[PW] Kumbaya -- negative connotation

[TED NESBITT]

This question began as an etymological one:  The questioner wanted the “origin” of the word “kumbaya” or “cumbaya” in a negative sense – an ironic twist from the original message of the song title.  

I’m not interested in the origin of the song itself – we have explored the controversy of whether it is from South Carolina [Gullah dialect] or from Africa.  I have the information about the American missionary who is credited with writing it.  

Here’s the problem.  Sometime in the 1980s[or perhaps earlier], the word – and its variations, like “kumbayahoos” – took on a negative connotation in that “holding hands around a campfire and singing ‘Kumbaya’” was suggesting something artificial, saccharine, or meaningless.

I am pasting below some of the earliest examples of this connotation that I could find.  I have checked various dictionaries [OED, slang, unabridged, regionalisms, etc.] and the “negative” connotation is not mentioned.  There is no reference that I could find in Phrase Finder from Sheffield University or from Michael Quinion’s “World Wide Words.”

Does anyone have an explanation – or a realistic theory, but not a “guess” – about the negative aspects of “Kumbaya”?

Thanks for any feedback you can provide.

Ted Nesbitt
Elbin Library
West Liberty State College
West Liberty, WV – 26074

EXAMPLES: 

The Washington Post
 August  16, 1985, Friday, Final Edition


SECTION: Weekend; Pg. 19
LENGTH: 361 words
HEADLINE: 'Volunteers': Dash, No 'Splash'
BYLINE: Rita Kempley
 BODY:
   IT'S NO LONGER ask what you can do for your country. It's ask what your
country can do for your screenplay. Tom Hanks and John Candy make war on the
Peace Corps in "Volunteers," a belated lampoon of '60s altruism and the
idealistic young  Kumbayahoos  who went off to save the Third World. 


NEW YORK TIMES -- October 15, 1989 -- a piece, based on an interview with Tracey Ullman,
"Make a Face:  Tracy Ullman."
Though her husband frequently commutes to London on business, Ullman
doesn't miss working in her native land.  "I don't want to be back in
England being offered 40 pounds a week by the BBC to do a movie in
Northern Ireland, or going off with the Left Wing Theatre to Nicaragua
singing 'Kumbaya.'"
 
PORTLAND OREGONIAN -- July 14, 1990 -- "The Oregonian" (Portland)  "Comic Saget Bombs on Tape,
Flies in Person," by Peter Farrell, page c11 -- [His new HBO special,
the taped version, was not well-received by 100 TV reviewers.]  He kept
saying he was sorry, as if to apologize to everyone in the audience
individually. "Did someone say I should be sorry?  Yeah, you said it.
Go ahead, smack me.  Say it now.  Go ahead!  It's a group-hug thing.
We'll sing 'Kumbaya' at the end."
 
NEW YORK TIMES -- October 24, 1994 -- "In Pennsylvania, Round 2 on Health," by Katharine Q. Seelye, pages A1 and A24 -- About the senatorial race between Sen. Harris Wofford and challenger Rick Santorum -- "The candidates' differences were crisply caught during a recent radio debate in Pittsburgh.  Mr. Wofford was reflecting on the national service law he helped enact and how it would help students pay for college, much like the G. I. Bill, when Mr. Santorum erupted:  'Somebody is going to do one year of community service picking up trash in a park and singing 'Kumbaya' around a campfire, and you're going to give them the equivalent of a G. I. Bill!'"



Ted Nesbitt
Library Instruction
Paul N. Elbin Library
West Liberty State College
West Liberty, WV - 26074
Office:  (304) 336-8185
Fax:     (304) 336-8186
Toll-Free:  (800) 732-6204 




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