Chief Hyarima Mourns The Oppression Of His People [Play]

CHIEF HYARIMA MOURNS THE OPPRESSION OF HIS PEOPLE
By F.E.M. Hosein

Hyarima: -
Ye Mountains, Valleys, Hills and Dales of my
Own native land where I was born and bred
T’enjoy the freedom of a mighty Chief
As heretofore my ancestors have done,
What evil hap is this which brings us all
Thus low to serve as menials to a foreign
King who lives across the ocean wide
And does not come to see and know his people!
Was it ordained, decreed and even settled
That the children of thy woods and forests
Should be extirpated and their names
Forever blotted out and made extinct?
If so by whom or what! Repugnant thought!
Which heats my blood up to the boiling point
Where savage slaughter seems the only vent
For pent-up feelings long and hard repressed!
The freedom of this land in valleys, mountains
Hills and dales was given me by my father
And the tribe of which I’m chief and champion
And must I cringe and bow to strangers
Who have hither come from heaven knows where
With no more right than what a conquering sword
Confers? I would be false to birth and station
Did I not seek by force of arms or guile
To drive the haughty band of torturers
Back to the sea from whence they came unbidden.
This is my firm resolve, to do or die,
And may the spirit of my ancestors
Imbue me with the courage not to yield
Till I have overcome or died in the attempt.

Source: Hyarima and the saints: a miracle play and pageant of Santa Rosa by F.E.M. Hosein, 1931.
Find the entire play at Caribbean Amerindian Centrelink

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"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare