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I stand today on my rickety little soap box to say a good word for Kum Ba Yah! Now, if there is anyone reading this piece who does not know about Kum Ba Yah, this your lucky day! I’m going to tell you about this little song that entered American culture sometime during my early childhood. Its origin is debatable. The most common theory is that it is a product of Africa. It sounds sort of Africanish. I first learned to sing it at summer camp. After a long busy day of hiking, swimming, baseball, and a supper of hot dogs and watermelon, we kids and our counselors would walk single-file down to the lakeshore and gather near the big bonfire. We would relive the activities of the day and we would hear a brief inspirational message from our leader. We would pray and sing some familiar songs—favorites of kids our age. And Kum Ba Yah was always a staple of our songfest. We would form a circle and hold hands. We would sway as we sang softly. By this time in the evening, dark had settled in around us. A cool, mountain breeze was at our backs. However, the fire warmed our fronts and lit our faces and the hotdogs and watermelon soothed our stomachs. We began to feel the weariness creep over us and the total experience made us feel mellow and at peace with the universe. We could look out and up over the lake and see almost to the end of space. The black sky was punctuated by the moon and stars that seemed almost within reach. Here’s what we sang: Kum Ba Yah, my Lord, Kum Ba Yah! Then we sang: Someone’s laughing, Lord, Kum Ba Yah!
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Then we would sing a stanza about someone crying. And we sang a stanza about someone praying. Sometimes we would sing a stanza or two about other things someone might be doing—like fighting or dying, etc. Finally, the last part that we sang translated the words: Come by here my Lord, come by here! That song came to play a significant role in the spiritual formation of millions of young Americans. Here’s why I am on my soapbox for Kum Ba Yah. In recent years some cynics have cited the song as a way of lampooning people and concepts that are idealistic and hopeful. I have particularly noticed it happening in some of the discourse in political campaigns. I heard one spokesman for a candidate twice say of the opponent, “Singing Kum Ba Yah just won’t do the job these days!” I thought to myself, “On the contrary, a little Come by here, my Lord may be exactly what we need these days!” A visitation of the Holy might shake things up in presidential politics, for example. Do you remember the story of Jesus cleansing the temple of the money changers? I wonder what he might do if he were to visit the campaign headquarters of all the candidates who are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to win our votes? The very thought of it sets me to singing, “Kum Ba Yah, my Lord, come by here! O, Lord, come by here!”
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| Copyright © 2008 Harold K. Bales Used by permission |
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