The Canticles of Zion: Song as Word and Action in Zulu Zionist Discourse

Abstract

Anyone who has witnessed the progress of a Zionist meeting, or has even overheard it in passing by, will know that singing is a prominent feature of the service. The frequency with which the congregation has recourse to song throughout the meeting is ample testimony to its importance as an inescapable ingredient of Zionist worship. The fact that it is often accompanied by drumming underscores its rhythmic quality, so that it surpasses mere vocal expression and flows at times into bodily movements of handclapping, swaying and, occasionally, outright dancing and other forms of locomotion. Its prevalence and expansiveness within the meeting is therefore beyond doubt. The question is: wherein precisely does the significance of singing reside for Zionists? In Zionist thinking, it is another form of prayer; a type of meritorious action (Jules-Rosette, 157). But in terms of performance, we may ask what exactly is the role (or roles) of prayerful song in the conduct of a meeting, what contribution does song make to the totality of this social event and experience? The answer is to be sought in an analysis of the themes of Zionist hymns and of the usages to which they are put; in other words, by attending to their content and their context. I have made a complete inventory of all the hymns that I heard and noted in the course of attending the services of twenty-two Zionist congregations in KwaMashu, Durban, over a period of two years. Of course, within the flow of participant observation of a fastmoving meeting, I was able to register only the opening line(s) of each hymn rather than a full account of its expression. But this was normally enough to establish its theme and, as will be clear presently, there is good reason to think that this is sufficient for my purposes (cf. note 5). My list runs to 117 different hymns, 40% of