The Plane Is Coming

In rural Msinga, a municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, the highlight of Christmas Day festivities is when men, newly returned home from work in the big cities, gather to sing and dance. In call-and-response melodies, accompanied by energetic dancing, the men sing playfully of the holiday gifts they are expected to bring their families. “The plane I’ve bought for my darling is coming," they sing. “You’ll get your stove this afternoon / not a coal one, darling, but a gas one... .The [temperature] setting will be just right.”

Amid the joy of returning home to…