Moja Makani - Kumbaya

Topic: Movement - By Children
Participation in antebellum ring shouts was limited to the initiated or converted. William Francis Allen and his wife left Boston in early 1862 to work with slaves on plantations on Saint Helena island that had been abandoned by fleeing owners when Union forces took control of the area in November 1861. He later described the transition from initiation into an African society like Poro or Sandie [1] into Christian rites:

"One of the customs, often alluded to in the songs, is that of wandering through the woods and swamps, when under religious excitement, like the ancient bacchantes. To get religion is with them to ‘fin’ dat ting.’ Mosley described thus her sisters experience in searching for religion: ‘Couldn’t fin’ dat leetle ting—huntin’ for ’em all de time—las’ foun’ ’em.’ And one day, on our way to see a ‘shout,’ we asked Bristol whether he was going:—‘No, ma’am, wouldn’t let me in—hain’t foun’ dat ting yet—hain’t been on my knees in de swamp’." [2]

Only adults were given entrée but children watched shouts and were encouraged to imitate what they saw. [3] Allen’s cousin, Harriet Ware, wrote a relative after the 1865 New Year’s celebrations on the island:

"Then I let the children sing some of their own songs in genuine, shouting style, a sight too funny in the little things, but sad and disagreeable to me in the grown people, who make it a religious act. It is impossible to describe it--the children move round in a circle, backwards, or sideways, with their feet and arms keeping energetic time, and their whole bodies undergoing most extraordinary contortions, while they sing at the top of their voices the refrain to some song sung by an outsider. We laughed till we almost cried over the little bits of ones, but when the grown people wanted to ‘shout,’ I would not let them, and the occasion closed by their ‘drawing’ candy from C. as they passed out." [4]

Shouts persisted after the Civil War in altered forms, and so did the transmission of the culture to the young. An important 1930s gospel singer, Willie Mae Ford Smith, was born in Sharkey County, Mississippi, on the Yazoo River in 1904. Her maternal grandfather, Alfred Williams, was born in Africa, probably Angola. Her maternal grandmother was born a slave in South Carolina. Smith told Anthony Heilbut she and her siblings were left with Flora Williams when their mother went out to work:

"She used to amuse them by singing, clapping, and doing the "Rock Daniel," a South Carolina term for the holy dance." [5]

One would guess Williams had been initiated by women perpetuating some form of the Sande society. She was doing two things with her grandchildren: maintaining her association with the spirits and preparing them for adulthood within the nimbus of the ancestors. Smith said:

"She’d be in the spirit, and we’d just copy her, playing like. I didn’t shout till I was grown, when I had something to shout about." [6]

The African-American community in Nova Scotia had its roots in the American Revolution when the British army offered freedom to runaway slaves in New York and in the South. They were transported north to loyalist territory. The freedmen later were joined by slaves brought from the French and British Caribbean islands, more military recruits from the War of 1812, and those who made it north during the period of Abolitionist activity. [7] It became a melting pot of slave experiences in the New World.

In December 2015 a group exploring African and Caribbean cultures closed a concert with "Kumbaya." Moja Makani was joined by members of a Baptist youth choir that had performed earlier. As soon as the guitar began playing, the young men and women began stepping. Most shifted their weight from foot to foot, and, as they shifted, they rotated to bring the opposing shoulders and arms forward.

Near the wings at stage left (right to the camera), three young girls joined them with a woman who might have been their mother. The oldest girl apparently tried to keep the youngest from standing in front of her, but the little one would dart around to find space where she imitated the movements of the people in the lines. She only copied their feet: her steps were wider, and occasionally one leg crossed in front of the other. The older girl had the coordination to place her feet properly, but let her arms swing loosely.

As Ware did not understand, it was through such imitation that perfection was achieved and the culture she was trying to annihilate was perpetuated.

Performers
Vocal Soloist: none

Vocal Group: members of Moja Makani and Saint Thomas Baptist Youth Fellowship. [8]

Instrumental Accompaniment: Maureen Smith, keyboard; Dave Harrison, guitar; Craig Pothier, bass. Shirley Jackson played saxophone with the group, but I did not hear her play on this song.

Rhythm Accompaniment: Henry Bishop, Dave Skinner. They were hidden from the camera so I do not know what they were playing. Bishop could play both djembé and conga. Skinner could play cajón, [9] as well as drums.

Credits
"A spiritual song first recorded in the 1920s (‘Come By Here’) by Gullah descendants in the coastal plains and sea islands of Georgia and South Carolina." [10]

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: koom-BYE-yah
Verses: kumbaya, singing, laughing, crying

Vocabulary
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none

Version: open-ended
Verse Repetition Pattern: ABxxBA
Ending: repeated "Oh Lord, Kumbaya" three times
Unique Features: none

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: moderate

Basic Structure: group singing with instrumental introduction and interlude

Singing Style: one syllable to one note except for the final Lord; no ornamentation

Solo-Group Dynamics: a man sang the statement on the first line to signal the verse; the group joined and continued as a group.

