For my first sortie leading into the new year, I wish neither to be too serious, nor too flippant or casual.
Nobody is in the mood for pontification, just as we all regret the rapid adjustments that we need to make in order to survive the spending frenzy of the festive season.
But here is the thing. We never seem to quite grasp the need for adjustments before indiscretion rather than after. And that is sad.
How does this become material for my first article? It was my wondering why we sing the well-anthologised For Auld Lang Syne at New Year.
Like our national anthem with its minefield of linguistic pitfalls, we also go into gum-chewing mode when singing this song. We know it, but not quite well-enough to sing all the words.
Watch the teams on televised games when Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika is sung and give yourself a free giggle when you realise that you, too, like that athlete itching to do his thing, struggle through his difficulty with the words of his national anthem.
So let us start with this Scottish song. For openers, it can be claimed to be a favourite among Filipinos, who sing “Araw ng mga Puso”, a prayer of farewell to the old year and a plea for happiness and success in the coming year.
It is very likely that the tune was lifted and transcribed into a European language, made into a memorable poem and appropriated as a Scottish toast to the coming year (or more correctly, a farewell to the old). Literally, the words mean “Old Long Since”.
And we do not pronounce the “syne” as if it is a “z”. It’s an “s”.
I am reminded of an old Bing Crosby song called Now is the Hour. Originally, it was a Maori farewell song, beautifully haunting and easy to remember. Again, it was lifted from the Maori tribe and turned into an international English song by singers like Vera Lynn.
I think by now my regular readers will see where I am going. Many of the English cultural musical gems are, in fact, borrowings from the tribes that were colonised and ill-treated by the travellers on their infamous voyages of discovery.
We know now that we get to truths only if we read history. It is common cause nowadays to trace many “English” linguistic artefacts to their original native sources.
The colonials unashamedly appropriated everything they could lay their hands on, including mineral and natural resources, dietary regimen, plant and animal species, and ultimately the souls of the colonised – which gave us the worst crime in the history of the world: slavery.
Nevertheless, allow me to explain that I have avoided making a catalogue of mismanagement, empty promises and disembowelled governance, which is what we get on the first day of 2023.
Let us rather resolve to explore our histories and origins, and try to contrive a commonality that is clearly evinced in the two “borrowings” I allude to.
Let us find commonality in the sadness of loss, the shattering of lives that will never blossom into fruition because of cruel exploiters of whatever colour.
Let the song Auld Lang Syne remind us that a wish for a better life is a common ideal. Let us remember the good and common bonds that bind us as human beings.
And let us accept that remembering just because it is good to do, is also some consolation for truths that will hurt, disappoint or worst, dismiss the value of humanity.
There will be times for goodbyes, hellos and all the other interactions that frame our universal brotherhood.
Find the song, learn the words, sing the tune that says unequivocally that injustice to one human being for the sake of greed, ideology, fear or ineptitude is an abomination to the spirit and a vexation to the soul.
Sing in the new year. Make it count. We have come a long way. But we still have a long way to go.
* Alex Tabisher.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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