Chichewa

She sang in Chichewa. Interestingly there were at least two others in the gathering who could speak the language, a friend who had come along with her, and the widow of a former missionary in Malawi.

The people who speak Chichewa, known as A-Chewa, trace their origins to a group of people known as the Maravi (according to some Portuguese records) who migrated from the lower basin of the Congo in Central Africa and eventually settled in the land mass now covered by Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Pushed by wars, disease and other maladies from the Congo area the Maravi were the first group of Bantu peoples to move and settle in present day Malawi in the 16th century. It is said that the Maravi were the aristocrats of the region.

So it is an ancient language. This gathering was part of a national programme called trypraying - lots of buses carrying the slogan and lots of banners.

It's my birthday. And when I arrived she sang out - in the way that only Africans can with texture and passion- "Happy Birthday" in Chichewa. Which was definitely a first!