The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #79655 Message #1447671
Posted By: Joe Offer
31-Mar-05 - 05:05 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Bantu Original Words to 'Somagwaza'
Subject: ADD: Somagwaza (lyrics & tune)
Thanks for the reminder, Rich. In his Incompleat Folksinger, Pete Seeger says nothing about the verses. He says he adapted the song from a book called African Folk Songs, a 1947 book by Joseph Maselwa and Rev. H.C.N. Williams. the book was republished in the U.S. in 1960 as Choral Folksongs of the Bantu.
In the introduction to the song, Seeger says:
At the end of the Abakweta period of initiation, the boys wash off the ceremonial clay from their bodies. they leave their huts on the hillside, and run down to the river to wash, singing this song as they go. this song is usually interrupted by various types of "war cries" of the "question and answer" type."
Here is Seeger's interpretation of the lyrics. I have them marked parts 1, 2, and 3, and they are played in that order on the first MIDI. the second MIDI puts them together.
Somagwaza
So-ma gwa-za mna yo weh, yo weh So-ma gwa-za mna yo weh, yo weh So-ma gwa-za mna yo weh, yo weh So-ma gwa-za.
Hey mna yo weh, Hey mna yo weh, So-ma gwa-za Hey mna yo weh, Hey mna yo weh, So-ma gwa-za Hey mna yo weh, Hey mna yo weh, So-ma gwa-za