History
"Siyahamba" originated in South Africa. It is claimed to have been composed c. 1950 by Andries van Tonder, an elder of the Judith Church, but according to SAMRO, Southern African Music Rights Organisation, these claims are unsubstantiated. In SAMRO's records Siyahamba is in public domain.
In 1978, the Swedish choral group Fjedur toured South Africa at the invitation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of South Africa. It was during this tour that Fjedur's musical director, Anders Nyberg, heard and recorded "Siyahamba" at a girls' school in Appelsbosch, Natal. Subsequently this song has been used around the world by schools in their prayers.
In 1984, Nyberg arranged "Siyahamba" for a four-voice setting and published it in a songbook and recording called Freedom is Coming: Songs of Protest and Praise from South Africa. In 1994, GIA Publications included the song (under the title "We Are Marching in the Light of God") in Gather Comprehensive, a hymnal widely used in American Catholic parishes. A year later, the United Church of Christ included the song, under the same title, in The New Century Hymnal . The Unitarian Universalist Association included the song in its 2005 supplemental hymnbook, Singing the Journey.
Today, "Siyahamba" is often performed by children's groups in both sacred and secular environments. Occasionally, the translated lyrics are modified for a secular performance: for example, the English translation "We are marching in the light of God" becomes "We are standing in the light of peace."
Read more about this topic: Siyahamba
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