The sound of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot being belted out by 80,000 spectators at Twickenham could become a thing of the past after England’s Rugby Football Union (RFU) said on Thursday that it is looking into the singing of the song by fans amid suggestions that many rugby supporters are unaware of its origins as a tale of slavery in the US.
England followers have been accused before of “cultural appropriation” when Swing Low has both echoed round the governing body’s London headquarters and been heard at away games.
However, Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests have led many British organizations to re-examine their historic links to slavery.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“The RFU has stated we need to do more to achieve diversity, and we are determined to accelerate change and grow awareness,” an RFU spokesperson said on Thursday.
“The Swing Low, Sweet Chariot song has long been part of the culture of rugby and is sung by many who have no awareness of its origins or sensitivities,” the spokesperson said. “We are reviewing its historical context and our role in educating fans to make informed decisions.”
England forward Maro Itoje, one of several black and mixed-race players in the squad, said: “I don’t think anyone at Twickenham is singing it with malicious intent, but the background of that song is complicated.”
Reportedly written by American slave Wallace Willis sometime in the mid-19th century, Swing Low is first believed to have been sung at Twickenham when Martin “Chariots” Offiah — his nickname derived from the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire — was playing in the 1987 Middlesex Sevens tournament.
It became popular with England fans the following year when Chris Oti, another black player, scored a hat-trick against Ireland at Twickenham.
However, former England hooker Brian Moore, who said that he could remember Swing Low being sung in junior rugby clubs during the 1970s, said that he would have no qualms about it being banned by the RFU — even though the lyrics can be observed all round Twickenham.
“I have always hated it,” he told the Telegraph. “It is not appropriate. It has slave connotations and if the RFU makes that ruling I would be pleased.”
An anonymous source told the Telegraph that one option was to “stop this being sung at matches.”
However, Daniel Hannan, a British politician and a former member of the European Parliament, said that talk of a ban is “demented,” adding that nobody listening to it had been hurt.
“Why do people keep looking for reasons to be offended?” he added.
Others have questioned how the RFU would enforce a ban, while Jack Duncan, a member of the Harlequins rugby club in London, wrote on Twitter that the furor “felt like a dog whistle from the right-wing press to give people an excuse to turn on BLM using the whole ‘where will it end?’ angle.”
This is not the first time that rugby fans have faced calls to stop singing a favorite song.
Delilah, a hit for Welsh pop star Tom Jones in the late 1960s, is a familiar sound at Wales’ games, but Chris Bryant, a member of parliament from Wales, has said that Delilah should no longer be heard at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, because the song glorifies violence against women.
RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney this week said that the organization had to do more “to achieve diversity across all areas of the game including administration,” with former England women’s international Maggie Alphonsi the only black member of its 55-strong council.
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