The REAL Origin Of The Song "Funga Alafia" (And What The Non-English Words To That Song Mean)

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest edition - December 2, 2024

This is Part I of a four part 2024 pancocojams series on the song "Funga Alafia".

This post is a complete reprint with additional content of my 2019 pancocojams post entitled "The REAL Origin Of The Song "Funga Alafia" - Hint: It Isn't A Liberian Song, Or A Nigerian Song, Or A Traditional African Song." * https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-real-origin-of-song-funga-alafia.html

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/11/memories-of-singing-song-funga-alafia.html for Part II of this 2024 pancocojams series. That post showcases a YouTube video of African American dancer Nana Malaya Rucker and two djembe drummers performing "Funga Alafia". Selected comments from that video's discussion thread are included in that post.

Click  https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/11/what-is-origin-of-word-funga-in-song.html for Part III of this 2024 pancocojams series.  That post presents additional comments about the song "Funga Alafia" from the 2019 pancocojams series about that song.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/11/five-youtube-videos-of-fanga-dance.html for Part V of this pancocojams series. That post showcases five YouTube performances of the Fanga dance in the United States.

The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who have sung "Funga Alafia" since that song was composed by LaRoque Bey in 1959 or 1960s in New York City. Thanks to all those who featured in this video and thanks to publisher of this showcase video on YouTube. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post. 
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*The 2019 post about "Funga Alafia" also consists of three posts. The links for each of those 2019 posts are given in Part III of the 2024 pancocojams series. 

An earlier version of this pancocojams series was published in 2011. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/11/real-history-of-funga-alafia-fanga-song.html for that post and the links to the other two 2019 posts. Those posts don't include all of the latest edited content.

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CORRECTING MISINFORMATION ABOUT THE SONG "FUNGA ALAFIA" 
I first wrote about the song "Funga Alafia" on this pancocojams blog in 2011.

I decided to revisit this subject because of the relatively widespread inclusion of "Funga Alafia" in school curriculums in the United States and in other non-West African nations and also because of the widespread misinformation about where this song comes from.

Even if people prefer later arrangements of a particular song, I believe it's important to document and share that song's provenance (origin/source).

If possible, it's important to know who composed the song - if not the actual composer/s than which population it came from. It's also important to know what the original words were, which tune and tempo was originally used and what performance activities, if any, where used while singing or chanting the composition.

Knowing where the song came from can help determine the overall meaning of the song itself as well as the meanings of specific words/phrases (including slang and colloquial expressions).

Knowing the provenance of a song can also help instill and reinforce group self-esteem and personal esteem in people from that particular population.

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BASIC INFORMATION ABOUT THE SONG "FUNGA  ALAFIA"
1. The song "Funga Alafia" was composed by African American drummer and dancer LaRocque Bey in Harlem (New York City) in 1959 or 1960. At that time LaRocque Bey was a drummer with the New York City based group of Babatunde Olatunji drummers and dancers. 

2. The word "funga" is a folk processed form of the word "fanga" from Vai (West African language) or from the Mandinka (West African language).

"Funga" is pronounced like the English word "fun" + "gah". 

3. The word "alafia" (aalafia) is a loan word in the Yoruba language.  "Aalafia" was derived from the Hausa (Nigeria) word "lafiya" which means "good health". The Hausas derived the word from the Arabic word "al-afiyah" which means "health" / "inner peace".

4. The word "ase" is from the Yoruba (Nigeria, West Africa) language.  . The word “"ase" means power,” “authority,” “command,” “energy,” or “that which creates and sustains "life." People in the United Srates often (incorrectly) use the spelling "ashe" or "ashay" for this Yoruba word. in the United States. "ase" is pronounced "AH-shay" and is often used as a synonym for the word "amen".

5. The English words that are spoken in the song "Funga Alafia" and their accompanying gestures weren't part of the original song.

6. The tune for the song "Funga Alafia" is the same tune for the American song "Little Liza Jane"
(Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELNIe_D79xs for a sound file of Nina Simone singing "Little Liza Jane".)

