Evangelicals were not unique in their use of "Kumbaya" in the 1970s. Summer camps in general began singing it. Of all the songs I listed on my camp song questionnaire in 1976, [1] it was by far the best known. [2] Region, gender or camp philosophy did not matter, as they did with many other songs of the list. As the table at the bottom shows, at least 80% of the people who answered, indicated they had sung "Kumbaya" in camp.
When the song moved from informal gatherings to camp programs, the verse order had to be standardized. The 4-H agent at the Wyandot County day camp sometimes used stories when he introduced songs. In 1974, he told me:
"The thing I’ve been told, and we passed it on, sounds good, is that it was an old African song and that it was first developed during a storm - or earthquake - earthquake, I guess it was - what was passed on to me. I can’t say what it was really. That’s really what I think I heard first. That is, I think, it was an earthquake, the he . . . one person, was walking through a village and this is what he saw." [3]
He added, "you never know how many of those stories are true." He thought this one probably was.
I heard the same story when I visited Kitanniwa in 1974 from a counselor who had attended the United Church of Christ’s Temple Hills near Bellville in north central Ohio. Only this time, instead of a simple mnemonic, [4] it had theological overtones. She told me:
"First off, this song, the way I learned it, is supposed to be telling a story. Somebody coming into the life of Christ, or having Christ come into his life, whatever. And we learned kumbaya as the first verse, someone’s praying, someone’s singing, laughing, and so it’s supposed to be a jubilant type ending. It starts with the sad verses first and then goes on to praying as "Lord, please come to me," and then going into laughing and the singing." [5]
An Ohio State University undergraduate reported the same motif from Storer, the Toledo coed YMCA camp in 1970. She wrote, the song "told about a Christian who is crying, prays to the Lord, sings to the Lord’s glory, and then laughs with joy." [5]
I wondered if this transformation of "Kumbaya" into a ballad of redemption was occurring outside German-influenced northern Ohio. To elicit information, I asked respondents to my questionnaire if the knew the meaning of the song. At the time, I did not realize the significance of the those words to Protestants who had been told they must know what they were saying. Men seemed to feel this need more: almost 40% who knew the song said they knew its meaning, compared to almost 30% of the women.
Most either just said yes, indicated it meant "come by here," or that it came from Africa. A few mentioned the Carribean, native Americans, Brazil, or Korea. One person who mentioned it was African, said Skylark Ranch believed it was a mining song. Their verses were: laughing, working, singing, crying, and praying.
Only two described the salvation tale: one was the director of the Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Camp Fire camp, and the other was a counselor at the Long Beach, California, CFG camp. One Girl Scout heard it was about a child who was ill, whose mother cried, prayed the child would get well, then sang. She was then at Birdsall Edey located between Erie and Pittsburgh in western Pennsylvania.
The problem seemed to be the generic nature of the pronoun "someone." It evoked birthright church membership, or something even more general. One woman, who learned "Kumbaya" at a Congregational church Bible camp in central California around 1967, remembered "the word ‘someone’ made me think of warmly reaching out, feeling empathy. I had a sense that that was what church was supposed to be about." [7]
For Evangelicals, salvation was not universal. It came only to those who sought it. Someone had to be a specific convert. Etiological legends were needed to gloss the text. [8]
Notes on Performers
The Wyandot County 4-H Day Camp in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, was discussed in the post for 25 October 2017.
Kitanniwa was sponsored by the Battle Creek, Michigan, Camp Fire Girls. It was mentioned in the post for 29 November 2017.
Temple Hills was organized by the Ohio Conference, United Church of Christ. It had been established by the Evangelical and Reformed Church. Bellville was in Richland County in north central Ohio.
Storer was a co-ed camp sponsored by the Toledo, Ohio, YMCA located in Jackson County, Michigan. The student also had attended Girl Scout camps, but did not name them.
Skylark Ranch was sponsored by the Santa Clara Girl Scout Council of San Jose, California. The 20-year-old counselor also had gone to the Girl Scouts’ Hidden Falls.
Hiwela, the Oshkosh CFG camp, was run for years by the late Jo Weber.
Wintaka was operated by the Long Beach Area CFG council. The counselor also had gone to Saunga.
Birdsell Edey was run by the Penn Lakes Girl Scout Council of Meadville, Pennsylvania. The 18-year-old also had spent time at Judson, Hawthorne Ridge, Happy Acres, and Conshatwba. All were GS camps in Pennsylvania. In 1975 she had attended the Girl Scout National Center West in Wyoming.
The Congregational church held its Bible camp in Chico, California. The woman, who was a Presbyterian, went with a friend. She said "I believe I thought it was vaguely foreign, maybe African. I had some image of Christian missionaries in Africa, and I thought the word might have been African." [9]
Availability
I have found no reference to the legend in published sources. Also, I have not seen a songbook or heard a version that used the crying/praying/singing verse order. Would love to know if any of you heard the legend or know more about it.
Table
| Questionnaire Response | Male | Female |
| Yes | 5 | 12 |
| Come | 6 | |
| Africa | 5 | 18 |
| Other place | 3 | 5 |
| Other legend | 4 | |
| Total | 13 | 45 |
| Sample size | 33 | 153 |
| % sample | 0.394 | 0.294 |
Source: Camp Songs, Folk Songs. 649. The percentages were based on the number of responses to the questionnaire. Only female responses for coed camps were counted, because all the men were counted separately, regardless of the type of camp they attended. The girls’ camps included Girl Scouts and privately owned ones.
End Notes
1. The questionnaire was described in the post for 25 October 2017.
2. The only better known songs were ceremonial ones like the "Star Spangled Banner" and some graces like the "Doxology."
3. Camp Songs, Folk Songs. 64
4. A mnemonic is "a system such as a pattern of letters, ideas, or associations which assists in remembering something" according to the Oxford University Press’s Dictionaries website.
5. Camp Songs, Folk Songs. 64.
6. Peggy Hayes. "Summer Camp Folksongs, A Collection of 40." Ohio State University. English Department, Folklore Archives. 1973. She dated her version 7 June 1970.
7. Email to author. 12 April 2016.
8. Etiological myths "explain origins and causes," usually of the universe or a cultural group. Etiological legends provide the same kinds of explanations for events or objects that occurred after the original creation. (Alice Mills. "Etiological Myth." 301-302 in Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Edited by David A. Leeming, Kathryn Madden, and Stanton Marlan. New York: Springer US, 2010.)
9. Email to author. 12 April 2016.
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