You may recall earnestly singing “Kumbaya” around a campfire. But a caller observes that the title of this folk song has taken on a new, more negative meaning. Grant and Martha discuss the new connotations of “Kumbaya,” especially as used in politically conservative circles. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Kumbaya”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Julie from La Mesa.
What’s up?
What’s going on?
Well, not much. I’m hoping you guys can help me out.
My uncle asked me a question that I didn’t know the answer to, but I told him that I knew who I thought could help us out.
The question that he actually asked me was, he’s been hearing people use the word kumbaya on media recently, and we both know the song kumbaya, but he really wasn’t sure what people are meaning when they’re using kumbayana, what the colloquial meaning of it has come to be.
Julie, I suspect that the context in which your uncle is hearing this is probably in a sarcastic usage.
Do you think that’s the case?
That’s possible. The way that our society has developed, I would imagine that in the media.
Yes, because when you and I were growing up, it was this really earnest, sweet song that had African roots, and we would all sing it very earnestly, right?
-huh, exactly.
And over time, it’s come to be this sort of cliché, kind of saccharine song that a lot of conservative talk show hosts have picked up on that.
In fact, if you go to rightwingstuff.com, you’ll find that you can buy T-shirts that feature a cartoon of a drill sergeant.
And the drill sergeant is grabbing a long-haired peace protester by the neck and saying, kiss my kumbaya, hippie!
Not the happy song we used to sing at campfire.
No, no, and it’s kind of sad because, I mean, it’s a beautiful song that people can harmonize really beautifully on, but it’s really become a kind of caricature of itself.
Yeah, it’s definitely a term that’s used because you can just use that word and you evoke all these, accurate or not, stereotypes about the 60s and 70s is a wide-eyed, naive period of moon gazing.
Exactly.
And you’ll find it actually as early as the late 1970s, early 1980s, showing up in newspapers used in exactly the same way that it’s being used today.
Frankly, if you go to Google News right now and just look at the word kumbaya up, more than half of the mentions are exactly what we’re talking about.
They’re not about the song.
They’re about painting somebody as being overly idealistic, about being overly liberal or granola crunchy types.
Okay, okay.
Just completely innocent about the world.
Right.
Sort of naive.
Yeah.
Idealism.
There’s an element there of the people who are singing Kumbaya are singing to drown out the noises of the real world, as if they’re covering up the actual world’s problems.
Okay.
So, Julie, can we have a group hug before you go?
Oh, definitely, please.
Okay, here we go.
My question for you, Julie, is do you think that music and love can actually solve the world’s problems?
Wow, I think that it would need to be a pretty amazing musical number.
All right. Well, Kumbaya’s not doing it.
So maybe instead of rehabilitating Kumbaya, we should find a new one.
Let’s work on that one.
All right. Thanks for calling, Julie.
Thank you so much.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Anyway, if you’d like to reach your hands across the water and give us a call, the number’s 1-877-929-9673 or email us.
The address is words@waywordradio.org.
