Done with doom.

To end the week on something uplifting, let’s turn to the current wave of people all over the world dancing to the song “Jerusalema.” The gospel-inspired song by Kgaogelo Moagi, better known as DJ Master KG, featuring female vocalist Nocembo Zikode, has inspired a huge international following trying to combat the Covid-19 infused malaise. The song, in IsiZulu, one of South Africa’s 11 national languages, is a prayer to God to take the singer to the holy city of Jerusalem.

Originally published in 2019, it became a dance challenge in February 2020, with the lockdowns all over the place (and before the mask requirements!) starting with a ground of friends from Angola, soon followed by people in Portugal, and now all over the world, with home-made videos surfacing from almost all continents.

Angolan friends dancing.

It took the world by storm, so many of us hungry for something, anything that shows humanity, solidarity, communal spirit and joy.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa encouraged all South Africans to perform the dance challenge on Heritage Day, a celebration of South Africa’s multiple cultures.

Priests in Italy dancing. Catholics in Canada dancing. Dads with babies dancing.

Creative expression, historical inheritance, language, the food, and land, aspects of South African culture which are both tangible and difficult to pin down, are recognized on this occasion according to the South African government. “There can be no better celebration of our South African-ness than joining the global phenomenon that is spreading across the world and that is the Jerusalema dance challenge.

Here a wild life workers from Zimbabwe dancing. Kids in Transylvania dancing.

Former President Nelson Mandela proclaimed in a speech on Heritage Day in 1996: “When our first democratically-elected government decided to make Heritage Day one of our national days, we did so because we knew that our rich and varied cultural heritage has a profound power to help build our new nation.

That culture now proves powerful to lift our spirits from a struggle not just to overcome racial division and conflict, but the losses inflicted by a mismanaged virus. We will mourn them in due course. For today let’s take up some joy.

Here is the original version of the song.