What does 'kumbaya' in the
song "Kumbaya, my Lord" mean?
"Kumbaya,
my Lord" was first recorded by an out-of-work English professor, Robert
Winslow Gordon, in 1927. Gordon went on a search for black spirituals and
recorded a song "Come by Here, My Lord", sung by H. Wylie. The song
was sung in Gullah on the islands of South Carolina between Charleston and
Beaufort. Gullah is the creole language featured in the Uncle Remus series of
Joel Chandler Harris and the Walt Disney production of Song of the South.
"Come by here, my Lord" in Gullah is "Kum by (h)yuh, my
lawd" (see our Gullah
dictionary).
American missionaries
took the song to Angola after its publication in the 1930s, where its origins
were forgotten. In the late 1950s the song was rediscovered in Angola and
returned to North American where it swept the campfire circuit as a beautiful
and mysterious religious lyric. That is why the song is associated with Angola
in many current printed versions.
In
the US, however, the song was associated with Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and
other campers sitting around a campfire in perfect harmony. The picture of a
warm, cozy community without conflict associated itself with the song and
especially that foreign-sounding word in its title, kumbaya.
Since the word had no actual meaning in English, cynics eventually converted
this harmless connotation into the actual English definition of the word. That
definition now seems to be "naive, unrealistic optimism" to many of
us (not me).
Please click on each of the web-links below with your speakers on :-
Soweto Gospel Choir - Khumbaya (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
https://youtu.be/bYJMtn6IJeE
https://youtu.be/_6oN7Oz9o8g?list=PLXFBsO1-DialXkeFSII4TQTfTUuLapIeq
Lyrics
Kumbayah my Lord, kumbayah
Kumbayah my Lord, kumbayah
Kumbayah my Lord, kumbayah
Oh Lord, kumbayah
Someone's sleeping, my Lord, kumbaya
Someone's sleeping, my Lord, kumbaya
Someone's sleeping, my Lord, kumbaya
Oh Lord, kumbaya
Someone's dreaming, my Lord, kumbaya
Someone's dreaming, my Lord, kumbaya
Someone's dreaming, my Lord, kumbaya
Oh Lord, kumbayah
Someone's crying, my Lord, kumbaya
Someone's crying, my Lord, kumbaya
Someone's crying, my Lord, kumbaya
Oh Lord, kumbaya
Someone's laughing, my Lord, kumbaya
Someone's laughing, my Lord, kumbaya
Someone's laughing, my Lord, kumbaya
Oh Lord, kumbaya
Someone's singing, my Lord, kumbaya
Someone's singing, my Lord, kumbaya
Someone's singing, my Lord, kumbaya
Oh Lord, kumbaya
Come by here, my Lord, kumbaya
Come by here, my Lord, kumbaya
Come by here, my Lord, kumbaya
Oh Lord, kumbaya
Kumbayah my Lord, kumbayah
Kumbayah my Lord, kumbayah
Kumbayah my Lord, kumbayah
Oh Lord, kumbayah
