

 Nkosi   Sikelel'   iAfrica` - South Africa's National Anthem



 Nkosi   Sikelel'   iAfrika 

South Africa's National Anthem



Contents

- The National Anthem
- History of  Nkosi   Sikelel'   iAfrika`
- Enoch Sontonga - composer
- Classic Xhosa Version
- Original English Translation
- Current Xhosa Version
- Current Sotho Version
- Current Zulu Version
- Current English Version
- Current Afrikaans Version

- Download audio of  Nkosi   Sikelel'   iAfrika 



History

 Nkosi   Sikelel'   iAfrika  was composed in 1897 by Enoch Sontonga, a teacher at a Methodist mission school in Johannesburg. It was one of many songs he composed, and he was apparently a keen singer who composed the songs for his pupils.

The words of the first stanza were originally written in Xhosa as a hymn. In 1927 seven additional Xhosa stanzas were later added by Samuel Mqhayi, a poet.

Most of Sontonga's songs were sad, witnessing the suffering of African people in Johannesburg, but they were popular and after his death in 1905 choirs used to borrow them from his wife.

Solomon Plaatje, one of South Africa's greatest writers and a founding member of the ANC, was the first to have the song recorded. This was in London in 1923. A Sesotho version was published in 1942 by Moses Mphahlele.

The Rev J L Dube's Ohlange Zulu Choir popularised  Nkosi   Sikelel'   iAfrika  at concerts in Johannesburg, and it became a popular church hymn that was also adopted as the anthem at political meetings.

For decades  Nkosi   Sikelel'   iAfrika  was regarded as the national anthem of South Africa by the oppressed and it was always sung as an act of defiance against the  apartheid  regime. A proclamation issued by the State President on 20 April 1994 stipulated that both  Nkosi   Sikelel'   iAfrika  and  Die   Stem  (the Call of South Africa) would be the national anthems of South Africa. In 1996 a shortened, combined version of the two anthems was released as the new National Anthem.

There are no standard versions or translations of  Nkosi   Sikelel'   iAfrika  so the words vary from place to place and from occasion to occasion. Generally the first stanza is sung in Xhosa or Zulu, followed by the Sesotho version.

Below are the various versions and translations of  Nkosi   Sikelel'   iAfrika .




God Bless Africa

Original Lovedale English Translation

Lord, bless Africa;
May her horn rise high up;
Hear Thou our prayers And bless us.

Chorus
Descend, O Spirit,
Descend, O Holy Spirit.

Bless our chiefs
May they remember their Creator.
Fear Him and revere Him,
That He may bless them.

Bless the public men,
Bless also the youth
That they may carry the land with patience
and that Thou mayst bless them.

Bless the wives
And also all young women;
Lift up all the young girls
And bless them.

Bless the ministers
of all the churches of this land;
Endue them with Thy Spirit
And bless them.

Bless agriculture and stock raising
Banish all famine and diseases;
Fill the land with good health
And bless it.

Bless our efforts
of union and self-uplift,
Of education and mutual understanding
And bless them.

Lord, bless Africa
Blot out all its wickedness
And its transgressions and sins,
And bless it.



Lord Bless Africa

Current English Version

Lord, bless Africa
May her spirit rise high up
Hear thou our prayers
Lord bless us.

Lord, bless Africa
May her spirit rise high up
Hear thou our prayers
Lord bless us Your family.

Chorus
Descend, O Spirit
Descend, O Holy Spirit
Lord bless us
Your family.
(Repeat)




