National anthem of South Africa

National Anthem of South Africa

The National Flag of South Africa.
National anthem of  South Africa
Also known as	Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika (First segment) English: God Bless Africa Die Stem van Suid-Afrika (Second segment) English: The Call of South Africa
Lyrics	Enoch Sontonga, 1897 C.J. Langenhoven, 1918
Music	Enoch Sontonga, 1897 Martin Linius de Villiers, 1921
Adopted	1997
Music sample
National Anthem of South Africa

Since 1997, the South African national anthem has been a hybrid song combining new English lyrics with extracts of the hymn Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika and the former anthem Die Stem van Suid-Afrika (The Call of South Africa).

Structure

The fact that it shifts and ends in a different key, a feature it shares with the Italian national anthem,^[1] makes it compositionally unusual. The lyrics employ the five most widely spoken of South Africa's eleven official languages - Xhosa (first stanza, first two lines), Zulu (first stanza, last two lines), Sesotho (second stanza), Afrikaans (third stanza) and English (final stanza).

History

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 an act of political defiance 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.^[2] Die Stem was the co-national anthem^[3] with God Save the King/Queen from 1936 to 1957, when it became the sole national anthem until 1995.

The South African government under Nelson Mandela adopted both songs as national anthems from 1995 until they were merged in 1997 to form the current anthem. The new English lyrics were adapted from the last four lines of the first stanza of The Call of South Africa (the English version of Die Stem), and were modified to reflect hope in post-apartheid South African society.

Lyrics

Public Performance Controversies

The singing of the anthem has been a public disaster on two occasions - both occasions related to rugby.

Ras Dumisani performed the South African national anthem at a rugby test match between France and South Africa in November 2009, singing off-key and not knowing all the words.^[4]

On the 23 August 2011, Ard Matthews suffered a similar fate on national television, when he was asked to perform the anthem at the announcement of the Springbok World Cup team. He posted a public apology and vowed to go forward and continue to sing the anthem correctly whenever opportunity arises.^[5]

References

1. ^ "South Africa - National Anthem of South Africa (Die Stem van Suid-Afrika/Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika)". NationalAnthems.me. http://nationalanthems.me/south-africa-die-stem-van-suid-afrika-nkosi-sikelel-iafrika/. Retrieved 2011-11-27. 
2. ^ "SA National Anthem History". http://www.info.gov.za/aboutgovt/symbols/anthem.htm. Retrieved 2007-10-21. 
3. ^ www.thepresidency.gov national Anthem
4. ^ IOL Sport - Anthem butcher says 'it was beautiful'
5. ^ Channel24.co.za - Ard posts official apology

See also

• Die Stem van Suid-Afrika
• National anthem of the Transvaal
• National anthem of the Orange Free State
• List of national anthems

Notes

External links

• The National Anthem
• National Anthem of South Africa - Streaming audio, lyrics and information
• Audio recording of the National Anthem (instrumental only, MP3 file)
• Brief history of the anthem
• Brief introduction to the anthem and notation
• [1]