Talk:Siyahamba

Comments
Please take note of the author of this song, as on http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Siyahamba_%28Anonymous%29

This song did not originate as a "freedom song"

I'm not sure what that comment about the song becoming "internationally known through youtube" is about... Even if true, it doesn't make sense to put it in that part of the historical discussion. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.36.171.205 (talk) 20:57, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

Composed vs Traditional
Could anyone please confirm whether this music was in fact composed by Andries van Tonder, or did he just write an arrangement for a preexisting (traditional) South African melody? --capmo 22:10, 26 February 2012 (UTC)
 * No, apparently not. Sources differ as to whether Andries van Tonder wrote the words or composed the music or both. If he wrote the words, he probably wrote them in Afrikaans, as the sources that credit him with the authorship list one Thabo Mkize as the Zulu translator. As for the arrangement that has become the basis for most internationally known versions of this song, it is the work of the Swede Anders Nyberg. It looks to me like there is no verifiable source for solid information on the origins of this song prior to Nyberg's "discovery" of it as performed by a school choir during his group's visit to South Africa in 1978 as recounted in the article. --Haruo (talk) 20:43, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

Just now I removed any claims that the song was composed by Van Tonder, AND I removed any claims that it was originally a Zulu folk song, since there is no documented evidence one way or the other. I hope I've made it clear to readers that no one currently seems to have any proof of its origin. (The paper said to be in the possession of Van Tonder's heirs would prove that he set it down on paper, but would not prove that it was his original composition.) TooManyFingers (talk) 23:10, 13 August 2020 (UTC)

Swahili words
In the first line of the lyrics in Swahili, there appears the phrase Syihambq cookeyekwbekos. I am no Swahilist, but this looks like an accidental interpolation of part of the lyric in a phonetic rendering of Zulu. As the lyrics do not deviate from a single phrase throughout the song, in whatever language, this seems easily remedied by patching with a lyric phrase from elsewhere in the song. This I shall do.

Nuttyskin (talk) 08:35, 9 December 2019 (UTC)

German words
At the end of the lyrics in German, there appeared a short paragraph of German text, beginning Wobei marschieren hier nicht im Sinne von einem militärischen Marsch, etc. Clearly included to assuage fears regarding Germanic militarism in the postwar period, and strictly superfluous to a block of lyrics; the text ought at least to have been rendered into English, as this is English Wikipedia. I decided to translate it anyway, and leave it standing in brackets as if it were a footnote.

Nuttyskin (talk) 09:02, 9 December 2019 (UTC)

Too many lyrics, probably under copyright
Afrikaans & Zulu have significance for the history of this song, but why should any other non-English languages be listed here in English Wikipedia?

For that matter, WP:SONG warns us: "Do not include the song's entire lyrics ... unless you are certain they are in the public domain." Since Siyahamba was first written down in 1952, and hymnals generally use a version copyrighted in 1984, it seems unlikely that the lyrics have entered the public domain yet.

I've placed the tag at the top of this Talk page, hoping for the attention of someone more knowledgeable. In case there's no response within a month, I'll probably delete all the quoted lyrics from the article. —173.68.139.31 (talk) 08:33, 21 October 2021 (UTC)