Vocal-Instrumental Dynamics: guitar began, and it and the other instruments continued when the group started singing. After the initial kumbaya, and three verses, the drummer played a solo. He was joined by the other instruments. The soloist concluded that section by beginning a new verse.

Notes on Performance
Occasion: Freedom of the Drum concert, 24 February 2015; last number on program.

Location: Alderney Landing Theatre, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. A large map of Africa was projected onto the back screen.

Microphones: floor mikes in front of the musicians. None visible at the front of the stage.

Clothing: one woman was wearing a dress, and one female child wore leggings under her dress; everyone else in the vocal group was wearing slacks and tops. Some of the instrumentalists wore African-style garments, but were barely visible.

Notes on Movement
The video began after the leader apparently called people to join Moja Makani on stage. They formed two lines and individuals began moving as soon as the guitar began playing the introduction. When the instrumental interlude began they parted, much like the lines on Soul Train, so they audience could see the musicians. The camera was to the left and could only film the western-style musicians on the right. The drummers were on the left.

When the leader resumed singing, the singers seemed a little confused, but gradually returned to their lines. Some always had done more elaborate movements, and after the interlude many began moving their hands.

Notes on Performers
Moja Makani means "One Home" in Swahili. [11] They described themselves as a "world music band" that specialized in "African and Caribbean music, promoting cultural diversity through our mix of original compositions inspired by these cultures and in our arrangements of other music from these regions." [12] It appears to have been a consortium formed by several individual artists who came together for special projects. [13]

Dartmouth, where Mojo Makani was centered, was a independent community of the east side of Halifax Bay until it was annexed in 1996. Many of its early African Canadians came as slaves when their owners left the United States, either as loyalists immediately after the American Revolution, or when economic opportunities opened in the province. The African-Canadian community in Halifax grew in the twentieth century with immigrants from the Caribbean. [14]

Availability
YouTube: uploaded by Moja Makani on 3 December 2015.

End Notes
1. The men’s Poro and women’s Sande societies governed Mende-speaking settlements before the appearance of European slave traders. They evolved when Gola populations in modern-day Liberia were overtaken by militarized bands from the Mali Empire in the 1490s. Groups took the societies north into what is now Sierra Leone and they spread to other ethnic groups when the slave trade disrupted existing social structures. They thus became institutions created by societies confronting radical social change that were brought to this country where they served similar roles.

For more on the invasion of Gola, see John D. Fage. "Western Africa." In Encyclopædia Britannica. Last update, 29 March 2016.

For more on the effects of the slave trade on the Gola and their neighbors, see Warren d’Azevedo. "The Setting of Gola Society and Culture: Some Theoretical Implications of Variation in Time and Space." Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers, 1959.

For more on survivals of Poro and Sande in South Carolina, see Margaret Washington Creel. "A Peculiar People." New York: New York University Press, 1988. 18-19, 284-295. This included comparisons of Poro and Sande initiations with African-American baptisms.

2. William Francis Allen. "Introduction." The Slave Songs of the United States. Edited by Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison. New York: A. Simpson and Company, 1867. xii. This was the origin of the special use of "down" mentioned in the post for 21 August 2017. Seeking was discussed in more detail by Washington Creel, 285-287.

3. Washington Creel. 299.

4. Harriet Ware. Letter, 2 January 1865. In Letters from Port Royal Written at the Time of the Civil War. Edited by Elizabeth Ware Pearson. Boston: W. B. Clarke Company, 1906. C was probably her brother Charles Pickard Ware. She saw her role as helping people, who had been isolated on plantations, to adapt Christian white norms. Her attitudes were absorbed by people like Daniel Payne who was quoted in the post for 6 November 2017.

5. Anthony Heilbut. Liner notes. Mother Smith and Her Children. Spirit Feel SF 1010. 1989. Her grandparents apparently moved to the Mississippi Delta from South Carolina when undeveloped lands were opened to freedmen after the Civil War. Smith’s parents moved to Memphis, Tennessee, when she was an infant.

6. Willie Mae Ford Smith. Quoted by Heilbut.

7. Wikipedia. "Black Nova Scotians."

8. Unless otherwise noted, information in this section came from the credits given by Moja Makani at the end of the video.

9. "Ced, Marty and Dave." African Nova Scotian Music Association website.

10. YouTube notes.

11. "Rhythms of Life Musical Extravaganza at Alderney Landing." Downtown Dartmouth website. 11 October 2016.

12. Home tab. Michael Murphy website.

13. I could find no functioning website for Moja Makani. Websites for individual members did not mention the group.

14. Anna Demers. "Are most black people in Canada descended from runaway slaves?" Quora website. Updated 1 April 2015.