=?x-unknown?q?29248=3A__jhudicourtbRe=3A_=28reply=29__29222=3A?==?x-unknown?q?=A0_Benson_=28reply=29=A0_RE=3A_29217=3A=A0_Frant?==?x-unknown?q?z_=28reply=29_RE=3A_29211=3A=A0_Benson_=28reply?==?x-unknown?q?=29_Re=3A_Dure=3A_=28ask=29_Hispagnola_=28fwd=29?==?x-unknown?q?_=28fwd=29_=28fwd=29?=

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JHUDICOURTB@aol.com

Benson wrote "Why Dessalines appropriated the indigenous name rather
than inventing a new name will probably never be known, although there is
speculation that his mother may have been a Taino. None of oldest maps I
have been able to see uses any variation of the native name."

I have heard that the Ayiti means MY LAND in the Fon language.   The choice
of that name would have to do with the fact that Africans found that the name
had meaning for them in addition to being one of the original names of the
land.