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COMPLETE REPRINT OF THE WIKIPEDIA PAGE ON "FANGA" (DANCE)*
Retrieved November 30, 2024
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanga_(dance)
"Fanga is a dance "interpretation of a traditional Liberian invocation to the earth and sky".[citation needed] The dance originated in Liberia[1][2] or Sierra Leone.[2] The first performance of a version of Fanga in the United States may have been by Asadata Dafora in 1943;[2][3][4] Marcia Ethel Heard believes that Pearl Primus hid Dafora's influence on her work.[5] The dance was written by Primus in 1959 in conjunction with the National Dance Company of Liberia.[citation needed] Fanga was one of the dances through which Primus sought to stylize and perpetuate African dance traditions by framing dance as a symbolic act, an everyday practice, and a ceremony.[6] It was then further popularized by Primus' students, sisters Merle Afida Derby and Joan Akwasiba Derby.[3][2] Babatunde Olatunji described Fanga as a dance of welcome from Liberia and he, and many others, used a song created by LaRocque Bey to go with the rhythm and dance, assisted by some of the students in his Harlem studio, during the early 1960s. Bey used words from the Yoruba and Vai languages (alafia = welcome; ashe = so be it; fanga = drum) and an African American folk melody popularized by American minstrels (Li'l Liza Jane).[7]"
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*This pancocojams reprint doesn't includes notes and references.

The definitions that are given for the words "alafia", "ashe", and "fanga" aren't their original meanings. Also, the Yoruba word "ashe" is correctly spelled "ase" in English.

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CORRECTING MISINFORMATION ABOUT "FUNGA  ALAFIA" DANCES
Excerpt #1
From https://dance1400.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/the-story-of-fanga-from-sule-greg-wilson/ "The Story of Fanga, from Sule Greg Wilson, September 12, 2011 [website: African Dance At Cuyahoga Community College]
"Fanga (pronounced nowadays, almost, like “Funga”, as in “fungus”. Originally, it was closer to “Fahnga”), Fanga is a dance of welcome that, interestingly, came to the United States from a place the United States founded: the West African nation of Liberia (recently infamous for its revolutionary troubles). Liberia was a new nation carved out of traditional territories to house any “slaves” in the U.S. that wanted to return to Africa.

The dance, “Fanga” was made part of the repertoire of the African American concert dance pioneer Asadata Dafora. Dafora came to the U.S. from his native Sierra Leone (a nation set up in West Africa for former British slaves) in 1929, and his early company included persons from Sierra Leone, Liberia, and other nations (and colonies). Among the repertoire he developed in the 1930s for his dance company was a staging of the mimed, storytelling dance (as Hawaiian Hula tells stories through gestures), Fanga.

Dancer/choreographer Pearl Primus (1919-1994), who came up after Dafora, went to Liberia, herself, learned the dance/rhythm., and staged it in the States The choreography moved on to Alvin Ailey’s dance company, and it has since become part of U.S. African, and now drum circle, culture.

The lyrics, however, are another matter. Why does the melody sound so much like “Li’l Liza Jane”? Because….that’s what it is. LaRoque Bey, the leader of a local New York children’s African dance school, placed Yoruba (from Nigeria) words to the “old time”/plantation days melody, and added that to the dance."...
-snip-
Here's a comment that was posted to a YouTube video discussion thread for https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnju7nD5cR8 Funga Alafia, published by Kathryn Nobles on Jun 14, 2009

comment from Sule Greg C. Wilson, 2011
"They were having fun--great! But: what they're doing is not the dance Fanga, which was created by Pearl Primus after her trip to Liberia. Nor is it the rhythms traditionally played with the dance. The melody is U.S.: Lil Liza Jane, with Yoruba words put to it in New York City by LaRoque Bey. Would it be cute for Blacks to do Swan Lake with Firebird choreography? It would be fine with me--if they knew that's what they were doing. Spread culture around, but try to keep it intact...."
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Sule Greg C. Wilson is an African American drummer/banjoist. He is commenting about the mostly White American drumming performing a version of the song "Funga Alafia"..

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Excerpt #2
From "The Dance Claimed Me: A Biography Of Pearl Primus" by Peggy Schwartz & Murray Schwartz:, page 88
" "Fanga" was central to Pearl's school, her performances, and her lectures. A dance of welcome that she brought back from her first trip to Liberia it was probably a variation of a traditional dance that she continued to change over the decade.

[...]

