Slang dictionary
kumbaya
or Kumbaya or Kumbayah
What does kumbaya mean?
Rooted in an American spiritual and folk song of the same name, kumbaya refers, often disparagingly, to moments of or efforts at harmony and unity.
Where does kumbaya come from?
The term kumbaya originates in an African-American spiritual song from the American South. The earliest record in the Library of Congress鈥檚 American Folklife Center (AFC) comes from lyrics collected in North Carolina in 1926 for a song called 鈥淥h Lord, Won鈥檛 You Come By Here.鈥� The spiritual pleads for divine intervention鈥攆or God to come by here and help a people in great need, referencing an area historically connected to the enslavement and oppression of African Americans. The word kumbaya is taken from the song鈥檚 refrain.
AFC folklorists and musicologists have identified other manuscripts and recordings in the 1920鈥�30s that document the song鈥檚 spread from the Southeast US and evolution into the form we now know as 鈥�Kumbaya.鈥� One prominent early version of 鈥淐ome By Here鈥� was adapted into Gullah (an English-based creole language spoken in coastal Georgia and South Carolina) which appears to have influenced the dialectical rendering of the song as 鈥�Kumbaya,鈥� contrary to claims that the song and word themselves originate in Gullah.
The song experienced newfound and mainstream popularity when artists like Pete Seeger and Joan Baez performed it during the American folk music revival in the 1950鈥�60s. According to Stephen Winick, a writer and editor at the AFC, an Oberlin College-based band 鈥渒nown as The Folksmiths toured summer camps in the summer of 1957, and they taught 鈥�Kumbaya鈥�…to thousands of American campers, helping to cement the song鈥檚 association with both children and campfires.鈥� That鈥檚 to the fact that it鈥檚 so easy to sing and play, 鈥�Kumbaya鈥� became a staple anthem of liberal activists in the 1960s.
In the late 1980鈥�90s, however, the concept of kumbaya started being met with cynicism. Thanks to its associations with childish sing-alongs, kumbaya started signaling naive idealism and a sort of precious, touchy-feely, hand-holding spirit of rosy-eyed unity. The derisive term especially took off in political rhetoric. As then-Congressman Rick Santorum mocked a national proposal to pay students for service in 1994: 鈥淪omeone’s going to pick up trash in a park and sing ‘Kumbaya‘ around a campfire, and you’re going to give them 90 percent of the benefits of the GI Bill!鈥� In 2015, as another example, President Barack Obama remarked of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process: 鈥淪o this can’t be reduced to a matter of, somehow, let’s all hold hands and sing 鈥�Kumbaya.鈥欌赌�
Examples of kumbaya
Who uses kumbaya?
As Obama鈥檚 comments illustrate, kumbaya is often used in political discourse to dismiss efforts at consensus or agreement on complex, dug-in issues as too simplistic, unrealistic, or optimistic, i.e., joining together in song and hand might sound pleasant, but it doesn鈥檛 make thorny problems go away. It often appears in negative expressions like 鈥渨e can鈥檛 just sit around and sing Kumbaya鈥� or 鈥渘obody鈥檚 holding hands and singing Kumbaya.鈥� A kumbaya moment, however, can indicate a rare, positive moment of bipartisanship in politics.
Kumbaya often acts as a sarcastic modifier; something overly kumbaya is too hippy-dippy, sentimental, weak, or out of touch with the gritty challenges of the 鈥渞eal world.鈥� Kumbaya also enjoys some usage as a verb, e.g., 鈥渢o kumbaya one鈥檚 way through a tough situation.鈥� The song 鈥�Kumbaya鈥� also appears in popular culture as a summer camp trope and as a mockery of naive idealism.
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of kumbaya like most terms we define on 亚洲网紅露点, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of kumbaya that will help our users expand their word mastery.