Papers

Patricia Averill has written several papers on "Kumbaya" and "Come by Here." Below are the abstracts and information on availability.

"Kumbaya" and Dramatizations of an Etiological Legend
  With John Blocher Jr

"Kumbaya" evolved from the African-American spiritual, "Come by Here." A transcription by John Blocher Jr published in 1955 became the standard version.  It was widely believed to have been brought from Africa by a missionary. This article traces the origins of the most common origination legends, then looks at those that influenced behavior. It concludes with comments on the persisting belief in an African genesis.

Voices 46 (1–2): 26–32 :Spring–Summer 2020.   Voices is published by New York Folklore, a New York not for profit arts and service organization incorporated in 1944.  Copies can be ordered by email from info@nyfolklore.org or be regular mail from New York Folklore.  129 Jay Street.  Schenectady, New York. 12305  It's $3.00 for a PDF of the article.

The final draft with complete footnotes, more photographs, and corrections is available at the Academia.edu website.

African Iconography of "Kumbaya"
"Kumbaya" developed from an African-American religious song, "Come by Here." However, many believed it came from Africa. Publishers used art work with images of Africa to attract attention. A watercolor in a music textbook illustrated a primitive African lifestyle for nine-year-old students. A woodcut on a sheet-music cover showed a Nigerian drummer. In a later edition, the watercolor was replaced with a wooden statue of an African-American man in prayer. The pieces of art combined bits of knowledge their creators had assimilated from many sources. Members of the targeted audience responded because each had a similar reservoir of folklore, book learning, and popular facts. This constituted part of the shared culture associated with "Kumbaya" that contributed to its persistence as a folk song.

Paper accepted for the Western States Folklore Society meeting, 17 April 2020, Willamette University, Salem, Oregon; meeting cancelled by concerns with Coronavirus. Copy available at Academia.edu.

Globalization, Drums and "Kumbaya"
Globalization is the current word for culture contact caused by trade. A Soweto version of "Kumbaya" has spread to six continents in the last ten years, partly on its own merit and partly because people wanted to sing an authentic version. "Kumbaya" first was published in the 1950s. Many who wondered what the word meant created legends that it had an African origin. Even though the popularity of the song has faded in this country, the legend has not. I am going to show examples of African drum use with "Kumbaya" from Illinois, South Africa, Sénégal, Italy, Brazil, and the Philippines to illustrate ways common ideas about Africa are expressed through adaptations of a song perpetuated outside the United States for its musical qualities.

Paper read at the Western States Folklore Society meeting, 21 April 2017, University of Oregon, Eugene. Copy available at Academia.edu.

"Kumbaya" in Three Camp Singing Traditions
At least three camp singing traditions existed in 1960. In the northeast, coed camps were singing American folk songs drawn from collections published by Alan Lomax. In the Midwest, girls’ camps and coed church camps were using songbooks published by Lynn Rohrbough that drew upon German immigrant, Protestant singing school traditions, and songs transcribed by Carl Sandburg. Along the west coast, girls’ camp repertoires were a local variant of the Midwestern one. "Kumbaya," which emerged as the most popular camp song in the late 1960s, drew upon all three traditions.

Paper read at the Western States Folklore Society meeting, 9 April 2016, University of California at Berkley.