Enoch Sontonga

On 18 April 1905, South African composer Enoch Mankayi Sontonga died in Johannesburg at the age of 32. He is best known for writing the Xhosa song 'Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika' (English: 'God Bless Africa'), which, in abbreviated version, has been sung as the first half of the national anthem of South Africa since 1994. Previously, it had been the official anthem of the African National Congress.

Sontonga was born in 1873 in the city of Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape Colony. He trained as a teacher at the Lovedale Institution and subsequently worked as a teacher and choirmaster at the Methodist Mission school in Nancefield, near Johannesburg for eight years.

The first verse and chorus of 'Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika' was composed in 1897 and it was originally intended to be a school anthem. Some sources say he wrote the tune the same year,  but others contend that the tune was written by Joseph Parry as 'Aberystwyth' and that Sontonga merely wrote new words. It was first sung in public in 1899 at the ordination of Reverend Mboweni, who was the first Tsonga Methodist minister. Later the Xhosa poet Samuel Mqhayi wrote a further seven verses.

The song started to be more well known after John Langalibalele Dube's Ohlange Institute's choir used it. They played it at the South African Native National Congress meeting in 1912. It was sung after the closing prayer and the ANC adopted it as its official closing anthem in 1925. It was recorded in London as 'Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrika' in 1923 and it was published by the Lovedale Press in 1927.

For many years, the site of Sontonga's grave was unknown, but it was finally located in the 'Native Christian' section of the Braamfontein cemetery in the early-1990s. One of the reasons why the location of his grave remained a mystery is that it was listed under the name 'Enoch' and not by his surname 'Sontonga'.

On 24 September 1996, Sontonga's grave was declared a national monument and a memorial on the site was unveiled by then-President Nelson Mandela. At the same ceremony, the South African Order of Meritorious Service (Gold) was bestowed on Enoch Sontonga posthumously.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Selected publications

A study of the South African national anthem as a tool for division or unification / Bernette Denolia GAllant. - Master Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2017
http://hdl.handle.net/10948/15138

Weg met die wit "Dubula iK****r" - Die Stem : onversoenbare standpunte rakende Suid-Afrika se nasionale volkslied soos weergegee in persberigte / Johann Moll. - Bloemfontein : University of the Free State, 2017

National symbols and nation-building in the post-apartheid South Africa / Elirea Bornman.
In: International journal of intercultural relations, vol.30, no. 3, p.383-399, 2006

Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika' and the liberation of the spirit of South Africa / David Coplan; B. Jules-Rosette.
In: African studies : a quarterly journal devoted to the study of African administration, cultures and languages , vol. 64, no. 2, p. 285-308 : ill., foto's, 2005

The liberation songs : an important voice of black South Africans from 1912 to 1994 / Anne-Marie Gray.
In: Journal of education, vol.33, no. 1, p.85-102, 2004
https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/AJA0259479X_8

Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika'": from independent spirit to political mobilization.
Cahiers d'études africaines, vol.44 (173/174), p.343-367, 2004
https://journals.openedition.org/etudesafricaines/4631

Listen to "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" performed at the White House in 1994

Timeline of South African composers via Wikidata and DBpedia