diff --git a/textproc/icu4c/Makefile b/textproc/icu4c/Makefile
index da25e90a65d..bfed7797c31 100644
--- a/textproc/icu4c/Makefile
+++ b/textproc/icu4c/Makefile
@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
-# $OpenBSD: Makefile,v 1.23 2012/06/22 09:51:22 landry Exp $
+# $OpenBSD: Makefile,v 1.24 2012/07/05 10:05:34 ajacoutot Exp $
 
 COMMENT=		International Components for Unicode
 
 VERSION=		49.1.2
 DISTNAME=		icu4c-${VERSION:S/./_/g}-src
 PKGNAME=		icu4c-${VERSION}
-REVISION =		0
+REVISION =		1
 SO_VERSION=		5.0
 .for _lib in icudata icui18n icuio icule iculx icutest icutu icuuc
 SHARED_LIBS+=		${_lib} ${SO_VERSION}
@@ -47,6 +47,13 @@ MAKE_FLAGS+=		SO_TARGET_VERSION=${SO_VERSION} \
 			SO_TARGET_VERSION_MAJOR=${SO_VERSION:R} \
 			PKGDATA_INVOKE_OPTS="SO_TARGET_VERSION=${SO_VERSION} SO_TARGET_VERSION_MAJOR=${SO_VERSION:R}"
 
+# XXX U_IS_BIG_ENDIAN is not propagated to the C/C++ files
+# http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.tex.texlive.build/1705
+.include <bsd.port.arch.mk>
+.if ${PROPERTIES:Mbe}
+CONFIGURE_ENV +=	CPPFLAGS="-DU_IS_BIG_ENDIAN"
+.endif
+
 post-install:
 # Bug #7506, #7567 and #7574, libicutest is not installed
 	${INSTALL_DATA} ${WRKBUILD}/tools/ctestfw/libicutest.a ${PREFIX}/lib/
diff --git a/textproc/icu4c/patches/patch-source_common_putilimp_h b/textproc/icu4c/patches/patch-source_common_putilimp_h
index a8fe07819ac..19cffe693a5 100644
--- a/textproc/icu4c/patches/patch-source_common_putilimp_h
+++ b/textproc/icu4c/patches/patch-source_common_putilimp_h
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-$OpenBSD: patch-source_common_putilimp_h,v 1.2 2012/07/04 09:03:16 landry Exp $
+$OpenBSD: patch-source_common_putilimp_h,v 1.3 2012/07/05 10:05:34 ajacoutot Exp $
+
 hppa doesnt have atomic builtins:
 __sync_val_compare_and_swap, __sync_add_and_fetch, __sync_sub_and_fetch
 don't assume having GNUC >= 401 implies they're here..