I took a looooooooong day’s walk around Milwane game reserve. I reached the two major peaks: The fire tower and the execution rock.
On my way back to Sondzela where I stayed, the rain caught up with me. I ran to the nearest roof I could find in the wilderness. And this roof was that of a horse stable.
I could hear voices. I found myself in the company of a jolly group of four South African employees. We started chatting. After the usual “what country do you come from”, we broke into giving each other language lessons.
And what other topic shall men discuss? What else, women! They wanted to know how to say “I love you” in Filipino, just in case they had guests from the Philippines in the future. I taught them, of course. They took note.
Then Jablan started singing. I took out my Smart Phone and began recording his song. When he was through, I let him hear it! He was amazed! He wanted more (or maybe it was I who wanted more). It didn’t take much prodding, he sang the first line of an African song, complete with hand gestures that would put Michael Jackson to shame. The two others chimed in! They were singing a three voice melody! Another minute into the song and they were dancing and stomping their feet!
Their stomping was part of the song. It gave rhythm and movement and synchronicity. I myself was trying to dance with them.
It was a beautiful song, sang with passion, with a raw and imperfect voices that tried to catch breaths in between notes. The song rolled into a chant. I was so eager to find out what the song meant.
The song winded down to a choreographed stomping. Accentuated by a final stomp and then the exhilaration and laughter of a song beautifully sung!
What did it mean? Sa madaling salita: Isang Linggong pag-ibig.
Listen to it. I asked Jablan to write down a rought translation and the chorus. It became one of the anthems of my trip.
Sengyahamba (translation)
She fell in love with me
Our love lasted for two days
The man say goodbye now
“I’m going, my sweetheart, goodbye.”
Chorus (in Swazi):
“Sengiyahamba Sala Kahle S’thandwa Sam”
(I’m going, goodbye my sweetheart.)
Download the audio clip: Sengiyahamba (wav file, 300Kb++)
Edwin
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