Kum ba yah, my lord, Kum ba yah! Kum ba yah, my lord, Kum ba yah! Kum ba yah, my lord, Kum ba yah. O Lord, Kum ba yah Someone's crying, Lord, Kum ba yah! Someone's crying, Lord, Kum ba yah! Someone's crying, Lord, Kum ba yah. O Lord, Kum ba yah Someone's singing, Lord, Kum ba yah! Someone's singing, Lord, Kum ba yah! Someone's singing, Lord, Kum ba yah. O Lord, Kum ba yah Someone's praying, Lord, Kum ba yah! Someone's praying, Lord, Kum ba yah! Someone's praying, Lord, Kum ba yah. O Lord, Kum ba yah |
The title, Kum Ba Yah, is African for "come by here", and the melody is also of African origin. The Gullah slaves wrapped this melody around a Christian hymn as they adopted the religion of their captors. But why, you may wonder, would slaves embrase Christianity (with some variations), when their Christian masters beat them senseless under the hot Georgia sun, so that they were lucky if they lived to be 35? I think the answer lies in another spiritual, Wade in the Water. "Soon I will be done with the trouble of the world … I'm going to live with God." Their lives were so horrible, they would dream about the next life, and accept any religion that promised peace and tranquility after death, and perhaps, reading between the lines, they might attain equality with their masters.