Virtually every black community dance company in America has its version of "Fanga" and most start with the chant "Fanga alafiyah ashe ashe, fanga alafiyah ashe ashe" as its accompaniment. This chant was added by LaRocque Bey, a percussionist in New York in the late 1950s, was not part of the original work. Primus used two other chants "gehbeddy jung jung jung" with a strong, active, insistent rhythm, or "dum dake dake dum dake, dum dake dake dum dum dake", gentler, and with a swing and a sway to it." 

-snip-
That 2012 book documents that the beat of Pearl Primus' "Fanga" dance was different from the beat for the "Funga Alafia" song. Also, Pearl Primus' accompanying chant for that beat was different from the words to "Funga Alafia".  

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DOCUMENTATION AND COMMENTARY ABOUT THE PROVENANCE (ORIGIN/SOURCE) OF THE SONG "FUNGA  ALAFIA"

(numbers provided for referencing purposes only)

1. Information about Sierra Leonean musician Asadata Dafor: [The first introduction of the word "fanga" to people in the United States.] 

"Asadata Dafora Hortan (August 4, 1890 – March 4, 1965) widely known as Asadata Dafora was a Sierra Leonean multidisciplinary musician. He was one of the first Africans to introduce African drumming music to the United States, beginning in the early 1930s...

In 1929 Asadata Dafora journeyed to New York City to try and pursue his career as a musician. He was then 39 years old...

[...]

Dafora co-authored a radio play with Orson Welles entitled "Trangama-Fanga" [in 1941]."
Source: From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asadata_Dafora
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The [West African nation of] Sierra Leone borders [the West African nation of] Liberia, and some members of Assata Dafor's dance company were from Liberia. It's therefore likely that Dafor would have known the Fanga rhythm and dance. In her PhD dissertation, dance historian Marcia Heard indicates that Asadata Dafor was the first person to introduce the Fanga dance to the United States, and he called that dance "Fugale". Furthermore, multi-instrumentalists, writer, and educator Sule Greg Wilson*, who drummed with Babatunde Olatunji, asserts that Assata Dafor was the first person to introduce Fanga to the United States.

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2. Information about African American dancer/choreographer Pearl Primus
From http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/h/black-dance/
"[Pearl Primus] was born in Trinidad before her parents immigrated to Harlem in 1919. She worked at the New Dance Group Studios which was one of few places where black dancers could train alongside whites. She went on to study for a PhD and did research on dance in Africa. Her most famous dance was the Fanga, an African dance of welcome which introduced traditional African dance to the stage."

Pearl Primus' Fanga dance was picked up by other African dance companies in the United States and was reconstructed by them. Babatunde Olatunji was the first company to do so, because two dancers from Primus' company left to perform with Olatunji.

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HOW COULD AN AFRICAN AMERICAN MAN IN 1959/1960 BE FAMILIAR WITH THE WORDS "ALAFIA", "ASE", AND "FANGA'?
The word "fanga" was familiar to drummers and dancers in the United States since that dance was introduced in that nation when Asadata Dafora from Sierra Leone, West African came to study in the United States. In 1941 Asadata Dafora co-authored a radio play with Orson Welles entitled "Trangama-Fanga".

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The words "alafia" and "ase" became familiar to a small number of African Americans in the late 1950s and early 1960s because of the establishment of the Yoruba Temple in New York City. The Yoruba Temple was established under the leadership of Baba Oserjeman, the first African American to be initiated into the traditional Yoruba religion of Ifa. Baba Oserjiman, a former dancer with Katherine Dunham, was initiated into that religion in Cuba in 1959. 

Source http://www.bnvillage.co.uk/news-politics-village/99564-south-carolina-voodoo-sect.html

It's possible that LaRocque Bey was familiar with Baba Oserjiman and the Yoruba drummers & dancers (if he himself wasn't a member of that dance/drum group). And it's also likely that some of the other drummers and dancers who performed with LaRocque Bey or who he knew were (also) members of the Yoruba Temple. 

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WHAT IS THE GENERAL MEANING FOR THE SONG "FUNGA  ALAFIA" IN THE UNITED STATES 
"Funga Alafia" is generally considered to be a welcome song because of the word "alafia".
The word "alafia" is a Yoruba (Nigerian traditional language) loan word that came from the Hausa (Nigerian traditional language) from the Arabic language. "Alafia" can be interpreted as meaning "welcome" or "peace be unto you" in the same way that the Arabic words a salaam alaikum" is used as a greeting.

