Satta Massa Gonna

[James Adams]

What's the phrase mean :"satta massa gonna" ?

I've heard this on several DJ tracks (IRoy even has a song of this
title) so I'm curious as to how it fits in with reggae/rasta culture.

Hopefully someone can provide a translation from the patois, or better
yet, an explanation of what it's referring to.

Nuff Respect.........

[Shokkolat1]

SattaMassagana is not "patois", its an African language word, not sure which
language though. I think it has something to do with "praising God" but I
can't remember, because the insert to my Abyssinians CD of the same name got
ruined by water damage.
-Shok

[Ras]

Shokkolat1 wrote:

That is a great CD! "Satta Massagana" means 'Give Thanks.' Since the
Abyssinians have close ties to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church I would
assume the word comes from the Amharic language of Ethiopia.

RAS

[Humble Tafari]

Ras wrote:

Greetings in HIS name,

As far I know, the name Satta Massa gana, does mean giving thanks and
glory to our Messiah. This is what I was told. I believe it originated
from the Ethiopian Language of Amheric.

Give Glory
Humble Tafari.

[Messian Dread]

I have read an interview with the Abyssinians, ofcourse I haven't got
it anymore, neither do I know where is located on the internet.

Satta Massa Ganna Ahamlak Ulaghize
Give thanks and praise unto God continuously

But it turned out that Satta Massa Gana is not something you say to
God, but to other people. So they corrected it in later songs. This is
what I read in the interview

---------------------------------------------
May I wish you peace and love
Greetings from Messian Dread

download original reggae midi files at:

http://www.Geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/1328/index.html
(Several Download Sites)

---------------------------------------------

[AtoHakeem]

Yes, its Amharic but very ungrammatical. Here's what I wrote earlier:

A funny thing is the Jamaican Rasta phrase "Satta Amassagana"
that is supposed to be the Amharic for "Give praise"... And was spread thruout
Jamaica by the famous song of that name. The funny part is, it's very
ungrammatical Amharic. It seems as though someone with a English to Amharic
dictionary simply looked up the word "Give" and the word "Praise" without
bothering to inflect them.

The correct Amharic phrase for "give praise" is "Misgana sitthu"... or better
yet, "Amesginu"...

But in Semitic languages, the root form of the verb is always the one listed
in dictionaries as the third person singular past tense. If you look up 'give',
you will see "satta" with two dots over the a's and dots under the t's, to
indicate in phonetic script that the word for "He gave" is actually pronounced
"Setthe". And if you look up "praise" and don't know the difference between a
noun and a verb, you just might come up with the word for "He praised" which is
written in phonetic script "Amassagana" - with dots over all the a's except the
first one to show that it's really pronounced "Amessegene"...

So in other words, "Satta Amassagana" is a bad pronunciation of "Setthe
Amessegene" translating roughly as "He gave, he praised"... Add to that the
fact that some Rasta folk etymologists have made the word "Fe satta" meaning to
"sit and partake, reason" into a full-fledged Iyaric Word, and you've got quite
an interesting chain of links between the Ethiopian and Jamaican languages!

[Mike Pawka]

In article <3483f665...@news.euro.net>, mdr...@dds.nl (Messian Dread) writes:
>I have read an interview with the Abyssinians, ofcourse I haven't got
>it anymore, neither do I know where is located on the internet.
>

There is a great interview of Donald Manning by Michael Turner in
the 'interviews' directory of the archives.

--
_
___ ____ _ __ ___ | |__ Mike Pawka ez...@usa.net RAW #94
/ _ \|_ / | '_ \ / _ \ | '_ \ Nice Up Enterprises FAX: 619-226-6108
| __/ / / | | | | (_) || | | | Jammin Reggae Virtual Radio KSDM.COM
\___|/___| |_| |_|\___/ |_| |_| Jammin Reggae Archives Cybrarian niceup.com

[AtoHakeem]

>: But it turned out that Satta Massa Gana is not something you say to

>: God, but to other people. So they corrected it in later songs. This is
>: what I read in the interview
>

>I think I read the same thing. The formal version is "Y Mas Gan".
>
>

"Yimmesgen" is the subjunctive, 3rd person passive form of the root verb
' - M - S - G - N (to praise or thank)
So literally, "Yimmesgen" means "Mek HIM be praised."
A common phrase in Ethiopia is "'Igzee'abihier Yimmesgen" (Mek JAH be praised)
You hear this many times a day, when some one says "How are you" the answer is
often "Dehna, 'Igzee'abihier yimmesgen!" (Fine, thanks JAH!)

Ato Hakeem

" O JAH, teach I&I Love an Loyalty as it is in Zion"