African choir songs represent a vibrant and diverse musical tradition with deep roots in the continent's cultural and social life. These songs have evolved over centuries, blending traditional African musical elements with influences from other cultures, particularly Western hymnody. This article explores the history, characteristics, and global impact of African choir songs, highlighting their significance in various contexts, from religious ceremonies to freedom struggles.
Sharpeville Massacre, March 21, 1960
Origins and Evolution
The musical roots of African choir songs can be traced back to the long history of trade, commerce, and European missions in South Africa. Beginning with the Dutch in the middle of the seventeenth century, these interactions led to a synthesis of traditional African music and Western hymnody. The earliest form of African American religious music, the spiritual, also called Negro spiritual, comprises two forms-folk and concert. The folk spiritual is a form of improvised music, spontaneously created by individuals and groups. The concert spiritual, also known as arranged spirituals, evolved in schools created to educate the enslaved after emancipation.
The spiritual draws from African music and European psalms and hymns, and from African-derived secular sources, including work songs, field calls and protest songs. It was sung in both religious and secular settings, including as the enslaved worked the plantation fields. As Christians, the majority of enslaved and free Blacks did not relinquish their African religious beliefs nor cultural traditions. They resisted European cultural conformity by transforming Christian worship services into an African-styled ritual, evolving the Protestant repertoire into an African American tradition, and reinterpreting Biblical teaching through an African world view and their experiences as slaves.
The conversion of the enslaved masses to Christianity in the early 19th century facilitated the development of the Negro spiritual as a distinct form of American religious music. Worshiping independently of whites in worship services led by Black preachers, the enslaved and freed Blacks spontaneously created songs using the African call-response and repetitive chorus structures. They also reinterpreted the European psalms and hymns in ways that had meaning to them as Africans in America. They, for example, improvised on the melodies, changed the rhythms, sped up the tempo, added repeated refrains and choruses, and replaced texts with new ones that often combined English and African words and phrases. The final product was an improvised African-styled song.
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Unlike much of European religious music, the folk spirituals often were spirited, and they accompanied religious dancing (later known as “the shout”). These early folk spirituals melded the Christian belief system with native African culture and from it created something uniquely African American, and by extension, American. Initially passed down orally, spirituals of the enslaved have been central in the lives of African Americans for over three centuries, serving religious, cultural, social, political, and historical functions. By engaging in the singing of spirituals, the participant experienced a form of freedom. The folk spiritual later evolved into Concert Spirituals, Rural Gospel, Spiritual as Art Song, and Freedom Songs.
Key Characteristics of African Choir Songs
African choir songs are characterized by several distinct features that reflect the continent's rich musical heritage:
- Call-and-Response: This is a fundamental element in African music, where a leader sings or plays a phrase, and the rest of the group responds with a similar phrase.
- Polyrhythms: Multiple, interlocking rhythms are played simultaneously, creating a layered and dynamic sound.
- Vocables: Non-lexical syllables or sounds are used to provide a rhythmic or melodic foundation.
- Heterophony: Multiple performers play the same melody but with slight variations, creating a rich and complex texture.
- Ostinato: A repeating musical phrase or pattern is used to create a sense of continuity and structure.
These characteristics are evident in various forms of African choir music, including freedom songs, spirituals, and gospel music.
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African Freedom Songs
The process of protest, struggle, and solidarity for black South Africans reached its zenith from the 1960s through the 1990s. Later, the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa captured the world’s attention during the 1980s. The freedom songs give voice to protest, struggle, and solidarity. South African freedom songs have become global songs for those who struggle for freedom.
Anders Nyberg (b. 1955) disseminated the freedom songs of South Africa to the Western world in the mid-1980s largely under the sponsorship of the Church of Sweden Mission (Lutheran). Nyberg took his Swedish choir, Fjedur, to South Africa in the 1970s. The synergy between the choir from Sweden, one of the most choral cultures in the world, and choirs from South Africa, the most choral culture on that continent, provided the energy to propel these songs throughout the world. Members of Fjedur, in turn, learned songs from South African choirs. Nyberg’s transcriptions were sung throughout Sweden and disseminated broadly thorough publications in Europe and the United States. International meetings of the Lutheran World Federation and the World Council of Churches provided opportunities for people to hear and sing these songs. The publication of Nyberg’s collection Freedom Is Coming: Songs of Protest and Praise from South Africa (1984) captured the imagination of church choirs in the United States. As a result, several of the songs from this collection are now found in many hymnals and hymnal supplements.
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Usually translated as “We are marching in the light of God,” “Siyahamba” contains layers of meaning. “We” is a word of community-the community of those living and the community of the living dead. In African traditional society, those who have died are still with us, and their witness may influence the actions of the living. “Marching” is an action that unifies the community, as they move physically and spiritually in the same direction. It is a bodily, kinesthetic response to the leading of the Spirit rather than a passive acquiescence. “The Light of God” has meaning on several levels. While it is a symbol of creation and of Jesus Christ, the light of the world, it is also a common refrain in songs of healing or ngoma throughout Southern and Central Africa. According to Christian anthropologist John Janzen, “Let darkness be replaced with light” is coded language for “seeing clearly” (Janzen, 1992, 111-118). God is the source of clear sight in the midst of the struggle, the source of discernment and truth. As we march, we can see our way ahead. Our path is clear. When this message is amplified with engaging music, the words become embodied in the lives of the community that sing and dance it. The song accommodates and even facilitates a growing, evolving community of believers. “We are marching,” knowing that the living dead are singing with us, giving us courage and hope.
