Kumbaya

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Kumbaya , correctly spelled Kum ba yah , is the title of a well-known spiritual . It was first recorded in 1926 on a wax cylinder now in the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress . The words "Kum ba yah" are of Creole origin and mean "Come here!" In Gullah , the language of African Americans in the coastal regions of North Carolina , South Carolina , Georgia and Florida . The song was originally a simple appeal to God to come and help.

The singer on the wax cylinder was named H. Wylie, the song was recorded near Darien, Georgia by Robert Winslow Gordon, founder of the Archives of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress in 1928. Gordon recorded three other versions of this song between 1926 and 1928, one of which is about Daniel in the Lions Den.

A 1926 manuscript of this song with the title "Oh, Lord, Won't You Come By Here" has also been preserved from Alliance (North Carolina). This song was given as part of a school project by the student Minnie Lee to her then teacher Julian Parks Boyd, who later became a well-known historian and whose collected folk songs are also in the Archive of American Folk Song in the Library of Congress.

The assertion of the New York clergyman Marvin V. Frey (1918–1992) that he wrote the song in the 1930s is incorrect. However, it was through him that it found its way into church music and through this into American folk music. It was sung by Pete Seeger in 1958 and recorded with the briefly reunited The Weavers in 1959. It was followed by The Seekers and later Joan Baez . The song became one of the anthems of the civil rights movement and is still associated with it in the United States to this day.

In the 1990s, the "Kumbaya Festival" was held annually in Canada , a music festival that raised money for Canadian groups involved in the field of HIV and AIDS . In 2001 the song was recorded in a recording by Michael Mittermeier vs. Guano Babes (= Guano Apes ) under the title Kumba yo! also released as a music video . In December 2006 Mickie Krause reissued it as a hit.

Today the song is also popular in religious and non-religious circles, such as around campfires.

The title of the song is often used sarcastically in English-speaking countries, either to mock spirituality and interpersonal relationships or to criticize their superficiality.

Cover versions

Web links

The meaning and origin of the song are discussed on the following pages. All pages in English.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Stephen Winick: The World's First “Kumbaya” Moment: New Evidence about an Old Song. In: Folklife Center News. American Folklive Center - Library of Congress, 2010, accessed March 24, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Eric Zorn (August 31, 2006). Someone's dissin ', lord, kumbaya. Change of Subject. A Chicago Tribune Web log.
  3. ↑ Pete Seeger. Folk memorial or Stalin's songbird? ( Memento of the original from January 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Wasser-Pravda, January 28, 2014, updated version of an article first published in 2009 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / wasser-prawda.de
  4. ↑ Jeffrey Weiss: 'Kumbaya': How did a sweet simple song become a mocking metaphor? . The Dallas Morning News . November 12, 2006. Archived from the original on March 24, 2016. Retrieved on September 9, 2016.
  5. ↑ facebook.com/kumbayaserie