Kumbaya

Spirituals and Gospel Songs

Kumbaya (1) (Traditional)

From “A Song-book of Folk and Pop Music”

by Mario Papa & Giuliano Iantorno, Zanichelli Editore, Bologna, 1977

 

Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya,

Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya,

Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya,

Oh Lord, Kumbaya.

 

Someone's crying Lord, kumbaya,

Someone's crying Lord, kumbaya,

Someone's crying Lord, kumbaya,

Oh Lord, Kumbaya.

 

Someone's praying Lord, kumbaya,

Someone's praying Lord, kumbaya,

Someone's praying Lord, kumbaya,

Oh Lord, Kumbaya.

 

Someone's singing Lord, kumbaya,

Someone's singing Lord, kumbaya,

Someone's singing Lord, kumbaya,

Oh Lord, Kumbaya.

 

Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya,

Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya,

Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya,

Oh Lord, kumbaya.

 

Possible additional verse fior singing:

Someone's sleeping Lord, kumbaya, etc.

(1) Originally this gospel song was called ‘Come by here, Lord '. When it was intro¬duced into the West Indies, how¬ever, the natives changed it a little because of the way they spoke English, and the title came to be 'Kumbaya'. The language spoken in the West Indies is known as ' Cre¬ole '. It is a dialect based on English, different from 'Pidgin English'. While Pidgin is only a reduced language useful as a rneans of communication among people who have no language in common, Creole is a real language spoken by a whole community and learned from birth as the mother tongue.

 

West Indies

West Indies are a long chain of islands lying between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Once many of them were British colonies, but in the 1960s they became independent and only some remained individually associated with Great Britain The British government is responsible for their foreign affairs and defence, but the states are self-governing in all other matters. Most of the people in the West Indies are of Negro or mixed Negro ancestry. They work on farms and plantations, but several years ago a lot of them went to Britain to find a better job. This for a lot of them has not materialized, and they are stil poor. The West Indians are the minority group you notice most in Britain. There are about 600,000 of them but recently many have started to leave and go back to the West Indian Islands because they feel that Britain is not their home. Furthermore, the drastic economic crisis that has hit Britain, as well as several other European countries, has increased the number of unemployed, making it difficult for West Indians to find even the worst paid jobs.

It will be a very sad day for Britain when there are no more cheerful, joking West Indians to take their fares on the London buses.