South African Flag

With the whole world about to put a huge microscope on South Africa with the advent of the 2010 FIFA World Cup have you actually sat down and read through our anthem? When Bafana Bafana take to the field will you proudly sing along. Will you fully understand what you’re singing and why it’s so significant? Well, this is what our anthem is about…

Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika was composed in 1897 by Enoch Sontonga, a Methodist school teacher. It was originally sung as a church hymn but later became significant as a hymn sung by oppressed communities as an act of political defiance and solidarity in the struggle against the apartheid government.

Die Stem van Suid-Afrika is a poem written by C.J. Langenhoven in 1918 and was set to music by the Reverend Marthinus Lourens de Villiers in 1921. Die Stem was the co-national anthem with God Save the King/Queen from 1936 to 1957. From 1957 to 1995 it was the sole anthem.

After the first democratic elections in 1994, the new South African government, under then president Nelson Mandela, adopted both songs as national anthems. In 1997 they were formally merged into the form they are currently sung in.

Did you know South Africa’s anthem is the only anthem in the world that ends on a different note to the one it starts on? The “Nkosi Sikelel’ Afrika” hymn section of the anthem does not have an accurate direct translation as the various languages in it can be interpreted differently.

By Lesego Semenya
Info: http://www.southafrica.info/about/history/anthem.htm