SUNDAY-SUNDAY MEDICINE: “KUMBAYA” BY SOWETO GOSPEL CHOIR

NOTE: First published on August 30, 2020. The “Published” date on the tab is the date that it was uploaded on this new site.

This is “No Bullshiting”, by Harry Agina.

Greetings, folks!

“Khumbaya”, or “Come by Here”; that’s the No Bullshitting song of today, the last Sunday in August, 2020.

Did you know; or, I should ask, have you realized that many of the aged most soulful worship and prayer songs that you hear were composed by oppressed peoples of the world, at their times of oppression?

Oh yes, indeed; it’s said that humanity, generally, remembers God mostly when we are in one heap of shit or another. For many of us, when things are all nice and rosey, God becomes secondary, or even non-existent to us. Yet, our ever loving and ever forgiving God accepts us each time we come back to Him after erring. You try that shit with Ogun or Agbala or Okija gods, or other smaller gods, and see pepper, meeeeeen!!!

But, hey, I ain’t here to sermonize on morality, or anything like that; no, sir/ma’am!!! Just talking about the phenomenon that past oppressed peoples of the world TENDED to make great soulful worship songs.

I am African, so, let’s talk about two African peoples who, during their days of oppression in the hands of peoples of Europe, composed so many great soulful songs–the South Africans during Apartheid, and the African-Americans in slavery and immediate post-slavery eras.

Oh yes, indeed; the African Americans sure had their own share of soulful songs in the slavery days; soulful songs for farming and hard labor in the fields, and soulful songs for worship in churches; as they besieged God to deliver them from their oppressors.

If you ask me, and even if nobody asks me, I’m still gonno say that Nigerians need lots of such soulful songs today, asking God to deliver us from our internal oppressors of today.

I went through all that, just to introduce the No Bullshitting Practical Christianity Sunday reflection song of today, titled, Khumbaya. It’s an African-American spiritual song “that was collected in the 1920s from the Gullah — or Geechee — people of the South Carolina and Georgia coast” (Jeff Place, Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage).

“Khumbaya” is pidgin English, a hybrid of an African dialect and English, composed by African slaves. It means “Come By Here.” The slaves composed the song, “Oh Lord, Khumbaya.” Oh Lord, Come By Here…and deliver us from our oppressors.

Samuel G. Freedman of Columbia University traced the POSSIBLE recording year of the song to 1926 when “a folklorist captured the voice of a Georgia man singing it, using a primitive wax-cylinder recording device.

“Khumbaya is actually a soulful cry for divine intervention on behalf of oppressed people.”

So, have yourself a great Sunday, as you reflect on all the oppression of the day in Nigeria, with “Khumbaya.” This is a rendition  of The Soweto Gospel Choir Of South Africa:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=zuchTB8CVD4

Sharehttps://www.facebook.com/NoBullshitting on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us