The words "Funga alafia ase ase" are the original words for the song "Funga Alafia". All of the other words that are now spoken with that song and the gestures that are made while those words are spoken " weren't a part of the original song's lyrics and performances. 

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STANDARD LYRICS FOR THE SONG FUNGA  ALAFIA IN THE UNITED STATES
From https://musicwithmrswalle.weebly.com/uploads/2/5/2/4/25246738/funga_alafia_lyrics.pdf

Funga alafia, ah-shay ah-shay.

Funga alafia, ah-shay ah-shay.

Funga alafia, ah-shay ah-shay.

Funga alafia, ah-shay ah-shay.

With my eyes, I welcome you.

With my words, I welcome you.

With my heart, I welcome you.

Today we, all welcome you.

Funga alafia, ah-shay ah-shay.

Funga alafia, ah-shay ah-shay.

Funga alafia, ah-shay ah-shay.

Funga alafia, ah-shay ah-shay."

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WHAT DOES THE WORD "FUNGA" MEAN IN THE SONG "FUNGA ALAFIA"?
As described earlier in this post, the song "Funga Alafia" was composed in 1959 or 1960s by African American drummer LaRocque Bey to be sung as accompaniment for the Fanga dance. "Fanga" is a welcome dance (or dances), and the word "alafia" can mean "welcome", although it's primary meaning is "peace".

As a result of that second meaning for "alafia", it's understandable that people in the United States think that "Funga Alafia" is a song that means "We welcome you". 

Definitions for the word "alafia" and the word "ase" can be easily found online. However,to date, I've not found any online information about the origin and meaning of the word "funga".

If we accept the widely circulated belief that the song "Funga Alafia" means something like "We welcome you", given that there's documentation that the word "alafia" can mean "welcome", we could say that "funga" can be an intensifier that means something like "very". Hence "Funga Alafia" can be said to mean "You are very welcome". However, that meaning is almost certainly a "back story" i.e. a definition that is made up after the fact.

I have two theories for how LaRocque Bey used the word "funga" instead of "fanga" for "Funga Alafia" song.
1. La Rocque Bey purposely changed the word "fanga" to "funga" because he wanted to distinguish his song and his beat from other Fanga chants and beats that were being played in the United States. 

2. LaRocque Bey accidentally mispronunciation of the word "fanga" as "funga" and he kept that accidental pronunciation because he liked it.

I lean toward theory #1.

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MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE NON-ENGLISH WORDS IN THE SONG "FUNGA ALAFIA"

1. FUNGA (pronounced the same as the English word "fun' + gah)
The word "funga" is a folk processed form of the word "fanga".

The word "fanga" is found in more than one West African language. Here's an excerpt from Hillary Sargent's website: http://www.fanga-music.com/myFanga:
"The word FANGA! Originates from the West African Mandingo lingo.

Literally it translates: Power! - It hits you to the core, in its multifaceted, powerful meaning: everybody has his or her own FANGA! - To me it is resilient, not only powerful, in essence the African rhythm in FANGA! inspires me with a spiritual enlightenment which has become the matrix of my soul identity."
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Another example of the word "fanga" is found in this description of a Malian film:
Taafe-Fanga is the title of a highly acclaimed film from Mali, West Africa. The film is produced "in Bambara and Kaado [languages] with English [language] subtitles", and the title means "Skirt-Power". http://newsreel.org/video/TAAFE-FANGA.

Another example of the use of "fanga" is the French afrobeat group by that name. Here's information about that interracial group's name from http://cd1d.com/en/artist/fanga:
"Fanga means 'Force' (spiritually speaking) in Dioula, one of the numerous dialects of Western Africa. This French group of 7 musicians, deeply immersed in Afrobeat - a musical language pioneered by Fela Kuti in the 70's, combining African music, jazz and funk - was born from an encounter between the hip-hop programmer Serge Amiano and the rapper Yves Khoury (aka Korbo) of Burkina Faso."

I've also read that "Fanga" is a Vai (Liberia) word and I've usually seen "fanga" used as the name for the rhythm and accompanying dance which are based on a traditional Vai (Liberia, West Africa) welcome dance. Given those three examples, I believe that it's possible that the Liberian word "fanga" also means "force" or "power".

