Monday, August 31

Shosholoza




Shosholoza is a song the soon to be formed Open Door Singers Diamond Valley choir is currently learning. It has its origins as an Ndebele folk song from Zimbabwe and has become so popular in South African culture that it has been adopted as South Africa's second national anthem.
The lyrics came from the heartache of working in the mines for encouragement as a sign of solidarity. The hidden meaning was to support the struggle against oppression and possibly represents a cry for the beloved country in the hills far away.  
The are many different lyrics but here is a sample with an approximate translation:
         Go forward

Go forward

from those mountains

on this train from South Africa

Go forward

Go forward

You are running away

You are running away

From those mountains

On this train from South Africa

2 comments:

susan said...

Oh, that was very nice, Lindsay. I liked it when everyone began moving to the rhythm of the song, but I never did get to see who was ululating. Are you going to have that part when your choir performs it? If so, I really hope you'll post the performance to youtube. :)

Lindsay Byrnes said...

thanks Susan -we all move in unison with the men (much smaller in number) facing the women.
Best wishes