We all laugh, we all cry, we all feel hunger, we all feel pain.
We all love, we all hate, we all hope, and we all dream.
We are one world, one people. And we all breathe the same.
A tribe of many languages, a group of many heartaches,
fighting for peace among the land.
Heja, heja, sisi ni moja. Heja, heja, we are one.

We all want, we all need, we all seek passion, we all seek joy.
We all bruise, we all scar, we all fail, but learn to thrive.
We are one world, one people. And we all breathe the same.
In the darkness of the night and in the glory of the morning,
we walk along the path and find our way.

Now we stand here together and lift our hearts in song
to the rhythm of this moment in our lives:
Heja, heja, sisi ni moja. Heja, heja, we are one.

Jacob Narverud

The original voicing of Sisi ni moja was commissioned in 2015 for the Michigan State University Children & Youth Choirs by their director, Kyle Zeuch, to celebrate unity and community through cultures. This piece was written specifically for their world-music concert theme, “We are One.” It was requested to be similar in style to my arrangement of the Kenyan song “Jambo,” and was commissioned by the director for SA(T)B choir, piano, and djembe. The SA voicing was written two years later (2017) for the Lawrence Children’s Choir in Kansas, Carolyn Welch, Director, and a TBB voicing was requested by the publisher later that same year.

I wanted to create an uplifting, hopeful song that had a modern, popular-style vibe and dealt with the choir’s theme of unity and one-ness. Since the piece was intended to represent all people and all cultures, I sought to write a text that would reflect just that. I was teaching high school at the time, and a student in one of my choirs was from Kenya. I asked her to assist me with a Swahili phrase that I could combine with a new original text, which would translate specifically to “We are One.” Though not a common Swahili phrase, we came up with “Sisi ni moja,” pronounced “Moh-Jah” with a hard “J”. “Heja” (pronounced “hey-yah”) is a non-word with no literal meaning, and does not represent any specific culture. It is given a more instrumental treatment in the chorus, acting as a joyful, declamatory backdrop to the song’s message of unity. This “celebratory chant” mirrors the piano and djembe’s heavy rhythmic influence, energizing and driving the song forward.

When I wrote Sisi Ni Moja I specifically chose chord progressions that would be familiar to the ear of both the audience and the singers performing. These popular music chord progressions, coupled with the speech driven rhythms and repetition in the piano, allow listeners to feel an instant connection to the music and focus on the message of the text.

-Jacob Narverud (2018)