Great stuff, Azizi. As usual. And there's been some impressive sensitivity on display from most on this thread.

In Oz, I recall Kumbaya being sung a lot but the contexts and overtones seemed (to me) to deal with group cohesion and unity of purpose. There was some connotation with American Civil Rights but I suspect only those rare individuals who'd spent time in the Carolinas would pick a Gullah connection and, while recognised as having lullaby atttributes I can't recall anyone identifying the song as such, specifically.

You don't hear it much these days, probably because it has become what Poms and Aussies would describe as "hackneyed". At a time when the scout movement was a major location for informal group singing, the 1st Hackney Scout Troop put out a hardbound songbook; I still have my father's copy from the early 1930s. It had the words of a lot of English "traditional" or "folk" songs (both sensu latu and sensu strictu); Tom Pierce is an example. When the folk revival got going in Oz (anywhere from the late 50s to late 60s depending on your definitions) there were a lot of English folk songs being sung, but very few dared to sing such things as Tom Pierce except as parody; the ridicule from those who thought themselves the 'masters of the genre' was intense. I suspect Kumbaya might, nowadays, frequently be given the same treatment in Oz, irrespective of contexts.

But, sung with serious intent, almost any hackneyed song still is capable of giving goose bumps. To the audience as well.

Cheers, Rowan