More History of Mchakamchaka

I learned it in Middlebury, Vermont, USA, from my college roommate, Yohanne "Kido" Kidolezi.  We were jogging down a hill one day and he just started singing under his breath...  

"What's that, Kido?" I asked.  "It's Mchakamchaka!" he said.

As a kid he was educated in schools where the first activity was always jogging throughout town with your classmates, singing all the way.

Kido taught me a few songs, and we in turn taught some friends at school. People loved it, so we decided to meet regularly to "run mchaka".  Twice a week for four years from 2001 to 2005 we ran with between 12 and 30 people in each run.  We generally ran at night, when it was easier to get people together, and more fun.   

Here is a noteworthy article about the early days of Mchaka at Middlebury, written by Karl Lindholm.  Apparently, Mchakamchaka is still going at Middlebury, and is as mysterious as ever.