"Sop... Daar kommie Alabama"
As a boy I sat around countless camp fires in the dark with my friends, the light from the flames flickering on our faces as we sang along on school, church and scout camping excursions and adventures. (Scouting was the most fun!). Among the songs we sang were "Little Brown Jug, how I love thee", (this was nothing less than a call to prepare for a life of future alcoholism), "Knick Knack Paddy Whack, give a dog a bone", (the existential pointlessness of existence), "Ten Green Bottles" (back to the alcoholism of the guy who emptied the bottles), "Sarie Marais", (so poignant I can't bear to write about it) and "In the Quartermaster's Store", ("my eyes are dim I cannot see, I have not brought my specs with me". Yes, where are they?). Another favourite was "Daar kom die Alabama" (Afr. there comes the Albama), perhaps because it was closer to home and said something instinctively familiar about our experience, even if it was in Afrikaans and an oblique reference to slavery, (revisionist historians suggest it is a merger of an older Dutch / VOC slave era song with a more modern one about a memory of slavery).
The PDF link beneath the two images below will tell you a more about Arthur Green, the Confederate raider, the CSS Alabama, Emil Burmester and the US Naval History Centre. Regarding the image of the 'Negro' Union Infantryman, below, I chose him because he has a face that seems to be immediately familiar to me as a South African. I knew a Fingo who looked much the same whose ancestors had fought for the British. Wendell Phillips said in a Civil War speech, "Will the slave fight? If any man asks you, tell him No. But if anyone asks you will a Negro fight, tell him Yes!". That statement is true for free men everywhere. The sheet of used American stamps includes one dedicated to Raphael Semmes, captain of the Alabama, later Rear Admiral, CSN. As the US Navy would not have him back after the war a southern university gave him a sinecure as Professor of Moral Philosophy!
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Steve, You bring back memories. From 1967 until about 1987 I sang with a few pop-groups in Vereeniging, The Question Marks, Take 5 + 2, The Jam Fans, and Enigma.
From 1970 to 1976 the last two groups played at the Lido in Eikenhof and then at my own night club at the Pop Inn back in Vereeniging where except for Liz and myself the group was Afrikaans - Pierre, Derek, Chris, Tina, Alex, Uri, Phillip-John and Clive to mention just a few over the years.
All that just to get to the punch line. We used to play a medley - She'll be coming round the mountain, Marching to Pretoria, Daar is' (a chicken that can't lay an egg), Mary-Ann and of course 'Daar Kom die Alabama'!
Just to finish (which I thought I was), I came back to the U.K. at the age of 72 and was pulled into a Swing Band - 'Swing and Swing Again' a (21 piece Glen Miller type band) who I sang with until March last year and only left at the age of 84 because of a hip operation.
And not a stamp was mentioned.
Jamie
Hi Jamie, Welcome aboard. I am so pleased that you are here making a post. This is Excellent.
Yes, how could I forget "She'll be coming round the mountain, when she comes" ,,... how did I forget that one. As a boy I was always mystified by the lyrics - how could the lady ride three white horses? - but after I became a man, well, I began to think it wasn't really a children's song at all. So, after you made that post, I did a quick google on it and it turns out it is based on a gospel song. It must have been corrupted over the years.