Use anthem’s journey from Deep South to educate fans EXCLUSIVE
OFFIAH SAYS SLAVE SONG SHOULD NOT BE BANNED
THE uncomfortable navel-gazing induced by the Black Lives Matter movement has brought many white-dominated organisations to question symbols they had never previously given a second thought to.
After the statues comes the song and the RFU’s review into how appropriate it may be for a slave song from the cotton plantations of Mississippi to be used as the unofficial anthem of the England rugby team.
When Wallace Willis, a black American slave, composed Swing Low Sweet Chariot in the mid19th century, he can hardly have been thinking how it might sound belted out from the lubricated lips of an enormous choir of predominantly white folks across the Atlantic.
For Martin Offiah, in whose honour the song was first sung at Twickenham 33 years ago, it should continue to be a part of English rugby but a trigger for reflection too. “You can’t really ban people from singing songs. That would prove very divisive. It could allow the situation to be hijacked,” said Offiah, right.
“If people think the song is going to be banned they’re going to be outraged and we will have lost the argument. I don’t think any player wants Swing Low Sweet Chariot to be banned anyway.
“If something’s embedded, you need to address it and move on in a positive manner and I think that’s what the RFU are trying to do. We know the history of the song and in the current climate in the world the RFU are just carrying out due diligence. “It’s a chance to educate people. There’s talk of doing
a documentary and I think a show like that would be interesting. The journey of a song from the Deep South and how it managed to migrate across the Atlantic and be sung by elite people in England is a great story in itself and can be used to tell the story of the black players who have played for England.”
Initially adopted by English rugby at grassroots level as a grubby clubhouse drinking song, Swing Low’s unlikely leap to Twickenham anthem came in Offiah’s final outing in rugby union in 1987 before switching codes to become a rugby league great.
Tearing it up for Rosslyn Park in the Middlesex Sevens, he found himself being serenaded from the sold-out stands during the final against Harlequins. Racist? Not intentionally. Stereotyping? Almost certainly. Not that Offiah noticed. “I was too entrenched in the game,” he said. “I was only informed this year by the RFU that it was the first time it was sung at Twickenham. The curator of the Twickenham museum found the footage on the BBC.
“When it is sung at Twickenham, people always turn to me because I’m ‘Chariots’ Offiah. I always used to say to them it had nothing to do with me but it turns out it does have something to do with me. I’m proud of that fact.”
The song will survive the review but when England fans next open their lungs in support, they should at least know a little more about what they are singing.
You need to address this in a positive manner