Kumbaya

"Kum ba yah"
"Come By Here", transcribed by J. Cutting from the singing of H. Wylie, 1926
Song
Recorded	1926, H. Wylie
Genre	Gospel, spiritual
Come By Here / Kum Ba Ya / Kumbaya Earliest known recording (1926) Problems playing this file? See media help.

"Kum ba yah" ("Come by here") is an African American spiritual of disputed origin, known to have been sung in the Gullah culture of the islands off South Carolina and Georgia, with ties to enslaved Central Africans. Originally an appeal to God to come to the aid of those in need,^[1] the song is thought to have spread from the islands to other Southern states and the North, as well as to other places outside the United States.

The first known recording was made by folklorist Robert Winslow Gordon in 1926. It features an unaccompanied tenor voice identified only as "H. Wylie," singing in the Gullah dialect. The piece became a standard campfire song in Scouting and summer camps and enjoyed broader popularity during the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s. In American politics, the song title gave rise to the phrase "sing Kumbaya," denoting unrealistic, excessively optimistic attempts at compromise.