My African Theme Songs

I have found myself two unofficial theme songs. Both found their way to me through the children of Kayamandi, as they are constantly singing them. They are both popular, or at least known, in America right now, but that doesn’t matter.

The first one I heard was originally sung in Lynedoch, the town that my roommate has been volunteering in. She said there was this song that the kids had been singing, but when she tried to sing it for me, I didn’t recognize it at all. In fact, I’d never heard the song before at all. Then, when I went to Kayamandi, the students were singing it. They knew the song much better than Jenna, though to her credit, she tried, and they sang it loud and with pride. I could only really catch the chorus, but it was about the World Cup and how it has brought pride and happiness to the people of South Africa, even those in small townships. It is called either Wavin’ Flag or Wave Your Flag, I’m not quite sure yet. The main part of the song lyrics is “When I am older, I will be stronger, they’ll call me freedom, just like a wavin’ flag.” It’s amazing to hear the kids singing it. I’ve adopted it, as has Jenna (I think) as my African theme song.

Then, yesterday, the girls I’m tutoring in Kayamandi were singing a different song, and this one had set dance moves. They were so excited that we didn’t know the dance (or the song, for that matter) and they wanted to teach us. The song is by Shakira and it’s called “Waka Waka (Time for Africa).” It was amazing to see how happy the girls were that their continent is being called attention to in good ways, both with the World Cup and with more and more songs out there about Africa in general. Before we had to leave, they taught us the main dance moves that are set to the chorus, which is a jumble of real words and made up ones (they said that Waka doesn’t mean anything in any language they know).

Because of the joy these two songs bring to the kids of Kayamandi, and ostensibly, to me, I am dubbing them my African theme songs. I’m sure along the way, there’ll be more, but for now, this is it.