"South African songs This page is for South African campfire songs - not just songs sung at campfires in South Africa, but songs which come from South Africa itself"
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Among the songs whose lyrics are given on that page are:
NKOSI SIKELEL' iAFRICA (God Bless Africa) This hymn is the national anthem of South Africa.
SHOSHOLOZA Shosholoza" means "Go forward" or "Make way for the next man". The word also sounds like the noise of a steam train. ("Stimela" is the Zulu word for a steam train).
SIYAHAMBA A song in Zulu or Xhosa meaning "We Are Walking in the Light of God"
SARIE MARAIS A traditional Afrikaans folk song, created during the Anglo-Boer war around 1900. The tune was taken from a song called "Ellie Rhee" from the American Civil War, and the words translated into Afrikaans. The translation begins "My Sarie Marais is so far from my heart, but I hope to see her again. She lived near the Mooi River before this war began..." and the chorus goes "O take me back to the old Transvaal where my Sarie lives, Down among the maize fields near the green thorn tree, there lives my Sarie Marais". The title is pronounced "May SAH-ree muh-REH"
DIE ALIBAMA This is a traditional Afrikaans song, especially popular among the Cape Malays in Cape Town. It is translated into English as "There comes the Alabama, the Alabama comes over the sea. Girl, girl, the reed bed is made, the reed bed is made for me to sleep on." There are two stories about its origin: one is that the song was composed about the US Confederate raiding ship Alabama which called in Cape Town during the American Civil War in 1863 after capturing the Federal ship Sea Bride in Table Bay, leading to a huge party on the beach where the captain, Admiral Semmes, handed out provisions seized during raids. Another theory is that there was a local boat called Alabama that brought thatching reads to Cape Town from St Helena Bay on the West Coast of South Africa.