BABA YETU, More Than Just a Prayer

Febe Kartika
Sep 3, 2018 · 2 min read
by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

Some people who love to play games might know this song as one of the themes from “Civilization IV”. This song is composed by Christopher Tin and became the first piece of a video game soundtrack that won a Grammy. I didn’t play the game myself, but I heard this song first time from a cover. If I’m not mistaken, it was by Alex Boye, BYU Men’s Chorus, and BYU Philharmonic Orchestra that I heard this song the first time. Lately I’ve been intrigued more by this song ever since I heard Angel City Choral’s version. Reading the lyrics (which are in Swahili), this song has a deeper meaning for me.

“Baba Yetu” in Swahili means “Our Father”. This song is actually a prayer, The Lord’s Prayer, the exact prayer Jesus taught His disciples. I think Christopher Tin intended to write this song in Swahili, the most common language in African mainland, to tell the world about something bigger than just a prayer.

Written in 2005, the world was not really in a good condition and stability. In my own country, that year marked exactly the year after Indian Ocean Tsunami, that took more than 167,000 lives in Indonesia only. That year also marked several local wars and conflicts in the world. Of course, this dystopian reality was not what “Heaven” means.

Ufalme wako ufike utakalo
Lifanyike duniani kama mbinguni

Personally, this part of the song is the most powerful part. Literally, those words means “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven”. In 2005, this is a prayer to encourage people to pray for God’s kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. For me, this song is still relevant in 2018.

Why in Swahili? I’m still uncertain about this, but this is what I think about. Africa is one of the largest continent, but also the poorest in the world, not to mention that most people descended from this continent have the most adverse impact of racism. In my interpretation, the song is written in Swahili to make it looks like this song, this prayer, was cried out by the people in Africa and their descendants. The “lowest caste” of people according to the world’s view are praying the hardest to God, then why don’t we? Why don’t we pray together for God’s kingdom come, His will be done on earth, and for us to be the personification of this cry?

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Student, Disciple, Musician

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