Here's some information about the Vai language from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vai_language

"The Vai language, also called Vy or Gallinas, is a Mande language spoken by the Vai people, roughly 104,000 in Liberia, and by smaller populations, some 15,500, in Sierra Leone.[2]

Writing system

Vai is noteworthy for being one of the few African languages to have a writing system that is not based on the Latin or Arabic script. This Vai script is a syllabary invented by Momolu Duwalu Bukele around 1833, although dates as early as 1815 have been alleged. The existence of Vai was reported in 1834 by American missionaries in the Missionary Herald of the ABCFM[3] and independently by Rev. Sigismund Wilhelm Koelle, a Sierra Leone agent of the Church Missionary Society of London.[4]…

Phonology

Vai is a tonal language and has 11 vowels and 31 consonants"...

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ALAFIA (pronounced ah-LAH-fee-ah)
Although a  number of online sources indicate that the word "alafia" is Yoruba word, that word didn't originate among the Yoruba people. (Yoruba is the name of an ethnic group in Nigeria, West Africa and is the name of that population's traditional language).

The word "alafia" came from the Hausa people (in northern Nigeria)'s word  "lafia". The Hausas got that word from the Arabic word "alaafiyah".  In meaning "health" or "good health" and entered the Yoruba language by way of the Hausa (Nigeria) modification

From https://www.facebook.com/575706419187357/photos/pb.575706419187357.-2207520000.1468493353./1067659546658706/?type=3 IFA: Òrìṣa Scientific Spirituality, July 12, 2016 ·
"For many, the Yoruba term "alafia" (also spelled alaafia) is used to mean "inner-peace" and said as a greeting like the use of the Kemetic word "hotep" and the Arabic word "salaam."

In the past ten years, there has been much controversy about the term alafia and whether or not it is truly Yoruba or derived from Arabic.

It is noted that the Yoruba word alafia shares its meaning with the Hausa (Northern Nigerians) word "lafiya" which means good health. They derived the word from Arabic's al-afiyah which means "the good health." When said as "zaman lafiya" in Hausa, it comes to mean innerpeace.

The indigenous Yoruba word for good health is ilera. Hence the popular Yoruba phrase, "Ilera loro" which means "health is wealth."

However, does all this mean that alafia is not a Yoruba word? Not necessarily....

All of this being said, alafia (whether indigenous or of Arabic origin) is not traditionally a greeting as seen in the Arab's salaam. That is definitely an attempt for people to imitate [sic] the Arab's greeting pattern of "peace" instead of learning Yoruba conversational protocol."....
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From at least the late 1960s, some afro-centric African Americans have used "alafia" as a greeting word that means "welcome, and/or "peace". I believe that "alafia" was first used by African Americans as a traditional African language way of saying the Arabic phrase "A salaam alaikum" ("Peace be unto you").

Furthermore, for some period of time (at least in 1990s to the early 2000s) some afro-centric people in the United States would say "Peace" as greeting words, and especially as a word said when they were leaving a person or people. I don't know how widely the word "Peace" is still used that way in the 2020s.
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Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/02/excerpts-from-online-articles.html for a pancocojams post on the origins and meanings of the word "alafia"

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THE WORD "ASE"

Here's some information about the Yoruba (Nigeria, West Africa) word "ase":

"Ase" is the Yoruba term for "the energy of creation"; "the spark of life". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoruba_mythology ; hereafter given as "Wikipedia: Yoruba Mythology"
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From http://asheselah.wordpress.com/about/whats-an-asheselah/
"Ashe (ah-SHAY, also Ase) – A Yoruba word meaning power, command, and authority. The ability to make whatever one says happen. Often summarized as “so be it”, “so it is”, or “it definitely shall be so”.
-end of quote-

"Ase" is often given the same or similar meaning as the word "amen".

I've heard the word "ase" pronounced "AH-shay" or "ah-SHAY" in the United States* 

*I've heard both pronunciations in Newark, New Jersey and in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

(Yoruba speakers- please share the correct pronunciation for this word. Thanks!)

In the United States the word ase is often (incorrectly) written as "ashe".

In the context of the song "Funga Alafia", the word "ase" has colloquially (and probably incorrectly) been interpreted as meaning either "amen" or "really". With regard to the "really interpretation, some people believe that "Alafia ashe ashe" means "We really welcome you"  or "We enthusiastically welcome you."

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This concludes Part I of this 2024 pancocojams series. 

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