I expect DE will have something to say about this:
Kye Kye Kule is a call-and-response song performed in several African countries. The actions of this song are reminiscent of the American song Head Shoulder Knees and Toes. […] I asked a friend of mine, Dr. Sunu Doe, about the origins of this song. Dr. Doe is an ethnomusicology professor at the University of Ghana specializing in preserving pre-colonial Ghanaian culture through music and music education. He says Kye Kye Kule is an authentic song that Ghanaian school children learn.
Depending on the source, both on the internet and in print, the song can be found by searching Che Che Koolay or Kye Kye Kule. According to Dr. Doe, the correct way to spell the title is with Ky instead of ch. Ch doesn’t exist in the languages of Twi or Ewe and was unsure about the Fanti language.
The song is made of meaningless sounds, just as many American songs are. The song has no language, and the use of the name Kofi is thrown in to make it relatable to children. He said other variations of the song use other day names. He surmises that using Kofi could be an alteration of k k sounds…
Thanks, Craig!
Unrelated, but I have to share this delightful bit of Edwardian slang I recently ran across: knut /kəˈnʌt/ (archaic, informal, Edwardian) An idle upper-class man about town.
Oh Hades! the Ladies who leave their wooden huts,
For Gilbert the Filbert, the colonel of the knuts…
All I know about the Knut song is that whistling it without irony might not suggest mature taste. (Google Books link to The English Assassin, by Michael Moorcock.)