“Siyahamba” is a beautiful song from South Africa, originating probably as a Zulu folk song. It was transcribed as a Christian hymn by Andries Van Tonder in 1952, who wrote the Africaans version as well.
In 1978 the Swedish choral group Fjedur discovered the song during a tour in South Africa; six years later Fjedur’s musical director, Anders Nyberg, recorded his arrangement of Siyahamba for four voices in English as “We are Marching in the Light of God”. From that point on, the song became very popular throughout the world and a standard in the choral repertoire. In many cases people sing it in both languages one after the other.
Siyahamba is performed in both religious and secular context, as it was associated with the anti-apartheid movement. Today it’s considered a South African freedom song. Consisting only from one line that is repeated with permutations, the song takes a cyclical structure that advances the communal spirit and participation – therefore, makes it ideal for a marching or a protest song.
On this page you will find the lyrics in the Zulu language and the English version by Nyberg; you can also download a printable PDF file with lyrics for free and watch a sing-along video.
Table of Contents
Printable Lyrics PDF
Click on the button to download a PDF file with lyrics to this song for free.
Siyahamba (We are Marching in the Light of God) lyrics
Zulu
Siyahamba, ekukanyen’ kwenkos’,
Siyahamba, ekukanyen’ kwenkos’,
Siyahamba, ekukanyen’ kwenkos’,
Siyahamba, ekukanyen’ kwenkos’,
Siyahamba, siyahamba, oh,
Siyahamba ekukanyen’ kwenkos’.
Siyahamba, siyahamba, oh,
Siyahamba ekukanyen’ kwenkos’.
(Pronounced: Si ya ham ba ku kan yen kwen kos)
English
We are marching in the light of God.
We are marching in the light of God.
We are marching in the light of God.
We are marching in the light of God.
We are marching, we are marching, ooh,
We are marching in the light of God.
We are marching, we are marching, ooh,
We are marching in the light of God.
Sing-along Video
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