What does Kumbaya mean?

INTEREST in the spiritual song Kumbaya has rocketed after Kanye West misspelled the title in a racial slur against Trevor Noah.

The attack landed the rapper with a 24-hour suspension from the social media site Instagram.

What does Kumbaya mean?

Daily Show host Noah addressed how West treated his former wife, Kim Kardashian, leading the rapper to take aim at the comedian on his Instagram page.

West used the title of Kumbaya, misspelling it to turn it into a racial slur in a post on March 16, 2022.

Taking a screen shot of Noah’s online biography he wrote: “All in together now… K*** baya my lord K*** baya, K*** baya my lord K*** baya, Oooo lord K*** baya.”

The word kumbaya means “come by here”.

The African-American spiritual song is an appeal to God to come and help those in need and has connections to enslaved West Africans in southern America.

What are the lyrics to Kumbaya, My Lord?

The precise origins of the song have been lost over time but, according to the Library of Congress, it is likely to have originated among African Americans in south-eastern United States, and had a Gullah version early in its history even if it did not originate in that dialect.

The Gullah are African Americans who created a creole language, also known as Gullah, and are spread over the states of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

The two oldest versions of the song, where the date is known for certain, were collected in 1926.

As there is no precise date for the recordings it is not known which is the earlier version.

Both can be found in the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center.

However, authorship and longstanding copyright has been attributed to Reverend Marvin V. Frey who claimed he wrote the song in 1936 with the title Come By Here, saying he had been inspired after hearing a prayer delivered by "Mother Duffin", a storefront evangelist in Portland, Oregon.

In an interview with the Library Frey said the change of the title to "Kum Ba Yah" came about in 1946, when a missionary family named Cunningham returned from Africa where they had sung Frey's version.

The song gained a new-found popularity in the early-to-late sixties thanks to a recording of the song by Joan Baez in 1962 and it became associated with the Civil Rights Movement.

With the origins of the song now lost and the disputed claims made over the song there is not a definitive version of the song and various versions contain different lyrics but perhaps the most well-known version has:

Kumbaya my Lord, kumbaya
Kumbaya my Lord, kumbaya
Kumbaya my Lord, kumbaya
Oh Lord, kumbaya

Someone's singing Lord, kumbaya
Someone's singing Lord, kumbaya
Someone's singing Lord, kumbaya
Oh Lord, kumbayah

Someone's crying Lord, kumbaya
Someone's crying Lord, kumbaya
Someone's crying Lord, kumbaya
Oh Lord, kumbaya

Someone's praying Lord, kumbaya
Someone's praying Lord, kumbaya
Someone's praying Lord, kumbaya
Oh Lord, kumbaya

Oh Lord, kumbaya
Oh Lord, kumbaya
Oh Lord, kumbaya
Oh Lord, kumbaya