Common Ground Song 65 ‘Jesu tawa pano’
Words / Music: © Patrick Matsikenyiri
YouTube recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4IKJ2xDXTQ
Featured image: Zimbabwean dancing © dezigninc

This is a simple chant from Zimbabwe. The words are ‘Jesu tawa pano / tawa pano mu zita renyu’ with the first line sung thrice. An English translation is given: ‘Jesus, we are here / we are here for you’, although it does not fit so well to the tune as the original.

Like all such chants, repetition is essential to sing one’s way into it. By singing, we open the mind and the spirit to Jesus. The editors suggest that this is suitable for an introit (first song at the start of a worship meeting) to get the congregation the mood for worship, for we are to worship God with ‘all our heart, and mind, and soul, and strength’. That includes the physical: I expect that when sung in Zimbabwe, it would be accompanied by a dance, and indeed some British churches (including those with all-white congregations) now embrace dance as part of their worship. If singing to God does not make us feel good, that is a challenge to what we are expecting.