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"Kum ba yah" ("Come by here") is an African American spiritual song of disputed origin, but known to be sung in the Gullah culture of the islands off South Carolina and Georgia, with ties to enslaved Central Africans. The song is thought to have spread from the islands to other Southern states and the North, as well as other places in the world. The first known recording, of someone known only as H. Wylie, who sang in the Gullah dialect, was recorded by folklorist Robert Winslow Gordon in 1926. It later became a standard campfire song in Scouting and summer camps and enjoyed broader popularity during the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s.
The song was originally an appeal to God to come and help those in need. In American politics, the song would later become part of a phrase (sing Kumbaya) denoting unrealistic, excessively optimistic compromises.

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