3. Wɔyaya

Song Wɔyaya
Music Sol Amarifio
Words Sol Amarifio (title in the Ga language of Ghana)
​Composed in 1971

Lyrics
We are going, heaven knows where we are going, but we know within.
And we will get there, heaven knows how we will get there, but we know we will.
It will be hard, we know, and the road will be muddy and rough,
But we'll get there, heaven knows how we will get there, but we know we will.
Wɔyaya, Wɔyaya, Wɔyaya, Wɔyaya.

Notes You'll hear me playing with different patterns and rhythms under this song... some of which work well right off, and some of which are more... umm... experimental! But we're all about exploring and growing and changing here -- and one of the downfalls of the highly polished recordings we are immersed in is that we forget that in real life, as we sing by ourselves or with each other, some of our experiments sound great, and some turn out to not be ones we want to continue -- heaven knows where we are going! But we'll get there...
Sol Amarifio was the Ghanian drummer of the band Osibisa. The band members were African and Caribbean musicians living in London: Teddy Osei, Sol Amarfio, Mac Tontoh, Spartacus R (Roy Bedeau) Wendell Richardson, Robert Bailey, Loughty Lasisi Amao. Here's Osibisa with the original.
This song is under copyright, so recordings or performances for profit are subject to copyright restrictions -- please sing freely at home and with family! Anaïs Mitchell and Kate Stables collaborated on a beautiful cover of this. 


Nuts and Bolts It’s harmonized, in 6:8, Ionian mode (major).