An American academic has criticized those supporters of the England rugby team who sing the 19th century spiritual slave song “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” while watching matches.
Josephine Wright, a professor of music and black studies at the College of Wooster, Ohio, said that she found it “unfortunate” and an example of “cultural appropriation”.
Contributing to an article in the New York Times titled “How a Slave Spiritual Became an English Rugby Anthem”, Professor Wright said: “Such cross-cultural appropriations of US slave songs betray a total lack of understanding of the historical context in which those songs were created.”
The anthem was written in the mid-19th century and revived a century later during the Civil Rights movement. Some believe that it refers to the Underground Railroad, the freedom movement that helped slaves to escape into Canada; others think that it is about death.
To the best of anyone’s knowledge, it was first sung at Twickenham, England rugby’s home ground, in 1988 by a group of schoolboys from Douai Abbey in Berkshire. They sang it while watching a match against Ireland, allegedly as a serenade to Chris Oti, a black England player.
It was swiftly picked up by others and in 1991 the Rugby Football Union
released it as an official chart single for that year’s World Cup. The union also uses the hashtag #Carrythemhome on social media and lyrics of the song are emblazoned on the wall of Twickenham.