Classical Principle Weekly
July 11, 2023
Music and Healing: The Evolution of South Africa's National Anthem.
For do but note a wild and wanton herd,
Or race of youthful and unhandled colts,
Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud,
Which is the hot condition of their blood;
If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound,
Or any air of music touch their ears,
You shall perceive them make a mutual stand,
Their savage eyes turn'd to a modest gaze
By the sweet power of music.
Shakespeare—“The Merchant of Venice”
Music has the power to heal in many ways. Today, we tell you the story of the healing of a deep hatred—hatred born of decades of injustice and unspeakable atrocities; the kind of hate that hardens the human heart into unforgiveness. Today we talk about the healing of South Africa.
Music alone could not have healed the abused hearts of South Africa, but it played an important role through the evolution of its national anthem. Afrikaners are descended from predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652. Until 1994, they dominated South Africa's politics as well as the country's commercial agricultural sector. While it is true that the Afrikaners were cruel in the extreme towards native Africans, who they treated as subhuman during the decades of South Africa’s Apartheid, which existed from 1948 to the early 1990 (Millions of native Africans were forcibly relocated into Bantustans, stripped of citizenship and voting rights, forbidden to marry whites, left in dire poverty, and sometimes shot in cold blood), it is also true that the Afrikaners were treated as mere beasts by the British Empire during what the British call the “2nd Boer War”, and South Africans call “The South African War” (1999-1902).
It was not the Nazis who first developed the concentration camp. Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl of Kitchener (1850–1916), an Irish born senior British Army officer and colonial administrator did, after taking over from Lord Roberts during the Boer War. Kitchener's policy was slash and burn, destroying entire villages, destroying their food supply, killing livestock, and driving the men out of the villages to shoot them like game flushed out of the bush (he once bragged of having "bagged" 861 Boers in one week.) The women and children left behind were rounded up and put into disease-ridden concentration camps with inadequate food and medicine, where the death rate was high. Out of an estimated 26,000 deaths in the camps, 80% were children. But the British also set up 66 concentration camps for black Africans, to keep them supplying the Boers. 20,000 died in them.
In 1921, South African poet, Cornelis Jacobus Langenhoven wrote a patriotic poem, “Die Stem de Suid Afrika” (The Call of South Africa) that was set to music by Marthinus Lourens de Villiers. In 1938, South Africa declared it to be one of two national anthems, along with the UK's national anthem, "God Save the King." In 1957, “Die Stem“ became the country's official national anthem.
Here is the song with English translation:
AN ANTHEM FOR ALL OF AFRICA
In 1897 a South African school teacher and choir director at a Methodist school named Enoch Sontonga (1873–1905), composed the words and music for a patriotic song in his own language of Xhosa (Xhosa people are the second largest ethnic group in South African whose traditional homeland is primarily the Cape Provinces of South Africa). The song is called "Nkosi sikelel iAfrika" (God bless Africa). Here are the words with translation:
Xhosa
Nkosi, sikelel' iAfrika
Malupakam' upondo lwayo;
Yiva imitandazo yetu
Chorus
Yihla Moya, yihla Moya
Yihla Moya Oyingcwele
Sikelela iNkosi zetu;
Zimkumbule umDali wazo;
Zimoyike zezimhlouele,
Azisikelele.
Sikelel' amadol' esizwe,
Sikelela kwa nomlisela
Ulitwal' ilizwe ngomonde,
Uwusikilele.
Sikelel' amakosikazi;
Nawo onk'amanenekazi;
Pakamisa wonk'umtinjana
Uwusikilele.
Sikelela abafundisi
Bemvaba zonke zelilizwe;
Ubatwese ngoMoya Wako
Ubasikelele.
Sikelel' ulimo nemfuyo;
Gzota zonk'indlala nezifo;
Zalisa ilizwe nempilo
Ulisikelele.
Sikelel' amalinga etu
Awomanyana nokuzaka,
Awemfundo nemvisiswano
Uwasikele
Nkosi Sikelel, Afrika;
Cima bonk' ubugwenza bayo
Neziggito, Nezono zayo
Uwazikelele.
English
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 us.
And here is the song:
Naysayers refuse to believe that an African could have written such a moving song, so they say he plagiarized it from Joseph Parry's Aberystwyth (Joseph Parry (1841–1903) was a Welsh composer, professor, and head of the Department of Music at University College Wales). You will read that time and again. So here is “Aberystwyth”. Judge it for yourself.
