Folk Songs from South Africa

Mary Yoder from our group and I went to a Village Harmony workshop with Patty Cuyler, who taught us this song. There is a bit of dance to it too (which is on the video link).

The words are here:

Ga gona ya tswanang le Jesu

Ga gona ya tswanang naye     

Ka nyaka nyaka gole gole

Ka dikuloga gole gole

Ka mo humana Jesu waka

Ga gona ya tswanang na ye

There are many versions of this on YouTube, including singers from South Africa, but I chose this link because it is the closest to what I learned, including the dance.

Nigerian Folk Songs

I learned Odunday from The Vanaver Caravan – Bill and Livia Vanaver at the Omega Institute when I attended a World Music and Dance workshop in June of 2009.  The words they gave me are slightly different from the ones sung by Baba Olatunji in the YouTube version below:

Lyrics in a word file:  ODUNDAY

I would love to get a fuller translation.  I was told it was a song of thanks for the harvest.