Woza Friday is an expression that has come to express That Friday Feeling, that cheers to the freaking weekend, I’m about to have me some fun….
You would think that we were born on a Friday for the way a Friday just makes you feel good, after a hard week, Friday just has this thing even when while you have no plans you just want to yell out TGIF, well we say Hoza Friday…
The term was made a household name when the South African band Juluka made their 1982 release Woza Friday.
About Woza Friday
The track was initially released by Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu in 1976 as a single ‘Woza Friday’ under the names Jonathan and Sipho before they were famous, before they became the band Juluka a multiracial group which blended American Rock with South African music.
The band had the bold audacity to blur racial and cultural lines at a time when South Africa was an apartheid state amidst the segregation Juluka flaunted their harmony and diversity.
Johnny Clegg sometimes known as Le Zoulou Blanc the White Zulu sang in Zulu and dressed in Zulu attire for stage performances, the national broadcaster refused them airplay on the grounds that it was an insult to the Zulu and their culture.
Juluka means to sweat in Zulu and was in sympathy of the workers for whom the music was first intended. They didn’t set out to be political but politics found them with their music banned in South Africa for various reasons and group members regularly arrested with shows interrupted by police.
5 years later the Woza Friday finally appeared on a Juluka album Ubuhle Bemvelo.
Woza Friday is an expression of the working man’s struggle. Working hard at a job that does not pay, wishing the weekend would just come… Come Friday
The song and or the phrase has become weekend culture but really this song is meant to be played on a Monday through the week, willing time to rush past, for the weekend to come again…
Woza Friday Lyrics and Translation
Webaba kunzima kulomhlaba
(Father, this world is a difficult place)
Webaba lomsebenzi ubhokile
(Father, the work I do is unending)
Webaba, nemali ayingeni
(Father, the money I earn is insignificant)
Sengathi leliviki lingaphela, webaba, webaba
(It would be great if this week would come to an end, Father, father)
Woza, woza friday mayi dali
(Come, come Friday my darling)
Woza friday, umsebenzi ubhokile
(Come on Friday, work is unending)
Woza, woza friday mayi swidi
(Come, come Friday my sweet thing)
Woza friday yilanga elingqomile wena
(Come Friday, the day that I am engaged to)
Goodbye, I’m going now
Tomorrow morning, tomorrow morning
Interesting aside: I heard from someone who claims to have heard Johnny Clegg at a concert and says according to the late legend the song is about… A man working in the mines of Johannesburg, who stays with a woman at her house during the week. Each week he tells her how much he loves her. When Friday comes, he’s off to party and tells her that he will see her again when Monday comes….
Woza Friday My Darling
~B
Becoming The Muse 
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