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Kum Ba Ya

While driving to the village, we were listening to a kids' praise and worship tape. The patronizing voice of the woman giving cliched Christianese introductions to the songs said, "This is an African song that means Come By Me." Thinking of a friend who hates this generalization, I turned to Becky and asked "Does it bother you when they say it's an African song?" I figured she might actually know which language or dialect it was.

She laughed and said, "Actually, it's pidgin English!"

As soon as she said that I heard it: Kum = come, Ba = by, Ya= here.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Karla Braun! You're a linguistics major and you hadn't figured out what Kum Ba Ya meant! Shame.
September 6, 2007 at 10:05 PM
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