a really expensive price everywhere/Japan, Japan/They take wood, meat, birds/Then they settle in Namorona/Disgusting fishermen/One day their catch will be a dragon/And they will chew the air.
An ox cart which goes up a hill/Today it falls, tomorrow it raises up/You cannot teach South Africa/Disgusting racism/South Africa, South Africa/They pretend to open up a link/But behind they keep on stealing/They take all the precious stones/They use Narindra as a base for theft/They who are so used to suppressing the truth/We will lassoo them/They will chew the air.
Gasikara's ox cart/The time of the young generation will come/Don't spend time on shopping/Don't waste time because it will be too late/Try to see what is good/In case history will swallow truths/Then you will just be embarrassed.
My conclusion of this speech/And where I am going to stop, like on a station/Don't forget unity/Unity will always win.
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