This song is very different from “Nkosi sikelel iAfrika”. For one thing, it's in a minor key, and the two songs had two different intentions. The allegation that one is based on the other is a disservice to both Sontonga and Parry, who composed his song for Welsh coal miners.
“Nkosi sikelel iAfrika” was adopted as an anthem by the African National Congress (ANC) in 1925, but was banned during Apartheid.
MANDELA
ANC leader Nelson Mandela was imprisoned in 1960, and not released until 1990. During those long years in prison, he sustained himself with many things, including a poem called Invictus.
Invictus
William Ernest Henley
1849 –1903
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
It would be naïve to think that the South African government simply woke up suddenly and saw the error of their ways. They were passionately attached to their system and their views. It was the world, which became increasingly disgusted with Apartheid, that helped them see the error of their ways! Economic and cultural sanctions were hurting the economy and isolating the country. The world began to recognize the brutality of the Apartheid regime after white South African police opened fire on unarmed black protesters in the town of Sharpeville in 1960, killing 69 people and wounding 186 others. That same year, Mandela and other anti-Apartheid leaders were imprisoned. After the U.S. Congress passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act in 1986, many large multinational companies withdrew from South Africa. By the late 1980s, the South African economy was struggling with the effects of internal and external boycotts as well as the burden of its military commitment in occupying Namibia as internal unrest grew. In short, they were up against a wall.
But it would not have worked without Nelson Mandela, a man who believed in equality, democracy, and love.
“As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison.
“It is not our diversity which divides us; it is not our ethnicity or religion or culture that divides us. Since we have achieved our freedom, there can only be one division amongst us: between those who cherish democracy and those who do not.” - Nelson Mandela.
No one else could have unified the country. There was too much anger, fear, and desire for retribution.
In 1994 Nelson Mandela became the first black president of South Africa. Both “Nkosi sikelel iAfrika” and “Die Stem” were played at his inauguration. He insisted that both “Die Stem” and “Nkosi solel iAfrika” be co-anthems of the country. Two national anthems proved a bit unwieldy, so a committee of artists, and political leaders from across the "spectrum" was appointed to devise a single national anthem. In 1997, the official National Anthem of the Republic of South Africa was created. It features two verses of Nkosi sikelel iAfrika in 5 different languages, Xhosa, Zulu, Sesotho, Afrikaans and English. The first two verses are the music of “Nkosi sikelel iAfrika” in Xhosa, Zulu, and Sethoso. The third verse is the music of “Die Stem” in Afrikaans. It ends in English. Here it is in translation with all languages identified.
Mandela also said:
"Know your enemy — and learn about his favorite sport."
Movies about real events are usually at least half-fiction. Clint Eastwood's "Invictus" is very accurate and we recommend it. Rugby was the favorite sport of white South Africans, and most of the players were white. But from the 1970s until the end of Apartheid, the South African team—the Springboks—deteriorated in isolation, due to South Africa being banned from international sports competitions. In 1992, President F W De Klerk called for an all-white vote in a referendum to end Apartheid. Part of his campaign was to get the Springboks back into international competition. The referendum won with many whites saying they voted “yes” because they wanted South Africa back into the arena of sports, especially rugby.
Some leaders of the ANC wanted to ban it or change the name of the team. Mandela decided to organize the Springboks to win the World Cup. He rallied the black population behind the idea and took the bold move of appearing at a game wearing a Springboks shirt. Part of rallying the black population behind the idea was to have the mostly white players learn “Nkosi sikelel iAfrika”. The captain of the team asked the team to learn it for the 1995 championship, and they did so enthusiastically.
In 1995, South Africa hosted the World Rugby Cup, with a surge of support for the Springboks among the white and black communities behind the slogan "one team, one country." South Africa won the 1995 World Cup against the New Zealand All Blacks, 15–12 in overtime. President Mandela, wearing a Springbok shirt, presented the trophy to captain Francois Pienaar, a white Afrikaner.
It is inspiring to see it sung at sporting events. Everyone must sing in the five languages.
“Nkosi sikelel iAfrika” is now the national anthem of 5 African countries, including Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, and South Africa, translates into those different languages.