Description

CALL NUMBER – 0158
ALTERNATE TITLE –
COMPOSER – South African Folk Song
ARRANGER – Joseph Maselwa, Pete Seeger
LYRICS –
VOICING – 3-part mixed, SA/T/B
GENRE – Secular Mixed Chorus, World Music
LANGUAGE – Bantu, some use of vocables
SEASONS & OCCASIONS –
ERA – 20th Century
ACCOMPANIMENT – Percussion, rehearsal piano
PUBLISHER – World Music Press
PUBLISHER # – (07)
KEYWORDS – Folk song arrangement, rite of passage
NOTES – Preface states that Seeger learned this song from the book
“African Folk Songs”, edited Rev HCN Williams and Joseph Maselwa.
Only a non-literal translation of the word “somagwaza” is provided in
the score: “He who can carry his own spear no longer needs his mother”.
“Somagwaza” was traditionally sung by men only as part of their ceremonial initiation into adulthood.