Foho Ramelau: The FRETILIN’s Anthem in Tetun Language
“Foho Ramelau,” FRETILIN’s anthem written by Borja da Costa, became an extremely popular song, as it was sung in Radio Maubere, political workshops, and demonstrations. The song was written in Tetun language, the lingua franca of the Maubere people. It is played with Timorese traditional tones composed by Abilio Araujo. Most probably, it was made soon after the formation of FRETILIN. Xanana Gusmao called this song as “our national anthem,” and recalled the year 1974 that Foho Ramelau “was comforting to hear.” The importance of this song in FRETILIN’s local campaign has been well-known among the foreign scholars, but the problems in the English translation and implications in the Tetun version has never been seriously questioned, perhaps, due to their lack of competence in Tetun language.
Firstly, “Foho Ramelau” is a Tetun name of a mountain which is the highest one in Timor Island located roughly 70km away from the capital city, Dili. Its name in Mambae language, “Tatamailau” means “Grandfather of all.” This mountain has been a destination of pilgrimage by the Timorese people, traditionally as a place of ancestral worship, and more recently as the location of Virgin Mary’s statue. In the following part, the lyrics of the song are going to be examined with some explanations about virtually untranslatable words in Tetun language.
“Eh, Foho Ramelau, Foho Ramelau eh!
Sabe as liu o tutun, sabe bein liu o lolon eh!”
Hey, Mt. Ramelau, Mt. Ramelau!
Do you know anything higher than your peak? Do you know anything greater than your body? (implying “No, no one knows.”)
Considering that Mt. Ramelau is conceptually “Grandfather of all,” the first part of the song refers to...
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...hamlets, eternal bondage, and taking care of Portuguese owned horses. They also re-discovered Tetun language as the common language of communication – it used to be the lingua franca of roughly eastern part of the island including some parts of West Timor. Finally, they came to share one phrase of utopia, “ukun rasik an” - though its meaning might have been understood in many ways. Thus, it is possible to argue that this song functioned as a medium for the Maubere people to discover “Maubere” and “timor oan” as a category in which they belonged. In other words, it indirectly contributed to the creation of an “imagined community” though it never encouraged the secular notion of “modern nation-state.” Now I think a new question became a legitimate one: Was what the foreign observers have called “East Timor’s struggle for Independence” really a “nationalist movement?”
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