How American Musicians Argued Over Use of Kiswahili in Making of We Are The World Song

One of my favorite radio stations here in the YUES has a segment where they share the story behind some of the biggest music hits. It’s crazy how some of the music we enjoy today got to the studio in the first place

My favorite song of all time is “We Are the World."

According to the Los Angeles Times, Harry Belafonte conceived "We Are the World" idea as an all-star project to raise money to fight the famine in Ethiopia, which took the lives of roughly 1.2 million people between 1983 and 1985. Quincy Jones signed on to produce the project with Michael Omartian. Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson signed on as co-writers

According to the New York Times, the project enlisted a group of 46 of the biggest stars from across all genres of music to record the charity single under the name USA for Africa. Prince and Madonna were the only notable stars missing from the project

How is it possible for 46 celebrities with a majority of them having egos bigger than my ears to meet in one room, get the job done without any confict threatening to put brakes on the effort.

Well, guess what....

According to Billboard, when Quincy Jones was given the keys to the A&M Studios in Los Angeles where the musicians gathered for this noble project, the first thing he did was place a sign on the front door that read: “Check your egos at the door”

In any project, process conflicts are inevitable. A process conflict entails a disgreement on how a task is to be accomplished.

In the We are the World project, a process conflict ensued. Michael Jackson wanted the song to have some African feel to it. No one knew HOW this would be achieved. Michael suggested throwing in some African words at the end of the chorus: “sha-lum sha-lingay.”

According to the Independent, Bob Geldof felt that it resembled an African language , but feared it might be taken as mocking Africans.

While Quincy Jones and the team discussed this ensuing conflict, Stevie Wonder left the room to call a friend in Nigeria to get an appropriate Swahili phrase. I kid you not....

After a few minutes, Stevie Wonder came back and reported that the correct lyrics would be “willi moing-gu" and this is where shit hit the fan.

Ray Charles, who other musicians were making fun of for admiring Cyndi Lauper as she removed her necklace (Ray Charles is Blind) shouted out: “Say what! Willi what! Willi moing-gu, my ass! It’s three o’clock in the goddamn mornin’. Swahili, shit — I can’t even sing in English no more.”

By the way, if i ever attend a Cyndi Lauper concert, i will throw my ninio on stage. Karî kîî. Si ndio. Ma lombotov

At this point, Waylon Jennings took off, completely unwilling to sing in Swahili. He does not appear in the group photos from that day, nor is he present in the video of all of the singers singing around clustered microphones. In fact, as he left he made it clear:

“No good old boy sings in swahili”

After Waylon left the room, the monotony of silence was broken by Bob Geldof who observed that Ethiopians don’t actually speak Swahili, a point underscored by Lauper, who said that it was like “singing to the English in German.”

Aki Cindi Lauper…ûmbarû wanyona

In an attempt to resolve the process conflict-Lauper, Paul Simon, and Al Jarreau started lobbying for a meaningful phrase, and Jarreau came up with “One world, our world,” which got modified to “one world, our children.”

According to Rolling Stone Magazine, Tina Turner was by now so tired she had her eyes closed and she muttered: “I like sha-lum better. Who cares what it means?”

Eventually, no African-themed line was added to the song, and the recording session got back in track. What seemed like a small conflict, when all is said and done, caused a friction among the musicians and led to Waylon Jennings walking away.

By the way, where in Nigeria do they speak swahili and what the hell does “willi moing-gu" even mean?

Did I mention that Steve Wonder also called two of her Ethiopian friends to give direction on Kiswahili

You see Kenyans in Diaspora, you have a role to play, not just in sending money back home, but educating the locals on so many aspects of Africa

And you know why?

We can't go on

Pretending day-by-day

That someone, somewhere soon make a change

We're all a part of God's great big family

And the truth, you know, love is all we need

We are the world

We are the children

We are the ones who make a brighter day, so let's start giving

There's a choice we're making

We're saving our own lives

It's true we'll make a better day, just you and me