In addition to “Siyahamba,” the songs “Freedom Is Coming” (The Faith We Sing, 2192) and “Thuma Mina” (“Send Me, Lord”) (The UM Hymnal, 497) are some of the more popular songs known by congregations.
In 1991, I led a group of musicians to Haiti for a music camp. Because of the association with Voodoo, Haitian Christians rarely sing in churches. Working with Haitian missionaries, I taught Creole translations of several South African songs to congregations and those attending the music camp. In 1999, while teaching in Matanzas, Cuba, I had the opportunity to teach several South African freedom songs to congregations in the original language and Spanish. In 2004, I interviewed several members of Nyberg’s Fjedur choir in Uppsala, Sweden. They described their trips to South Africa as transformative. Many in the choir returned to teach South African songs in churches throughout Sweden. In 2004, I was teaching in Taiwan. I encountered a Presbyterian youth choir among the Paiwan people in the south of the country. They wanted to sing for me. The first song was “Freedom Is Coming,” sung in Mandarin. In the context of this country, the freedom was from the oppressive regime of Chaing Kai-shek, whose Chinese National Party (KMT) limited the liberties of the Taiwanese people until they were able to hold their first free elections in 1996. While studying in South Africa in 2008, I participated in a Black Methodist service where freedom songs were sung alongside translations of Western hymns, South African adaptations of Anglican chant, and songs with more traditional musical roots.
Gospel Music and Spirituals
One of the most exhilarating, expressive and inspiring forms of African American music-beloved by people of all religious persuasions despite its exclusive lyrical adherence to the tenets of Christian belief and storytelling-is gospel, whose predecessor is the spiritual.
Mixing native African words and African American dialect, songs might touch on biblical themes, the daily experiences of the enslaved, the desire for freedom and deliverance, protest, suffering and other topics. Biblical stories from the Old Testament and the book of Revelations from the New Testament, for example, provide thematic material for the majority of folk spirituals. In their songs, the enslaved recreated stories about the oppressed Hebrew people, the cruel Egyptians, the Red Sea, and the land of Canaan to reflect their oppression, their treatment by whites, and their desire for freedom respectively. The stories about Daniel, Jacob, Moses, Gabriel, Jesus, Jonah, Paul and Silas, Mary and Martha, among others gave the enslaved courage, strength, and determination to endure worldly hardship with the promise of a better life in Heaven.
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South African Choral Traditions
Choral singing is a major component of South African identity and one of its biggest cultural exports. Two genres of music are linked to choral singing: Isicathamiya and Mbube. The singing in these genres is usually performed acapella (unaccompanied).
Choral singing is seen as a method of community building, reinforcing the concept of “Ubuntu” and specifically “Umuntu, Ngumuntu Ngabantu”, meaning “a person is a person because of other people”. The music is considered a means to create social harmony, form identity, cohesion and order.
Isicathamiya seems to have been popularised in the late 1800s and is purported to have been influenced by travelling minstrel groups from the USA, blended with indigenous local music traditions. The groups were usually dominated by male singers and consisted of between 4-20 men. Many migrant workers leaving their rural homes in search of employment in the urban centres lived in hostels and formed singing groups, with ensembles from the various hostels competing against each other on weekends. These singing traditions were most popular in KwaZulu-Natal and were headed up by the country’s most dominant tribe, the Zulu Nation.
The acapella singing genres have evolved over the years and today include female vocalists and even instrumentation. Local artists have been featured on international albums and performed to global audiences to critical and commercial acclaim.
Prominent South African Choirs
Several South African choirs have gained international recognition, showcasing the country's rich choral traditions:
- The Evening Birds: Started in the 1930s, this band was discovered by Gallo’s African music talent scout, Griffith Motsieloa. In 1939 whilst at a recording session for Gallo, Solomon improvised a melody that became “Mbube”. The song was an immediate success and by 1949 had shipped over 100,000 units in South Africa.
- Ladysmith Black Mambazo: Started in 1964 by Joseph Shabalala, this vocal ensemble gained international acclaim after collaborating with Paul Simon on the "Graceland" album. They have won multiple Grammy Awards and collaborated with numerous global artists.
- Soweto Gospel Choir: Formed in 2002, this choir features men and women from churches in the Soweto area. They have won three Grammy Awards and performed with artists such as Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, and U2.
- Ndlovu Youth Choir: Started in 2009 by The Ndlovu Care Group, this choir provides opportunities for children from underprivileged settings. They gained popularity after appearing on America's Got Talent.
- Mzanzi Youth Choir: A South African ensemble that performed on the 18th Season of America’s Got Talent. The performance was a tribute to a former contestant, Nightbirde, who passed away before she could fully partake in the competition.
| Choir | Year Formed | Notable Achievements |
|---|---|---|
| The Evening Birds | 1930s | Popularized the "Mbube" genre |
| Ladysmith Black Mambazo | 1964 | Multiple Grammy Awards, collaboration with Paul Simon |
| Soweto Gospel Choir | 2002 | Three Grammy Awards, performances with international artists |
| Ndlovu Youth Choir | 2009 | Gained popularity on America's Got Talent |
| Mzanzi Youth Choir | N/A | Performed on America's Got Talent |
Graceland Album Cover
